How to Prepare this Wildfire Season
The last few years in California have been hot to say the least. Unfortunately, 4% of all land in the golden state has been affected by a wildfire at some time in the last year. We’re grateful to live in a beautiful area, but we also know our regular sunny weather and dry days make wildfires a very real risk. See some of the most frequently asked questions to make sure you have the right insurance this wildfire season.
Does Homeowners Insurance Cover Wildfire Damage?
Yes! A standard homeowners insurance policy does cover damage from fire, including wildfire. So the good news is that you don’t need a separate fire insurance policy in addition to your home insurance. If your house is damaged by a fire, the policy has several coverage types to help repair or rebuild the home, replace belongings and pay for temporary housing if you can’t live there.
Why is Home Insurance still so Expensive? It’s been years since we’ve had any fires locally…
Great question! There are many factors that go into determining the cost of insurance. One consideration is the cost of all claims a company may experience over previous years in various locations. The same companies that insure clients here locally also insure clients throughout all of California. While we’ve been lucky enough to not have large fires here locally in recent years, the damaging fire seasons California faced in 2019 and 2020 have caused companies to become even stricter in their pricing and some instances, completely pull out of certain areas.
Additionally, with the increase in claims activity, we continue to see an increase in the demand for building materials. This, combined with a shortage of available materials (due to Covid-19), have led to a 134% increase in the cost of building materials year over year.
All this means that standard insurance companies that may have agreed to insure a home in the past might be a little more hesitant to do so in the future.
So What’s the Good News?
We do continue to have options! It’s often just a matter of getting a little creative. We’re continuing to see new insurance carriers enter our market each year and are quick to jump on any opportunities our clients may have through these new companies. While some insurance companies may look at a whole zip code and decide it’s too high of a fire risk, many of the companies our Agency works with have more nuanced underwriting guidelines than that. Meaning we can often find a way to insure a home in a “high risk zip code” even when others can’t. Also, if your home happens to be below the 192 or Cathedral Oaks – areas not considered to be a high fire risk – we are seeing that insurance premiums continue to stay about the same as they have been for years. So that’s definitely a plus!
To learn more about what your home insurance can do for you in the event of a wildfire, give us a call at 805-984-3777. And check out our related blog posts on “The Anatomy of a Home Insurance Policy” and “What does my home insurance policy cover?” Make sure to connect with us on social – Facebook & Instagram – to learn more about all that our local team can offer.