California requires insurers whose rating plans use wildfire risk to credit specified safety measures, even as state data show surcharges can exceed 300%, putting household premiums under scrutiny.
The California Department of Insurance (CDI) says those credits apply to insurers that use wildfire risk in their rating plans. Its April 10, 2025, guidance requires at least a $1 credit for each mandatory mitigation factor and says customers must be told the dollar reduction tied to eligible work.
CDI’s 2026 homeowners insurance comparison tool says many insurers also apply wildfire surcharges of 15% to more than 300%, depending on a home’s vulnerability. The tool excludes those surcharges from the premiums it displays, so the required credit alone does not show whether a policyholder’s overall bill will fall.
In an interview published Nov. 3, Jaron Brandon told Hindustan Times that safety measures do not reliably lower rates. “When we do risk reduction, it doesn’t lead to rate reduction,” he said.
Brandon, a Democrat whose platform addresses insurance costs, calls for guaranteed discounts for home hardening, financial assistance for safety work and rates that account for community-level protection. The platform cites fire-resistant roofs, defensible space and community measures such as fuel breaks and evacuation routes. It also proposes auditing wildfire risk models and letting homeowners challenge them, while calling for an end to the FAIR Plan and a path back to conventional coverage. Hindustan Times reported that Brandon also proposed considering public insurance for major disasters.
The FAIR Plan had 677,449 homeowner policies in a CDI snapshot updated Oct. 27, up 2,230 from July. CDI describes it as a private association created by the state and operated by insurance companies for people who cannot obtain coverage through a regular insurer.
CDI cites wildfire losses, liability, inflation and building-material costs as contributors to insurance costs. The department has also said climate change and global inflation have worsened California’s insurance availability crisis. Its Oct. 27 snapshot listed eight homeowners rate filings under review and 27 approved in 2026.
