Natalie is calling out home insurers for raising rates but not giving homeowners and their communities credit for the work they have already done, and continue to do, to mitigate against wildfire.
Natalie lives in Novato, the largest city in Marin County on the southwestern, mountainous side of town. She owns a 2,200-square-foot Spanish style stucco house with adobe shingles. The house is up on a hill with wide streets, pruned shrubs, and trees all around. She and her community spend thousands of dollars annually on wildfire mitigation.
“Our household received no credit for any of our mitigation efforts,” she said. “Instead, our insurance premiums increased by over 50% the last two years. This is alarming price gouging by insurance companies.”
Her Farmers insurance premium went from $1,906 in 2022 to $2,724 in 2023 to $3,298 in 2024, and every year the alternatives for insurance dwindle.
“I am paying for all other losses that already occurred even though my county is ahead of the curve in mitigation and is giving homeowners grants and information about wildfire mitigation to reduce risk,” Natalie said. “We are not getting any financial credit for our efforts from insurers.”
Natalie said between herself, her neighbors, and the City of Novato, $3,400 a year is spent on removing hillside grass. Her household installed 24 ember-catching vents on the house in 2022. Her shingles are non-combustible. In 2022 and 2023, Marin County received its own grant and spent over $40 million in fire mitigation. Homeowners, the county and the city already performed significant vegetation removal. Two large power poles were replaced and all power lines within a half mile radius were undergrounded years ago.
She has had the fire department do several wildfire inspections. “They say I am in good shape,” Natalie said. “We cut back the shrubbery and our immediate neighbors do it and everybody is very conscious of it. We have mitigated. The fire department is telling us the single most important thing you can do to mitigate fire is to reduce shrubbery annually. Objective academic fire research also shows that the most effective way to mitigate fire risk is cutting back on shrubbery and installing Vulcan vents because otherwise, embers fly into eaves.”
Natalie scoffs at the discounts that Farmers does offer. “The discount that they give for wildfire mitigation is not very much and it’s paying for a mitigation certification that I don’t trust because it is contradictory to what the fire inspectors say about my property.” Farmers offers a discount if policyholders use Wildfireprepared.org, an insurance industry group that issues wildfire mitigation certification.
“The things they were asking me to do were completely contrary to what the Fire Department told me.” For example, Natalie said the fire department is more concerned that residents keep leaves off roofs, gutters and away from the base of houses, and less concerned about trees on the property, which Wildfireprepared.org requires to be taken out within five feet of the house.
Natalie said that it takes time to perform the mitigation that Wildfireprepared.org requires such as installing non-combustible gutters and downspouts and removing combustible fencing within five feet of the home. “I also resent that I have to pay Wildfireprepared.org $125 for the certification, which you can only get if you have done everything required. And you have to recertify every year.
“Why are the insurers not following fire department guidelines, why aren’t there consistent guidelines between the two, and if I get grant money to do some things, why am I still paying higher insurance rates?”
If she were offered reasonable steps to mitigate against wildfire in line with state guidelines, Natalie said that she would take them in exchange for insurers offering reasonable premiums. Instead, “I am basically having to pay for all the other losses that have occurred even though my county is doing its best to be ahead of the curve and mitigate and give homeowners the tools to improve their ability to reduce risk. We are not getting that benefit.”
