Ricardo Lara, California Insurance Commissioner announced new incentives for owners of older homes who want to make their homes more fireproof. The goal is to make homes more fireproof and lower the insurance rate simultaneously.
The new partnership between the California Department of Insurance and Governor Gavin Newsom came up with this “home hardening” incentive. Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara will work with four other state agencies to establish state-wide fireproofing standards which will include measures like usage of fireproof wood treatments and replacing single-pane windows with double-pane.
“With home and community hardening standards in place, Californians can hope to save lives and property through safer homes and increase insurance availability at the same time,” commissioner Lara said in a statement earlier this week. “Our insurance market is responding to higher wildfire risk, so safeguarding homes will assist consumers in finding and keeping their insurance.”
Lara also stated that there is a 31% drop in residential fire policies in the state between 2018 and 2019 which lead to a 225% increase in the number of house owners switching in the state FAIR emergency fire insurance plan which is not a viable option for house owners.
“The main goal is to lower insurance premiums for people,” fire insurance expert Mia Gonzalez told California Globe. “There’s a lot of older homes in California that can easily catch fire due to a lot of risks stemming from the houses not being upgraded for decades and not adhering to some basic fireproofing principles.” Due to these incentives homes of people will be more same and covered at a low insurance cost thanks to Insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara.
