A Homeowner’s Guide to Insurance Discounts for Wildfire Mitigation

Especially after a wildfire, home insurance bills can become an unwieldy fixed cost. But since 2022, California homeowners who take specific steps to protect their properties have been eligible for insurance discounts—sometimes totaling hundreds or thousands of dollars each year.

Understanding these discounts can help homeowners reduce long-term costs, protect themselves against the next fire, and avoid gaps or lapsed insurance coverage. Here’s what to know.

The Rule Change Californians Can Act on Now: Why It Matters

Watching fire risk and insurance strain rise across the state, California's Department of Insurance enacted a regulation known as "Safer from Wildfire" in 2022. The initiative requires any property insurer that varies rates based on wildfire risk to also reward homeowners who take specific steps to protect their properties, creating a financial incentive for Californians to harden their homes against fire. Homeowners can now take advantage of these premium discounts and, ideally, start seeing their monthly payments shrink.

What Insurers Have to Take Into Account

There are 12 mitigation measures insurers must consider. Two of them are community-level designations: if the home is situated in a Firewise USA-recognized community or a state-designated Fire Risk Reduction Community.

Five focus on defensible space around the home, including maintaining fire-safety recommendations from Zone Zero to Zone Three, removing debris from roofs and gutters, and ensuring proper vegetation management.

The remaining five measures address specific home hardening features—installing a Class A fire-rated roof, for example, or using multi-pane windows, adding ember-resistant vents, applying fire-resistant coatings, and creating noncombustible zones around the structure.

See the list of measures here.

While not required by the regulation, several insurers also offer discounts for certification through the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety’s Wildfire Prepared Home program, which combines several of the measures above. These tend to be among the most generous savings available.

What the Discounts Actually Look Like

While every major insurer that varies rates based on wildfire risk must offer some sort of rebate, the amount they offer varies dramatically based on insurer-specific justifications. Today, the same mitigation measure can earn customers less than one percent off their premiums with one company or more than twenty percent with another, according to analysis by Insurance for Good.

Take a Class A roof, widely recognized as one of the most important fire safety upgrades a homeowner can make. Some insurers reward this improvement with a 5% reduction in premiums; others offer barely a percentage point. Another example: Living in a Firewise Community might save you twenty percent with one carrier or one percent with another. However, rates are likely to continue evolving as more loss data and evidence are collected.

See insurer-specific discounts here.

Since fire experts agree doing just one measure has little impact on risk, many insurers—including Farmers, Allstate, Travelers, Mercury, and Sutton National—reward implementing groups of measures (and/or getting an IBHS certification) with different types of "completion bonuses."

The maximum possible discount for completing all 12 mandated measures stretches from 3 to 28% percent across insurers. For homes that meet IBHS’s Wildfire Prepared Home Plus standard—one step above WPH Base and the highest evidence-based fire safety designation available today—potential discounts total between 2.6 and 52%.

Insurance costs, however, vary for many reasons. The initial base price can vary across carriers. The terms of the policy can also vary dramatically—two different homeowners policies could have very different deductibles, sublimits for different types of loss, endorsements, and exclusions. Consumers should work closely with a trusted insurance agent to compare all aspects of their policy and not fixate on just one.

How to Earn the Biggest Discounts and Maximum Protection

Finding the best policy for your needs means wading through mountains of insurance fine print. But there are a few clear ways to maximize savings.

Aim for IBHS Wildfire Prepared Home Plus. Because this certification represents the gold standard in wildfire resilience, insurers trust it. Critical features include Zone Zero clearance (that zero-to-five-foot perimeter around your home must be free of all combustible materials), a Class A fire-rated roof, ember-resistant vents, dual-pane, dual-tempered glass windows that resist shattering at high temperatures, and non-combustible materials for attached decks and fencing.

Document everything. Having clear evidence of work undertaken matters as much as the work itself. Take detailed photographs before and after improvements. Keep receipts and contractor information. Some insurers accept self-attestation; others require certified inspections. Obtaining official certification can also unlock significantly larger discounts—a worthwhile investment for homeowners who’ve spent serious money hardening their properties.

Shop around. Because discounts vary widely between insurers, and can depend on a variety of different factors—think square footage, completion discounts, certifications, etc.‚—it might be worth contacting an independent insurance agent who works with multiple companies. Compare all aspects of the insurance policy with your agent.

Here are a few important questions to ask:

• What is my overall premium for what coverage? What is my deductible? Do I have additional living coverage? Are some losses sublimated? What is excluded from the policy?

• Do the discounts apply only to the wildfire portion of the premium, or to the entire premium?

• How are multiple mitigation discounts combined? Are they added together, multiplied, or capped at a maximum?

• What proof does the insurer require to verify mitigation: inspection, certification, photos, or self-attestation?

• Does the insurer offer a ‘completion discount’ or bundled discount if I’ve completed many or all of the measures?