Wildfire insurance woes was the topic once again for this month’s Community Forum hosted by the Sierra College-Nevada County Campus Foundation. Like many other areas of the state, thousands of local residents have been forced into the FAIR plan, with many carriers either dropping policyholders or leaving the market altogether, due to heightened fire dangers and a number of catastrophic incidents around the state in the last decade. It’s a statewide high risk pool of insurance companies. And now, effective October 15^th, an overall average rate increase of 30-percent is going into effect. But local insurance broker Kevin Cookson told an audience packed mostly of policyholders that more carriers are starting to come back, due mostly to a change in state law that requires that they cover homeowners, based on their percentage of the statewide market…

 

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Cookson also mentioned that Nevada County was recently added to the state’s Wildfire Risk Reduction Community list. It recognizes local agencies meeting high standards for local fire planning and building codes, which often helps them qualify for prevention grants…

 

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The FAIR plan also provides discounts for homeowners who complete documented home hardening and wildfire mitigation steps. Also appearing on Zoom was Joel Luncher, with United Policyholders, a homeowners fire insurance advocacy group. He urged policyholders to not delay in shopping for other possible alternatives.