Risk scores, appeals, and what insurers are now required to tell you. Written for homeowners, not for adjusters.
HB25-1182 took effect July 1, 2026. If your insurer uses a wildfire risk model, it now has obligations it didn't have before.
You're entitled to your risk score — in writing, annually, without asking.
You can appeal it. First with the insurer, then with the Colorado Division of Insurance.
Documented mitigation is what makes an appeal work. Undocumented work gives you nothing to argue with.
Colorado House Bill 25-1182 applies to insurers that use a wildfire risk model, catastrophe model, or scoring method to make decisions about your policy. That's most carriers writing in the foothills.
Under it, those insurers must:
Disclose your risk score. In writing, every year. Before this, most homeowners had no idea a score existed, let alone what theirs was.
Account for mitigation. The model has to reflect parcel-level and community-level mitigation — or, if it doesn't, the insurer has to offer discounts to policyholders who can demonstrate the work.
Publish what savings are available. So you can see what mitigation is worth before you spend money on it.
Provide an appeal process. A defined route to dispute your score, with escalation to the Division of Insurance if it isn't resolved.
What it doesn't do: it doesn't cap rates, doesn't require anyone to insure you, and doesn't guarantee that mitigation lowers your premium. Carriers still price their own risk. What changed is that the process is now visible and challengeable.
A wildfire risk score is a number a carrier assigns your property, generated by a model that weighs fuel around the structure, slope, aspect, access, historic fire behaviour, and increasingly aerial or satellite imagery of your specific parcel.
Two things are worth understanding about how they're built.
They lag. A score generated from imagery captured two years ago doesn't know about the mitigation you did last spring. This is the single most common reason a score is wrong.
They aren't the same as the state's code map. Colorado's Wildfire Resiliency Code uses a fire intensity map to determine where building requirements apply. That map exists for applying the code — insurers use their own tools, methods, and maps. A property can sit inside the code's mapped area and score differently with two different carriers.
If your renewal arrived with a large increase and no explanation, the score is usually where the explanation lives.
Ask what drove the score. You're entitled to understand the basis. Ask when the underlying data was captured — if the answer predates your mitigation, you have your argument.
Appeal to the insurer, with evidence. This is where documentation decides the outcome. Zone maps, before-and-after photography, dated receipts, permit records, and any certification you hold. An appeal without evidence is an opinion.
Escalate if it isn't resolved. The Colorado Division of Insurance handles disputes the carrier won't settle. Most homeowners don't know this step exists.
Timing matters. Start before your renewal, not after. Once a decision is made, you're arguing to reverse something rather than to inform it.
Read the notice. Your insurer has to send it. It's easy to mistake for junk mail attached to a renewal.
There's no single national standard, and carriers differ. But the material that consistently carries weight:
Photographs, dated, before and after. The single most persuasive item, because it's hard to dispute.
Home ignition zone mapping. Showing treatment zone by zone, measured from the structure outward.
Itemized receipts. Naming the contractor, the work, and the date. This also supports the Colorado state mitigation tax credit and most grant applications.
Permit and inspection records. In counties with a defensible space permit, the county's own sign-off is third-party verification. That's worth more than anything you produce yourself.
The common failure isn't doing too little work. It's doing good work and having nothing to show for it.
The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety runs a designation called Wildfire Prepared Home. It expanded to Colorado in 2026.
It's a science-based standard covering the structure and the ground immediately around it — roofing, vents, decks, the first five feet. Because it comes from a body insurers themselves fund and trust, it functions as recognized documentation of property-specific mitigation.
It isn't the only route, and it isn't free. But if you're already planning hardening work, doing it to a standard that has a name attached is worth considering.
Non-renewals in Colorado rose sharply over recent years, and foothills properties carry a disproportionate share.
First, ask why in writing, and ask for the risk score. Non-renewal decisions are appealable in the same way.
Then shop before you settle. Carriers score differently and weigh mitigation differently. A property that's uninsurable to one may be routine for another.
Colorado has a FAIR Plan — an insurer of last resort for homeowners who can't get coverage in the standard market. It exists precisely for this. It's generally more expensive and more limited than a standard policy, so treat it as a fallback rather than a first stop.
And document everything you do in the meantime. Coverage decisions get revisited, and the property you present next year should be visibly different from the one that got declined.
Wildfire isn't the only thing driving your premium, and often isn't the largest part of it.
Colorado's Division of Insurance has found that hail is the biggest cost driver of homeowners insurance across much of the state. Wildfire dominates in the mountain wildland-urban interface specifically — but at lower elevations, hail accounts for a substantially larger share of what you pay.
We're a mitigation company, so it would suit us to tell you wildfire explains your whole premium. It doesn't. Mitigation addresses the wildfire portion of your risk profile — a real portion, and a growing one in the foothills, but a portion.
Anyone telling you otherwise is selling.
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Does mitigation guarantee a lower premium?A: No, and be sceptical of anyone who says otherwise. Carriers use their own models and make their own decisions. What documented mitigation does is give you something to argue with — during underwriting, at renewal, and in an appeal.
How do I find out my wildfire risk score?A: Your insurer must provide it in writing annually. If you haven't seen one, ask — they're obligated to tell you.
My score seems wrong. Is it worth appealing?A: Often yes, particularly if you've mitigated recently. Scores frequently rest on imagery or data captured before the work was done.
Does a county defensible space permit help with insurance?A: It's third-party verification, which carries more weight than self-reported work. Where your county issues one, keep the record.
Is the state's Wildfire Resiliency Code map the same as my insurance risk map?A: No. That map exists for applying the building code. Insurers use their own tools and maps.
What if I can't get coverage at all?A: Colorado's FAIR Plan is the insurer of last resort. It's a fallback — shop the standard market first.
Last verified: 08/15/2026
Sources: Colorado General Assembly (HB25-1182); Colorado Division of Insurance; Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety.
Insurance rules and programs change. Confirm current requirements with the Colorado Division of Insurance or your carrier before making decisions based on this page. We're a mitigation contractor, not an insurance advisor.
Every project we complete comes with a mitigation packet built for exactly this — home ignition zone maps, before-and-after photography, and itemized receipts. Free on-site assessment across the Colorado foothills.
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