ISO ratings losing favor
The UVFD has an ISO rating of 4/4X on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being
the highest. The City of Ukiah has an ISO rating of 3. While wildfires
are a natural occurrence in California, the effects of prolonged
drought, high tree mortality rates from bark beetles and other
infestations, high fuel loads and ladder fuels in wildland areas,
record high temperatures, and longer fire seasons are resulting in
increasingly extreme and destructive wildfires both in the wildland
areas as well as the wildland urban interface (WUI) and even urban
areas. There is a growing trend of insurance companies issuing
non-renewal notices for existing homeowner's insurance policies due to
high wildfire risk.
The insurability of property has historically been closely tied to the
ISO rating classification system. With the changing landscape of
wildfires in California, some insurance companies are moving away from
ISO rating altogether and some are also relying on information
regarding the level of fire severity established by CAL FIRE. With
more sophisticated fire behavior modeling available, CAL FIRE is
anticipated to update the 2007 Fire Hazard Severity Zones mapping,
which could potentially result in property being re-classified into a
higher fire severity zone and becoming less insurable.
As a last resort, the California Fair Access to Insurance Requirements
(FAIR) Plan is a fire insurance pool comprised of all California
licensed insurers to provide insurance for property owners that are
not able to obtain basic coverage in the voluntary insurance market.
There may be properties within the UVFA boundary that have received
notice of non-renewal, but the UVFA has not received reports of
property owners unable to find coverage from other insurance
providers.
from 2022 soi report
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