Insurance & Coverage
How to Get Off the FAIR Plan
If you have been placed on California's FAIR Plan, you already know it is expensive and provides limited coverage. The good news: with documented wildfire mitigation improvements, many Sonoma County homeowners are finding their way back to the standard insurance market.
Book Your Wildfire AssessmentThe California FAIR Plan is the state's insurer of last resort for homeowners who cannot find coverage on the open market. In Sonoma County, thousands of homeowners from Fountaingrove to Sebastopol have been pushed onto the FAIR Plan since the 2017 fires. With the right wildfire mitigation work and professional documentation, many are finding their way back to standard, affordable insurance.
WMA assesses and prioritizes. We do not perform this work or profit from it, so the recommendations in your report reflect only what your property actually needs.
What Is the California FAIR Plan?
The California FAIR Plan (Fair Access to Insurance Requirements) is the state's insurer of last resort for property owners who cannot obtain coverage in the standard market. Originally created in 1968 after the Watts Riots, the FAIR Plan has seen explosive growth since 2017 as insurers have non-renewed hundreds of thousands of policies in wildfire-prone areas throughout the state.
In Sonoma County, FAIR Plan enrollment has increased dramatically since the Tubbs Fire. Homeowners in neighborhoods from Fountaingrove to Mark West Springs, from Bennett Valley to the hills above Glen Ellen, have found themselves unable to obtain standard insurance, even when their homes were not damaged by fire.
Photo: CalMatters (calmatters.org)
The FAIR Plan presents several challenges for homeowners:
Higher Premiums
FAIR Plan premiums are typically 2–5 times more expensive than standard market policies for equivalent coverage.
Limited Coverage
The FAIR Plan provides basic fire coverage only. You need a separate "wrap-around" or DIC (Difference in Conditions) policy for liability, theft, and other perils.
Lower Coverage Limits
Coverage limits may not fully reflect your home's replacement value, leaving you underinsured.
Financial Instability Risk
As the insurer of last resort absorbs more risk, there are legitimate concerns about the plan's long-term financial stability.
Your Path Back to Standard Insurance
While there is no guaranteed formula for leaving the FAIR Plan, the following approach has helped many of our clients in Sonoma, Napa, and Marin Counties return to standard market coverage.
Get a Professional Wildfire Assessment
The first step is understanding your property's current wildfire risk profile. Our assessment identifies every vulnerability and provides a prioritized action plan. This report becomes the foundation for demonstrating your property's improved risk profile to insurers.
Implement Priority Improvements
Based on our assessment, complete the highest-priority defensible space and home hardening improvements. You do not need to do everything at once, focus on the measures that reduce risk the most: Zone 0 cleanup, vent screening, gutter maintenance, combustible fence replacement, and vegetation management.
Document Everything
Keep records and photographs of every improvement you make. Before-and-after documentation is powerful evidence for insurance carriers. Our assessment report, combined with your improvement records, creates a compelling case for insurability.
Shop the Standard Market
With your assessment report and documentation of completed improvements, work with an independent insurance agent experienced in wildfire-prone areas to shop the standard market. Several carriers are now considering properties that demonstrate proactive mitigation, especially with CWMS documentation.
Why Professional Documentation Matters
Insurance underwriters are data-driven. They respond to credible, documented evidence, not verbal assurances. A professional CWMS assessment report provides exactly the type of documentation that underwriters need to evaluate your property's actual risk, rather than relying solely on fire hazard severity zone maps.
Your assessment report from Wildfire Mitigation Advisors includes photographs, specific findings, and detailed recommendations. When you complete our recommended improvements and document them, you create a comprehensive mitigation package that tells an insurer: "This property owner has taken meaningful, verified steps to reduce wildfire risk."
California's Insurance Commissioner has also been pushing regulations that would require insurers to give credit for wildfire mitigation efforts. While the regulatory landscape continues to evolve, having professional documentation positions you to benefit from these changes as they take effect.
FAIR Plan Questions
What Sonoma County homeowners need to know about the FAIR Plan and insurance mitigation
Strategies for protecting your property and improving your insurance risk profile
Find Out What Threatens Your Property
A professional wildfire assessment is the foundation for getting off the FAIR Plan. We identify your risks, prioritize the fixes, and build the documentation insurers want to see.
Schedule Your Wildfire Assessment