In February, south Reno homeowner Tom Daly penned an opinion column in This Is Reno lamenting the rash of insurance companies canceling homeowners’ insurance policies due to fire risk and the lack of response from state and federal officials on the matter. A month after his article was published, his property insurance policy was canceled.
“Our carrier, Travelers, declined to renew our [homeowners] insurance in March 2024, despite no claims and no wildfires in our community (ever), claiming we were in a high wildfire risk neighborhood,” Daly said.
Daly lives in The Estates at Mt. Rose, a community of homes with non-combustible construction and concrete tile roofs. The homes are on lots of one to two acres in size with about 60 feet of separation between houses. There’s a USDA Forest Service Fire Station just over a mile away, and Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District’s Station 36 is 2.7 miles away on Thomas Creek Road.
Daly said not only has there never been a fire in his neighborhood, but the homeowners association has completed eight large-scale common area fuels reduction projects since 2009, including one overseen by TMFPD officials.
Nearby, in 2021, the Forest Service brought in 800 sheep to graze on cheatgrass for several weeks as part of a fuels reduction program to keep “surrounding communities safe from destructive wildfire,” said Carson District Ranger Matt Zumstein at the time.
None of those efforts helped Daly retain his property insurance coverage through Travelers. He was able to get insured through another company, however.
“State Farm did insure us thereafter for the same premium for better coverage,” Daly said.
Not all homeowners are as fortunate as Daly. Not only has Washoe County led the state in the number of policies canceled due to wildfire risk, people applying for a new policy are being denied for the same reason.
“I expect that my policy will come up for renewal again, and I expect a non-renewal.”
According to the latest data from the Nevada Division of Insurance (DOI), in 2022, 265 homeowners insurance policies were canceled or not renewed by any insurer because of what they said was wildfire risk. The majority of the canceled policies, 172, were in Washoe County. Another 330 homeowners in Reno’s 89511 and 89508 zip codes had their applications for homeowners insurance not accepted for wildfire-related reasons. Those two zip codes are among the state’s top five zip codes with the greatest number of applications not accepted because of wildfire risk.
Incline Village is also among the top five zip codes for the number of applications not accepted and the percentage of applications not accepted. About 7% of applicants were denied a homeowners policy because of wildfire risk.
Determining wildfire risk
According to a report from the DOI’s Property and Casualty Advisory Committee Meeting in November 2023, insurance companies were surveyed on how they evaluate coverage, specifically as it relates to wildfire risk. Just over half of the companies that responded to the survey said they use a scoring model to assess wildfire risk during the policy underwriting process. The report didn’t indicate what scoring model was used.
Underwriting decisions are also made by evaluating factors such as roof type, construction features, property location, firefighting accessibility, vegetation management and loss history. Wood shake and shingle roofs, which burn easily, are often ineligible for coverage. Fire-resistant siding and ember-resistant venting are also considered.
“more must be done to better understand the link between wildfires and rising insurance premiums.”– U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen
Only 44% of insurers said individual efforts to reduce fire risk—such as removing junipers and creating defensible space, practices recommended for decades by University of Nevada, Reno experts—are considered during the underwriting process.
Some newer planned communities that border the urban-wildland interface have Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPP). These plans are part of an effort to manage wildfire threats and protect communities. The plans, which can be county-wide but have been created by several area homeowners associations, set priorities for the protection of life, property and infrastructure and provide homeowners with influence over fire prevention and mitigation strategies.
Daly said The Estates at Mount Rose was the first community in the county to have a CWPP. It was created when the development was built and has been maintained ever since. Other communities in areas with moderate to high fire risk have created similar plans.
The Reserve at Monte Rosa, about a mile east of The Estates down Mount Rose Highway, submitted its CWPP for approval by Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District earlier this year. The plan provides an assessment of fire risk and water and firefighting infrastructure, activities undertaken such as “Ready, Set, Go!” from Northern Nevada Fire Adapted Communities network, mitigation efforts already taken and recommendations for future fire risk reduction efforts. 
Approval of a CWPP by local fire agencies can enable communities to apply for state and federal funding to continue fire safety projects, such as community green waste cleanups. Despite community-wide efforts to reduce fire risk, DOI found that only 5% of insurers consider community fire risk mitigation efforts during the underwriting process.
Insurance dropped with no recourse
As homeowners are making efforts to reduce the risk of their homes being destroyed by a wildfire, some fear their efforts won’t be recognized or considered as decisions about their insurance policies are made from afar.
This Is Reno spoke to a south Reno homeowner who’s lived in the Callahan Ranch area for 50 years. He said he wanted to remain anonymous because he feared that speaking out about the issue could cost him his insurance coverage.
He said his property, which includes a home on four acres with natural vegetation, had been insured by AAA for about 25 years. When his policy came up for renewal for 2023 he received a letter 30 days in advance stating that the company wouldn’t be renewing it.
In the notice, underwriters said the decision was based on “visual reference,” but he said he wasn’t clear what that entailed, or when the property was even viewed. At the time, in December 2022, he said he was in the process of clearing all of the sagebrush from the property and conducting pile burns during open burn season. He said he called and visited his AAA office to discuss the policy non-renewal, but “they would not talk to me.”
“These insurance companies have had tremendous losses,” he said. “I understand why they’re doing it,” acknowledging that he’d lost what was intended to be a retirement home for him and his wife in the Dixie Fire.
Fortunately, he said he was able to find a new policy with Farmers Insurance, but it costs 20% more than the previous policy. He said he doesn’t feel secure about having ongoing coverage.
“I expect that my policy will come up for renewal again, and I expect a non-renewal,” he said. “More and more people are going to have the same experience.”
Curiously, he said, his neighbor also recently had their homeowners insurance policy canceled. Farmers, the same company that agreed to cover him, dropped the neighbor’s insurance for wildfire risk.
Calls for more oversight
Daly said he met with Nevada’s Insurance Commissioner Scott Kipper in June to discuss how insurance companies evaluate wildfire risk. According to Daly, DOI is considering establishing one uniform risk model to level the playing field for insurers and homeowners. That, however, may require the state legislature to take action.
This Is Reno reached out to a DOI spokesperson to learn more about statewide efforts to ensure availability and affordability of homeowners insurance but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
In Washington, D.C., Nevada’s Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen is pushing the Federal Insurance Office (FIO) to also address the issue. The FIO is responsible for monitoring the insurance sector and identifying gaps in access for underserved communities.
In a letter to FIO Director Steven Seitz sent this week, Rosen said decisions by insurance companies have “cascading effects” that have the “potential to reverberate throughout the entire economy, causing unimaginable financial hardship for hardworking families.”
“Without access to affordable insurance products—or insurance products altogether—the most at-risk homeowners are left with sky-high insurance premiums, insufficient coverage, or no protection at all,” Rosen said.
Sen. Rosen’s letter included a list of six questions to Seitz, including policies for contacting homeowners to connect them with alternative insurance options, such as state-run plans. She also asked for details on how the FIO is collecting and analyzing data related to insurance availability and affordability in wildfire-prone areas.
“While recent initiatives – such as FIO’s plan to collect data on climate risks more broadly– are a step in the right direction, more must be done to better understand the link between wildfires and rising insurance premiums so that policymakers, agencies, and stakeholders can take action to lower costs and increase coverage options,” she said.
Her final question circles back to the problem Reno-area homeowners have said they’ve faced.
“Has the FIO looked into best practices for homeowners in fire-prone areas to harden their homes, mitigate risk and ultimately make their homes more insurable?” she asked.
The DOI’s data, Daly and others can confirm: Many insurers aren’t even taking individual and community risk reduction efforts into consideration.
