If you own a home anywhere near the wildland-urban interface, you’ve probably felt the ground shift under you over the past few years. Premiums going up. Renewal letters that don’t quite explain why. A neighbor who got dropped and couldn’t figure out what triggered it. You might be wondering whether your insurer knows something about your property that you don’t. Starting July 1, 2026, in Colorado, the answer is: they have to tell you.

Colorado’s HB 25-1182, signed into law May 28, 2025, is the first mandate of its kind in the country. Any insurer using a wildfire risk model must now disclose your score, explain what factors drove it, and give you a real path to appeal or earn credit for mitigation work you’ve already done. Washington state followed close behind, passing SB 5928 in February 2026 by a stunning 48-to-1 Senate vote, with near-identical requirements. Wildfire season is open. These laws couldn’t be more timely.

What Insurers Have Been Doing Quietly

Here’s what I tell people who feel blindsided by a non-renewal notice: your insurer almost certainly didn’t make that call by looking at your house. They ran your address through a third-party risk model built from satellite imagery, vegetation density, topography, and fire behavior science. That model spat out a number. That number influenced whether you were priced out, non-renewed, or denied outright. And until these new laws, you had no right to see it.

This isn’t a conspiracy. It’s just how modern underwriting works, and it moved faster than the regulatory framework around it. The problem is what happens when an opaque number controls something as important as whether you can get coverage at all. In Washington state, the number of homeowners non-renewed or canceled by their insurer has doubled since 2021, rising from 11,763 to 24,106, with wildfire risk scores cited as a key driver, according to the state’s Office of the Insurance Commissioner. Families losing coverage, often with no meaningful explanation of why, and no way to push back.

That’s the gap these laws are designed to close.

What Disclosure Actually Gets You

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JurisdictionEffective DateRisk Score Disclosure RequiredMitigation Credit PathPlain Language Requirement
Colorado (HB 25-1182)July 1, 2026YesYesNot specified
Washington (SB 5928)Pending implementationYesYesYes

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Knowing your score matters, but it’s what comes with the score that really changes things. Colorado’s law requires insurers to explain the factors behind your score and to provide you a path to earn credit for mitigation work. That’s significant. Clearing defensible space, upgrading to ember-resistant vents, replacing wood shake roofing , these things can genuinely reduce your property’s risk profile, but only if your insurer is required to acknowledge them.

Washington’s law goes a step further in plain-language requirements. Insurers must provide clear, readable steps for how you could improve your score. Not legalese. Not a boilerplate disclaimer. Actual guidance. As someone who spent years reviewing claims, I can tell you that homeowners who understood their risk and acted on it before a fire tended to fare better on coverage disputes afterward too. Documentation is everything.

You might be wondering whether this means your premium will automatically drop if you do mitigation work. It doesn’t work that way automatically. The law gives you the right to request credit and to appeal. You’ll still need to push, document your improvements with photos and receipts, and follow up with your insurer in writing. But at least now you have a legal lever.

The Bigger Coverage Problem This Law Can’t Fully Solve

Transparency about your risk score is genuinely useful. It’s not, by itself, going to fix what University of Colorado research found: nearly 75% of homeowners had insufficient coverage for wildfire claims, with more than one-third classified as severely underinsured. That figure, highlighted in reporting from United Policyholders in February 2026, should stop you cold. Three out of four homeowners. Not adequately covered for the loss they’d face.

This is where risk score disclosure becomes a tool rather than a solution. If you can see your score, understand your risk category, and then look at your policy’s dwelling coverage limit with fresh eyes, you might finally ask the question that matters: does the amount on my declarations page actually reflect what it would cost to rebuild my home today, at current labor and material prices?

The answer, for most people in high-risk zones, is no. Replacement costs have climbed steeply since most policies were last adjusted. California’s wildfire losses in 2025 made this brutally visible. State Farm alone had paid $22.4 billion on 2025 LA wildfire claims by early 2026, with a 30% rate increase request filed in June 2024 still working through regulators. Those numbers reflect real replacement costs in a market where construction labor and materials are expensive and in short supply after a disaster. Your policy limits were probably set before that reality fully landed.

How to Actually Use This Law Right Now

If you’re in Colorado, July 1 is the effective date. If you’re in Washington, the legislative machinery is moving, and your Insurance Commissioner’s office is already pushing consumer alerts for wildfire season. If you’re in another state, watch for similar bills, because the legislative pressure is real and spreading fast.

Here’s what I tell people who want to get ahead of this rather than react to it. Contact your insurer before renewal and ask, directly and in writing, whether they use a wildfire risk model and what your current score is. In Colorado you now have a legal right to that answer. In other states, ask anyway. Some insurers will share it voluntarily. Get the score, get the factors, and then ask what specific improvements would change it.

Then turn to your policy itself. Pull out your declarations page and look at your dwelling coverage limit. Ask your insurer or a public adjuster whether that figure reflects current local reconstruction costs, not 2022 costs, not 2019 costs. If you’ve made improvements to your home, make sure they’re reflected in your coverage. An extended replacement cost endorsement is worth asking about specifically.

And if you’ve already done mitigation work, document everything now. Before wildfire season gets deeper into summer. Receipts, dated photographs, contractor records. If you later need to appeal a score or file a claim, that paper trail is your best argument.

The fact that Colorado and Washington had to pass laws to force this disclosure tells you something about how the industry has operated. These scores have shaped the insurance market in wildfire-prone states for years, invisibly. That’s starting to change, but the change only helps you if you know to ask.

Sources

This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute insurance advice. Coverage details, exclusions, and costs vary significantly by insurer, policy type, and location. Always review your policy documents and consult a licensed insurance professional for advice specific to your situation.

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