Clearing brush, replacing a roof, and joining a Firewise neighborhood sit on two official lists in 2026. The Department of Insurance's Safer from Wildfires regulation tells admitted insurers which mitigation factors a wildfire rating plan must credit. The California FAIR Plan's hardening-discount sheet tells FAIR Plan policyholders which of those factors the Plan currently prices. This article quotes those pages, dated September 18, 2026. It does not quote a homeowner's premium, and it does not say what a given carrier will pay on a given address.

Read date: September 18, 2026. The Department, CAL FIRE, and the FAIR Plan update their pages on their own schedules. Check the primary sources at the end of this article before relying on a figure. FAIR Plan discounts apply to the wildfire portion of the premium, not the whole policy, and the sheet itself says they are subject to change.

What the Safer from Wildfires regulation actually requires

California Code of Regulations, title 10, section 2644.9 applies to an insurer that uses a rating plan that "segments, creates a rate differential, or surcharges the premium based upon a policyholder or applicant's wildfire risk." Bulletin 2023-2 states that the section became effective on October 14, 2022, and directed those insurers to file a complying rate application no later than April 12, 2023.

Subdivision (d)(1) is the mandatory-factor list: two community designations and ten property-level measures. The community designations in (d)(1)(A) are a Fire Risk Reduction Community listed by the Board of Forestry under Public Resources Code section 4290.1, and a Firewise USA Site in Good Standing. The property-level list in (d)(1)(B) covers surroundings (vegetation cleared from under decks; combustibles cleared within five feet; noncombustible fences and gates within five feet; outbuilding setback; Public Resources Code section 4291 compliance) and building hardening (Class-A fire-rated roof, enclosed eaves, fire-resistant vents, multipane windows or functional shutters, and at least six inches of noncombustible vertical clearance at the bottom of exterior walls).

The Department's FAQ on the regulation (revised April 10, 2025) says a rating plan "must contain a separate, individual discount or credit for each mandatory mitigation factor," that consumers are expected to receive "at least $1 in premium reduction for each mandatory factor," and that a credit below $1 "shall round up to $1." Discounts or credits, rather than a silent change to a wildfire risk score, "must be used to address the mandatory factors." The regulation does not print a percentage every carrier must use. The consumer FAQ the Department was serving in September 2026 says "Different insurance companies may offer different discounts" and "Discounts will depend in part on your property's individual characteristics and the actions you've taken."

What CAL FIRE's defensible-space statute requires, separately

Insurance credit and fire-code compliance are not the same list. Public Resources Code section 4291 requires a person who owns, leases, controls, operates, or maintains a building in the state responsibility area to maintain defensible space of 100 feet from each side and from the front and rear of the structure, but not beyond the property line. The same subdivision says fuels management may be more intense between 5 and 30 feet, "and an ember-resistant zone being required within 5 feet of the structure, based on regulations promulgated by the board." CAL FIRE's Ready for Wildfire defensible-space page is the public restatement of that 100-foot buffer. Safer from Wildfires treats PRC 4291 compliance as one property-level factor and the five-foot ember-resistant zone as another. Completing one does not automatically complete the other on a declarations page.

What the FAIR Plan's November 15, 2025 sheet credits

The Department's consumer FAQ: "Yes – the FAIR Plan will also offer discounts." The Plan's one-pager, Wildfire Hardening Discounts for Dwelling Fire & Commercial Policies, last revised November 2025, is the schedule. It applies to policies effective November 15, 2025 or later. Policyholders "may qualify for up to 12 discounts, applied to the wildfire portion of the policy premium."

The twelve follow the regulation: five Immediate Surroundings discounts (under-deck clearance, five-foot combustible clearance, noncombustible fences and gates within five feet, outbuildings more than 30 feet away or as far as the applicant controls, and PRC 4291 / local defensible-space compliance); five Structure discounts (Class-A roof — the sheet names asphalt fiberglass composition shingles, stone, concrete or clay tile, or metal; enclosed eaves; ember- and fire-resistant vents with approved wire mesh; multi-paned windows or functional shutters; six inches of noncombustible material at the wall base); one Property Level Completion discount "when all 10 of the Immediate Surroundings and Structure criteria are met"; and one Community discount for a Fire Risk Reduction Community or a Firewise USA Site in Good Standing. Meeting either community criterion earns the discount; meeting both "earns a larger total percentage discount."

The sheet then prints two ceilings on the wildfire portion, not the whole premium: dwelling-fire policyholders who obtain all 12 "may see a discount of up to 16.4%"; commercial policyholders, "up to 13.8%." It ends: "Discounts are subject to change." It does not print a dollar premium.

What a declarations page still has to show

The September 2026 consumer FAQ says insurers that use a wildfire risk score must provide it on application, before a renewal or non-renewal, and when a completed mitigation measure is reported and the score is requested, with "a detailed explanation for the score including how you can lower that score and how much you could save." Firewise verification is "the responsibility of the insurer, not the policyholder." The FAIR Plan sheet tells the reader to contact a licensed broker. Whether a credit is visible on a particular declarations page is a fact about that page, not about the regulation.

The Bottom Line

The Safer from Wildfires regulation still names the same mandatory factors it named when it took effect in October 2022, and the Department still tells insurers to file a separate credit for each one. The FAIR Plan's November 2025 sheet maps those factors onto twelve discounts on the wildfire portion of a dwelling or commercial policy, with printed ceilings of 16.4 percent and 13.8 percent when all twelve apply. CAL FIRE's 100-foot defensible-space rule is the fire-code half of the same work, not a substitute for the insurance list. None of those pages prints the premium on a specific house.

This article is for general educational purposes and is not legal advice, a quote, or a promise that a given measure will change a given policy. Figures are quoted from the sources below as printed on September 18, 2026.

Send the declarations page and what you have done. A licensed broker can read the credits that are already on the page against the regulation's list and the FAIR Plan sheet, and say what is present, what is absent, and what a coverage review would actually look at. Related reading: California home insurance, the FAIR Plan, and what to check on a FAIR Plan declarations page.

Primary Sources and Further Reading