The California FAIR Plan, the state-run fire insurance program for property owners who cannot secure private market insurance, has proposed hiking home insurance rates by an average of 35.8% starting next spring.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that if the request is approved, it would be the program’s largest rate increase at least seven years. Roughly half of the plan’s customers could be forced to shoulder an increase of 40% to 55% and four policyholders’ rates would increase more than 300%. However, some homeowners could potentially see a decrease as much as 78%.
A spokesperson for the FAIR Plan said wildfire risk is a determining factor on future rates, with low-risk areas such as the Central Valley most likely to see decreases while high-risk areas including Sonoma County and the Sierra Nevada foothills would carry large increases. The program offers discounts to homeowners who work on reducing the wildfire risk at their properties.
If approved, the new rates would take at customers’ next renewal date after April 1, 2026. This marks the first time the FAIR Plan has applied for a rate increase using wildfire catastrophe models.
“Use of the rate guidelines prior to the (Sustainable Insurance Strategy) would have resulted in the FAIR Plan seeking an 80% rate increase,” said the program’s spokesperson in a statement. “The current 35.8% filing reflects the measured approach made possible under SIS, and the FAIR Plan appreciates Commissioner Ricardo Lara’s leadership in advancing SIS to help stabilize rates and broaden property insurance options.”
This is outrageous!!!! We live in the foothills. Our community is a Firesafe community which means all of us have spent a lot of money clearing our properties to make them safe. I personally spent over $5,000 in 2025 clearing brush and trees. Then our insurance company dropped us in August. Our insurance premium went up by 45% (an increase of $3,240). How do these companies expect anyone to be able to withstand additional increases? Additional increases will cause severe affordability problems for homeowners while these insurance carriers are ripping people off. California would have never had issues had the forest floors been cleared. The issues lie there. This idea of raising the premiums need to be cancelled. People need the premiums to go down not up.
The Tampa bay times did stories about Florida flood policy companies. And how they hid money in subsidiaries and charged subsidiaries from mother companies to diminish income.
Long story short , if there are no audits by the state , what do you expect ?