Your insurer is about to send you a wildfire risk score. Here's what you can do about it.
Colorado law now requires the score, the reasons behind it, and a right of appeal that cannot raise your premium if you lose. Most homeowners will not know that.
The short version
- Colorado's HB25-1182 (C.R.S. § 10-4-124) makes your insurer tell you your wildfire risk score, the reasons behind it, and what mitigation would change.
- You get at least 30 days to appeal. The insurer must acknowledge within 10 days and decide within 30.
- Appealing is risk-free. Lose and your premium cannot rise until the next renewal. Win and the fix applies back to your current policy start date.
- It does not stop nonrenewals and does not cap premiums. Anyone telling you otherwise is overselling it.
- You will never see the model itself. It is a trade secret by statute.
Three dates, and the one that matters is October
Most coverage of this law says it took effect on 1 July 2026. That's true and slightly misleading, because the piece that actually gives you the notice and the appeal is a Division of Insurance regulation that lands three months later.
- 28 May 2025 Governor signs HB25-1182 into law.
- 1 July 2026 The act takes effect, as one undivided piece with no phased sections. It reaches only policies issued or renewed on or after this date, so nothing changes mid-policy.
- 1 October 2026 Division of Insurance Regulation 5-1-28 takes effect. This is the one that matters to you: it sets what the notice must say and how the appeal works. The regulated notices start arriving with October renewals.
So if you are waiting for a letter, the realistic window is October 2026 renewals onward, not July.
What the notice has to tell you
When the regulated notice arrives, it must contain all of this:
- A plain-language explanation of your wildfire risk score.
- The full range the score can take, and where in that range you sit.
- The specific features of your property that drove the score.
- What each mitigation action would do to the score if you did it.
The appeal, and why there is no reason not to use it
This is the strongest part of the law and the part fewest people will know about. If you think the score is wrong, or it missed mitigation work you have already done, you can challenge it, and the process is built so that trying costs you nothing.
If you win, the correction applies retroactively to the current policy effective date.
If you lose, losing an appeal cannot raise your premium until the next renewal. That asymmetry is the whole reason to appeal a score you think is wrong: the downside is your time, and nothing else.
Evidence they have to be willing to look at
- A Wildfire Partners certificate
- A fire department inspection
- Receipts and photographs of the mitigation work you have done
Mitigation has to count somewhere, but no discount is guaranteed
The law is binary about this. An insurer must either build mitigation into its risk model or provide discounts for it. What neither the statute nor the regulation does is set a minimum discount, so "must count" is not the same as "must save you money".
What this law does not do
- It does not stop nonrenewal. The act assumes it happens and just makes the score travel with the notice. Your actual protection is C.R.S. § 10-4-110.7(3): 60 days of advance written notice with specific reasons.
- It does not cap premiums. Nothing here limits what you can be charged.
- It gives you no automatic win and no right to sue. If an insurer blows a deadline, nothing happens by itself. A complaint to the Division of Insurance is the actual lever.
The Boulder money, and the catch on each one
Three separate pots exist, they stack awkwardly, and two of them have deadlines inside the next year.
City of Boulder Wildfire Resilience Assistance Program (WRAP)
Up to $2,000
Rebate for wildfire mitigation work on your home, for eligible city addresses.
The catch: You need a free Detailed Home Assessment first, and the assessment queue has been backlogged. Start with the assessment, not the contractor. The program is open until 1 October 2026.
Boulder County Wildfire Partners
Certification, plus access to county rebates
Assessment and certification program. The certificate is the single most useful document to have when an insurer questions your risk.
The catch: Insurance-recognised certificates are issued in WEST Boulder County only. The county says plainly that it lacks carrier agreements on the east side, so an east-county address gets much less insurance value out of it.
Colorado wildfire mitigation income tax credit
100% of costs, capped at $1,000, for tax years 2025 through 2027
A state income tax credit for mitigation work on your own property.
The catch: You cannot claim it on dollars already covered by a rebate or grant. This replaced the old $2,500 subtraction, which expired after 2024, so older advice is wrong.
Check your own risk before they tell you
You do not have to wait for the letter. Two of these let you type in your address today.
Colorado Wildfire Risk Public Viewer
State forest service viewer. Address-searchable, and the closest thing to seeing what the modellers see.
City of Boulder WRAP eligibility lookup
Checks whether your specific address qualifies for the city rebate. Address-searchable.
Boulder County Wildfire Zones map
County zone designations. Published as a PDF rather than a searchable tool.
What to actually do, in order
- Look up your address on the Colorado Wildfire Risk Public Viewer, so you know roughly what a modeller sees before an insurer tells you.
- Book the free City of Boulder Detailed Home Assessment if you are inside the city. It gates the rebate and the queue has been backlogged, so this is the step to start early rather than the one to do last.
- Photograph and receipt everything you have already done. Defensible space, roof, vents, gutters. This is the evidence an appeal runs on, and it is far easier to collect now than to reconstruct under a 30-day clock.
- Read the notice the day it arrives and diary the deadline. The appeal window is at least 30 days, and it is the only clock running against you.
- Appeal anything that looks wrong. Losing cannot raise your premium before renewal, so a score you doubt is worth challenging.
- Claim the tax credit on any mitigation dollars a rebate did not already cover, for tax years 2025 through 2027.
- File a DOI complaint if an insurer ignores the deadlines. It is the only enforcement lever you have.
Common questions
Does HB25-1182 stop my insurer from dropping me?
No. The law assumes nonrenewal happens and simply requires your wildfire risk score to travel with the notice. Your protection on nonrenewal is a different statute, C.R.S. § 10-4-110.7(3), which requires 60 days of advance written notice with specific reasons.
Will I get to see the model that scored my house?
No. You are entitled to your score, the range, where you sit in it, the specific property features that drove it, and what each mitigation action would change. The model itself is a trade secret and is exempt from open-records requests. This is the widest gap between how the law gets described and what it does.
Does appealing my score risk raising my premium?
No, and this is the strongest fact in the whole scheme. If you lose the appeal your premium cannot go up until the next renewal, and if you win, the correction applies retroactively to your current policy effective date.
Will mitigation work definitely lower my premium?
Not definitely. Insurers must either build mitigation into their model or provide discounts, but neither the statute nor the regulation sets a minimum discount. Boulder County states plainly that a Wildfire Partners certificate improves your chances of getting and keeping insurance but does not by itself qualify you for a discount.
When does my insurer have to send the risk score?
The act took effect 1 July 2026, but only for policies issued or renewed on or after that date, and the regulation setting the notice and appeal rules takes effect 1 October 2026. In practice the regulated notices start landing with October renewals.
Sources and limits. This page is built from primary sources: the enacted text and bill history of HB25-1182 at the Colorado General Assembly, codified at C.R.S. § 10-4-124; Division of Insurance Regulation 5-1-28; and the program pages of the City of Boulder and Boulder County. Complaints go to the Colorado Division of Insurance. Where a search summary disagreed with a government page, the government page was used. Regulation 5-1-29, which covers insurer filing and actuarial rules, was proposed but not adopted as of this writing and is deliberately not described here as law. Renters are not named in the statute's list of covered policies; no state source affirmatively excludes them, so treat that as an omission rather than a settled answer. Facts last verified 2026-07-26. This is general information about a new law, not legal or insurance advice, and your policy and your insurer's filings govern your actual situation.