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# Colorado Wildfire Risk Score Appeal: What Survives the Sale
- URL: https://truenorthboulder.com/guides/colorado-wildfire-risk-score-appeal/
- Published: 2026-10-16T09:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-17T20:41:17.000Z
- Description: Colorado insurers that price on wildfire risk owe you a score, in notices from October 1, 2026, and an appeal backed by mitigation evidence. Before you sell: the score belongs to your insurer's model, and the statute says so. What a buyer can use is proof of the work done on the house.
- Author: Daniel Hsieh
- Tags: Answer Brief, Selling, Colorado Law

Planning to list in the spring? The instinct, if your insurer has given the house a wildfire risk score, is to fight that number first so whoever buys the house inherits a better one. They won't inherit it. They can inherit the reason it should be lower.

The notice is new. A renewal offer sent since October 1, 2026, by an insurer that prices on wildfire risk may carry a page it never used to: the house's score, where that score sits in a range, the features of the property that pushed it there, and a written note that you can appeal.

> **The short answer:** Colorado's HB25-1182 (**C.R.S. §10-4-124**, in force since **July 1, 2026**) makes an insurer that prices on wildfire risk give policyholders and applicants a written wildfire risk score, in notices from **October 1** under the Division's rule, and hear an appeal backed by evidence of mitigation, acknowledged within **10 calendar days** and decided within **30**. The required notice says other insurers' models can produce different scores, so winning an appeal with your insurer binds no other carrier. What a buyer can use is evidence of mitigation work on the property.

One limit first, so you don't spend a month on the wrong risk. The Division of Insurance's February 2026 data, covering 11 counties, put wildfire at 0.9% to 24.6% of the average premium depending on the county, and hail at about half the premium along the Front Range. The same analysis put the potential average saving from wildfire mitigation at $3 to $25 a year across the counties it studied, against $82 to $387 for hail mitigation, and the Division calls wildfire mitigation key for safety and for keeping coverage available, pointing elsewhere for affordability. On an in-town parcel well east of the foothills, the notice may show a low score and nothing worth contesting, and hail is likely the larger share of what you pay. What follows is for foothills, canyon-mouth and open-space-edge listings.

## Your wildfire risk score belongs to your insurer's model

The notice and appeal duties reach any insurer that uses a wildfire risk model or score to underwrite, price, surcharge or nonrenew a homeowner's policy, and any insurer that offers a mitigation discount. The state's FAIR Plan is covered too. The Division's implementing rule applies to admitted insurers and the FAIR Plan; it does not apply to non-admitted, surplus-lines carriers, which the Division describes as not held to the state requirements admitted companies must meet, though more willing to cover higher-risk properties. Whether the statute itself reaches a surplus-lines policy, ask the Division of Insurance.

What the law hands you is a notice, and one required sentence in it matters more to a seller than any number on the page.

What every notice has to say

A plain-language explanation of the score, “including an explanation that insurers may use different models and have different risk score ranges that could result in different risk scores from other insurers.” That is C.R.S. §10-4-124(6)(b)(I), word for word.

Read that as someone about to sell. Your buyer's insurer, if it scores wildfire risk, does it with its own model on the buyer's application, on a scale that may not look like your carrier's at all. An appeal you win this fall corrects the number on your policy, which is worth doing if you're paying for a wrong one while the house is still yours, and more so if the score is what a renewal or nonrenewal will turn on, since a nonrenewal in the middle of a listing can cost more than a year of premium differences would. No other carrier is bound by the result, and the number doesn't go with the deed.

## The notice you may already hold

Start with the notice anyway, because it's the one document that tells you in writing what a model sees in your house. It arrives at three moments: in the offer of renewal, with a nonrenewal notice, and, for someone applying, no later than 15 days after a completed application.

Two of its required items deserve a slow read. One identifies "the primary features of the property that influenced" the score. The other states the impact, if any, that each mitigation action could have on it. Treat the first as what that model recorded about your house, and check it against the house. Treat the second as that insurer's own list of which work would move its number.

If your last renewal offer came before October 1, 2026, you may not have one yet: the Division's rule starts the notice with renewal offers sent on or after that date, and the statute gives you no general right to demand it early. The rule adds that an insurer using a model only when it first writes a policy, and not at renewal, is "not required to send" that notice. Either way, the statute gives you one request right: if you've completed mitigation since your last renewal, you can ask for a revised score, and the insurer owes it no later than 30 days after the request. Under the rule, every admitted homeowner's insurer and the FAIR Plan also has to post on its public website the discounts or other premium adjustments it ties to mitigation, and how to appeal a score, whether or not it uses a model; one that offers no mitigation discount has to post that it doesn't. Read that page before you hire anyone, because it tells you what that particular carrier says it may credit.

## What the law ties to the house

Here the buyer comes in. Every insurer that uses a model has to account for mitigation, either in the model or in its underwriting and pricing: work on the property, such as defensible space, building hardening or a certification, and work in the community, such as forest treatment and fuel reduction. An insurer that doesn't build them into its model has to discount for them instead, for a policyholder who can show property work was "undertaken on the property," or community work close enough to reduce the risk.

That phrase says on the property. It doesn't say by the policyholder. Whether a buyer's insurer has to credit work you paid for turns on that insurer's terms and the Division of Insurance's reading; we can't promise it for them. What the wording does is make the work, and the proof of it, the thing worth passing on.

The statute names one designation outright: [Wildfire Prepared Home](https://wildfireprepared.org/?ref=truenorthboulder.com), from the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety. Earning it takes a site visit from a third-party evaluator. The program says the designation is "tied to the property, not the individual homeowner," and after closing the new owner can ask for it to be transferred, for a fee. Until then, the certificate is evidence of the work. It runs three years, with reviews at years one and two, so one earned before you list would still be current when a spring buyer applies.

County programs work differently, and they say so. Boulder County's Wildfire Partners, for homes in unincorporated west Boulder County, issues a certificate after an on-site assessment and a final inspection. Its assessments don't transfer to a new owner, and by its own account the certificate "will not qualify you for an insurance discount." The same program suggests uploading the certificate to your MLS listing. In Larimer County, the Sheriff's Office runs a Wildfire Partner Program whose top level ends in a certification letter the owner decides whether to share. At the neighborhood scale, Firewise USA recognition is the kind of community designation the statute describes. The Division's rule lists county and community certificates of completion among the evidence an insurer's appeal notice must say it will consider, alongside receipts, photos, inspection reports and letters from an HOA, a wildfire council or a mitigation contractor. Considering isn't crediting; the insurer's posted discount list says what it may credit.

So the file looks like this: invoices, dated before-and-after photos, the designation or certificate, and any inspection report or HOA or contractor letter. That's the evidence of work. Your insurer's notice and anything it wrote back about your score are a different kind of document; whether those go anywhere near a buyer is the disclosure question below, so ask your broker before they go in the file. Put the evidence with [the documents that go out with your listing](https://truenorthboulder.com/guides/how-to-sell-a-move-up-home-boulder/), where a buyer's agent will find it before anyone writes an offer.

## The statute's clocks against your contract's

Line the statute's deadlines up beside the contract's, and you'll see why an appeal can't be a buyer's plan.

| What happens                         | Deadline                                                                                               | Where it's set          |
| ------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------- |
| An applicant receives the score      | No later than 15 days after a completed application                                                    | §10-4-124(7)(a)         |
| A policyholder receives it           | In the offer of renewal, or with a nonrenewal notice                                                   | §10-4-124(7)(b), (c)    |
| You file an appeal                   | At least 30 days from receiving the notice (the insurer may limit you to one appeal per policy period) | Regulation 5-1-28 § 5.G |
| A revised score after new mitigation | No later than 30 days after the request                                                                | §10-4-124(7)(d)         |
| An appeal is acknowledged            | Within 10 calendar days of receipt                                                                     | §10-4-124(8)            |
| An appeal is decided                 | Within 30 calendar days of receipt                                                                     | §10-4-124(8)            |
| The buyer's insurance exit           | The Property Insurance Termination Deadline: whatever date the contract says                           | The purchase contract   |

Put the applicant's two outer limits together and a buyer who applies, gets a score worth contesting, and appeals could wait up to 45 days from a completed application to a decision, before counting the days it takes to put the appeal together. Those are ceilings, and an insurer can move faster. The buyer's right to walk away over insurance, though, runs on [the insurance deadline written into the contract](https://truenorthboulder.com/guides/colorado-contract-deadlines-boulder/). If that date comes first, an appeal can't finish inside it. If the insurer decides the evidence is not enough, the rule makes it say what it needs and allow another 30 days. For a policyholder, a change in their favor applies back to the start of the current policy, while one against them waits for renewal.

Because an appeal can outrun the contract, the evidence belongs in the buyer's application, not in an appeal filed afterward. A seller can make that possible by having the file ready; the application itself is the buyer's.

For a buyer facing a bad score, the notice's different-models sentence is good news. If one carrier's model scores the house badly, another's may not, so the time you have inside the insurance deadline in the contract is better spent getting quotes from several carriers, through an independent insurance agent who can place with more than one, than contesting one carrier's number. If you're already under contract and no file came with the listing, have your agent request the mitigation records from the listing agent on day one and hand them to whoever is quoting. A better score doesn't clear the harder test on a foothills parcel, though. A quote isn't coverage until a carrier binds it, which is [the gap our Loveland guide is built around](https://truenorthboulder.com/loveland/moving-to-loveland/), and on some addresses [the search is for any carrier that will bind before your deadline](https://truenorthboulder.com/guides/can-i-get-insurance-on-this-house-colorado/). The same file can help there; nothing in it guarantees a bind. [What a policy pays after a loss](https://truenorthboulder.com/guides/colorado-dwelling-coverage-replacement-cost/) runs on a different statute.

## Two questions we leave to others

The appeal right is written for someone whose score, classification or discount "is inaccurate and provides evidence of the property-specific or community-level mitigation action." Whether it also reaches a score that's wrong for some other reason, a feature the model recorded incorrectly, for instance, the sentence leaves open. Take that one to the Division of Insurance or an attorney before you build an appeal around it.

The second is disclosure. [You complete the disclosure form yourself](https://truenorthboulder.com/guides/colorado-seller-property-disclosure/); whether anything in your insurer's notice, or a nonrenewal, belongs on it is worth taking to your broker, with your particulars in front of them.

The bottom line

A wildfire risk score is one insurer's reading of your house, and Colorado's statute says so in the notice it requires. Appealing yours can fix your own premium while you own the place. The statute's wording ties the mitigation work to the property rather than to whoever paid for it, though we can't promise a buyer's carrier will credit it, so document it, earn the designation the statute names if it suits the house, and have that evidence ready for a buyer's insurance application before an offer is written.

*True North Boulder is a real-estate team with eXp Realty. This page describes a Colorado statute; it is not legal, tax or insurance advice about your policy. Your insurer, a licensed insurance producer or the Colorado Division of Insurance can speak to your score, and a lawyer to what the statute requires of you.*

Common questions

## Frequently asked

Can I appeal my wildfire risk score in Colorado?+ 

Yes, if your insurer uses a wildfire risk model or score to price, underwrite or nonrenew, or offers a mitigation discount. C.R.S. 10-4-124, in force since July 1, 2026, lets a policyholder or applicant appeal an inaccurate score, classification or mitigation discount with evidence of property-specific or community-level mitigation, and the Division's rule gives you at least 30 days from the notice to file with an admitted insurer or the FAIR Plan. The insurer must acknowledge the appeal in writing within 10 calendar days and decide it within 30\. Whether the right reaches a score wrong for some other reason, the wording doesn't settle; ask the Colorado Division of Insurance.

Does my wildfire risk score transfer to the buyer when I sell?+ 

No. A score is one insurer's model output, and the statute requires every score notice to explain that different insurers' models can produce different scores. If the buyer's insurer uses a wildfire model, it scores the house on the buyer's own application. What can carry across is evidence of the mitigation done on the property, and the one designation the statute names, IBHS Wildfire Prepared Home, is tied to the property and can be transferred to a new owner after closing.

How long does a wildfire risk score appeal take in Colorado?+ 

The insurer must acknowledge an appeal within 10 calendar days and decide it within 30\. A new applicant is owed the score within 15 days of a completed application, so those ceilings stack to 45 days before counting the time to prepare the appeal. If the insurer says your evidence falls short, the Division's rule gives another 30 days to supply it, which lengthens the path. That can outrun the Property Insurance Termination Deadline in a purchase contract, which is why mitigation evidence belongs in a buyer's application from the start.

Sources & notes 
- **The statute.** C.R.S. § 10-4-124, added by [House Bill 25-1182](https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb25-1182?ref=truenorthboulder.com) (2025 session law chapter 278). Read at the signed act and at the Colorado Revised Statutes 2026, Title 10 (Office of Legislative Legal Services), which agree verbatim on every provision quoted here. The Source note reads “L. 2025: Entire section added, (HB 25-1182), ch. 278, p. 1443, § 1, effective July 1, 2026” and carries no 2026 amendment; that edition incorporates the 2026 session’s laws. The act’s own Section 2(1) reads “This act takes effect July 1, 2026”. The bill page gives the signing date as May 28, 2025.
- **Who it binds.** § 10-4-124(6)(a) reaches “An insurer that provides a mitigation discount or that uses a wildfire risk model or risk score to underwrite, nonrenew, price, create a rate differential, or surcharge the premium based upon the policyholder’s or applicant’s wildfire risk”. Subsection (9) applies the section to coverage from the FAIR Plan association; (10) limits it to homeowner’s policies, residential condominium unit policies and multifamily residential housing.
- **What the notice contains.** § 10-4-124(6)(b)(I)–(V), including (IV) “A written explanation of why the policyholder or applicant received the assigned score or classification that identifies the primary features of the property that influenced the assignment of the score or classification” and (V) “The impact, if any, that each property-specific mitigation or community-level mitigation action could have on a wildfire risk score or classification assigned to the property.”
- **When the score arrives, and the revised score.** § 10-4-124(7)(a)–(d): for applicants “no later than fifteen days after the submission of the applicant’s completed application to the insurer”; for policyholders “in the offer of renewal” or “with the nonrenewal notice”; and, after property-specific or community-level mitigation completed “since the time of the last application to or renewal by the insurer, no later than thirty days after the submission to the insurer of the policyholder’s or applicant’s request that the insurer provide a revised wildfire risk score or wildfire risk classification.” No provision gives a general right to request a score on demand.
- **The appeal.** § 10-4-124(8): “A policyholder or applicant for a policy of property insurance whose wildfire risk model score, wildfire risk classification assigned to the property, or applicable mitigation discount is inaccurate and provides evidence of the property-specific or community-level mitigation action may appeal the score directly to the insurer.” The insurer “shall acknowledge receipt of the appeal in writing within ten calendar days after receipt of the appeal” and “shall respond to the appeal in writing with a reconsideration and decision within thirty calendar days after receiving the appeal.” The 45-day figure in the body is arithmetic on the statutory maxima in (7)(a) and (8), not a measured processing time.
- **Mitigation, and the property.** § 10-4-124(3) requires an insurer using a model to ensure property-specific mitigation actions “such as establishing defensible space, incorporating building hardening measures, or receiving certification from an entity with expertise in mitigation of properties against wildfire” and community-level mitigation “including forest treatment and other fuel reduction activities” are incorporated in the model or “otherwise demonstrably included in the insurer’s underwriting and pricing.” (4): an insurer that does not incorporate them “shall provide discounts to policyholders who can demonstrate that property-specific mitigation actions have been undertaken on the property or community-level mitigation actions have been undertaken in sufficient proximity to the property to reduce the risk of loss.” (5) requires each insurer to post on its public website the discount or adjustment for each action and “the process for appealing a wildfire risk score.” The body describes the “on the property” wording and does not say whether any insurer must credit a prior owner’s work.
- **The named designation.** § 10-4-124(1)(c) defines a property-specific mitigation action as one “demonstrated by the ‘Wildfire Prepared Home’ designation from the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety or by a similar mitigation program that includes a verification and certification process.” Program terms from [Wildfire Prepared Home](https://wildfireprepared.org/frequently-asked-questions/?ref=truenorthboulder.com): “The Wildfire Prepared Home™ designation is tied to the property, not the individual homeowner.” “After closing, the new owner can create an account and request a designation transfer for a small fee.” “Designations are valid for three years.” “Insurance discounts are not guaranteed and vary by insurer and state.” A third-party evaluator verifies on site.
- **County programs.** [Boulder County’s Wildfire Partners](https://wildfirepartners.org/west-boulder-county-individual-home-assessments/?ref=truenorthboulder.com): eligibility “Your home is located in unincorporated west Boulder County (west of Highways 36 and 93)”; “Wildfire Partners assessments do NOT transfer from one homeowner to the next”; the certificate “will increase your chances of obtaining insurance and staying insured; however, it will not qualify you for an insurance discount”; “The certificate can also be uploaded to your MLS listing to help you sell your home.” [Larimer County’s Wildfire Partner Program](https://www.larimer.gov/sheriff/wpp?ref=truenorthboulder.com), run by the Sheriff’s Office Emergency Services Division, issues a Gold Level Certification Letter, and its reports are “not shared with any insurance company … unless the homeowner chooses to share their own report.” Firewise USA is implemented in Colorado by the [Colorado State Forest Service](https://csfs.colostate.edu/wildfire-mitigation/colorado-firewise-communities/?ref=truenorthboulder.com) and the National Fire Protection Association. No Weld County certification program was found; the statewide designation applies across the footprint.
- **The implementing rule.** The Division of Insurance adopted Regulation 5-1-28 ([3 CCR 702-5](https://www.coloradosos.gov/CCR/DisplayRule.do?action=ruleinfo&ruleId=2201&deptID=18&agencyID=57&deptName=Department+of+Regulatory+Agencies&agencyName=Division+of+Insurance&seriesNum=3+CCR+702-5&ref=truenorthboulder.com)) under § 10-4-124, effective October 1, 2026\. We read it in September 2026 on the Division’s page of regulations adopted but not yet effective, where it no longer appeared by October 2, 2026; as of October 10, 2026 the current Code of Colorado Regulations version of 3 CCR 702-5 (effective August 19, 2026) ended its 5-1 series at Regulation 5-1-27 and did not yet include it. It applies to admitted insurers that issue homeowner’s and residential property policies, and to the FAIR Plan; it does not apply to non-admitted insurers. Quoted provisions: § 5.D (notice timing: “shall be sent with new policies effective, and renewal policy offers sent to the policyholder, on or after October 1, 2026”; an insurer that uses a model for new applicants only and not at renewal is “not required to send” the notice); § 5.G (at least thirty days from receipt of the notification to submit an appeal; the process “may be limited to once per policy period”; acknowledgment within ten calendar days and a written response within thirty; a favorable change applies “retroactively to the current policy effective date”, an unfavorable one waits “until the following renewal”; if evidence is insufficient the insurer must say what it needs and allow “an additional 30 days”); the evidence an insurer’s appeal notice must say it will consider “includes, but is not limited to” receipts and photos, county, municipal or community-level certificates of completion, inspection reports, and letters or certifications from HOAs, wildfire councils or mitigation contractors. §§ 5.B and 5.C require every insurer the rule covers, model or not, to post its mitigation discounts and appeal process, or that no discount is available. A companion rule on insurers’ filings, Regulation 5-1-29, takes effect January 1, 2027.
- **Wildfire’s share of premium.** Colorado Division of Insurance, [release of February 11, 2026](https://doi.colorado.gov/news-releases-consumer-advisories/governor-polis-and-division-of-insurance-we-must-find-innovative?ref=truenorthboulder.com): data from “20 homeowners insurance carriers, representing 80% of the market”, for 11 counties; wildfire “representing 0.9 - 24.6%, depending on the county”; “along the Front Range and into the Eastern Plains, hail accounts for approximately 50% of the premium homeowners pay, while wildfire has a much smaller impact.” The [two-pager of findings](https://doi.colorado.gov/sites/doi/files/documents/DOI%5FHail%5FOne%5FPager.pdf?ref=truenorthboulder.com): “hail mitigation has the potential to save consumers an average of $82-$387 per year while wildfire mitigation only has the potential to save consumers an average of $3-$25”; and “While wildfire mitigation will continue to be key for safety and for availability of insurance coverage, the lack of available discounts for wildfire mitigation work shows that other solutions, like increased authority to mandate discounts or reinsurance solutions, must be considered to address affordability concerns caused by wildfire risk.” Its county chart labels do not extract from the document’s text layer, so no county figure is given and no claim is made about which counties were studied.
- **Surplus lines.** Colorado Division of Insurance, [Toolkit for Homeowners and HOAs on Insurance](https://doi.colorado.gov/homeowners-hoainsurancetoolkit?ref=truenorthboulder.com), glossary: “Non-admitted companies do not have to meet state regulations and requirements like admitted companies do (admitted companies are the traditional insurance companies). However, non-admitted companies are more willing to provide coverage for higher-risk properties and situations.”
- **The contract deadline** is named, not re-derived; its mechanics are in the linked contract-deadlines guide.
- **Deliberately out of scope:** what a policy pays after a loss (dwelling limits and the extended-replacement-cost offer duty), whether a carrier will write a house at all, and what a seller must disclose.