You rebuilt to the standard. Now the carrier says "prove it."
A plain-language guide for homeowners in Altadena, zip code 91001, in Los Angeles County who has been dropped, expects to be, or is about to buy a policy on a rebuilt home. What the law says, what the aerial models see, and what documentation actually holds up.
The Eaton Fire started the evening of January 7, 2025, in Eaton Canyon and was pushed into Altadena by Santa Ana winds. It destroyed more than 9,400 structures and killed 19 people, making it the second most destructive wildfire in California history. The Department of Justice attributed the cause to Southern California Edison transmission lines.
Eighteen months later, rebuilding is underway block by block. Homes are going up under Chapter 7A of the California Building Code, and many owners are building past code: Class A roofs, ember-resistant vents, noncombustible five-foot zones, enclosed eaves. The question every one of those owners eventually faces is whether an insurer will write the house, and whether the insurer will keep it.
Sources: CAL FIRE incident data; Los Angeles County Building and Safety.
Insurers price and underwrite homes in Los Angeles County using third-party wildfire models built on aerial imagery and parcel data. The two newest ideas in those models matter here:
In August 2026 the property analytics firm Cotality (formerly CoreLogic) published a national analysis of what it calls conflagration risk: fire moving house to house through embers and radiant heat. Los Angeles ranked first among all U.S. metro areas, with roughly 250,000 properties in the highest tier and more than $200 billion in replacement value. A home can be hardened to the highest standard and still be rated on the roofs and vegetation around it.
Aerial imagery is refreshed on a schedule, not on your construction timeline. A parcel photographed in spring as a cleared lot can carry that image into a renewal decision the following winter. Mitigation that the model did not see is mitigation that did not happen, as far as the score is concerned.
You cannot change what the neighborhood looks like from the air. You can change whether there is a dated, verifiable record of what your own lot looks like on the ground.
Sources: Cotality 2026 Wildfire Conflagration Risk Report, as reported in the Santa Monica Mirror; California Department of Insurance wildfire model filings.
Both were introduced in February 2026 by State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Pasadena) and are co-sponsored by the Every Fire Survivor's Network and Consumer Watchdog.
| Bill | What it does | Status |
|---|---|---|
| SB 1076 Insurance Coverage for Fire-Safe Homes Act |
Requires insurers to offer and renew homeowners coverage for any home that meets wildfire safety standards set by the Insurance Commissioner (home hardening and defensible space). Authorizes a five-year bar from the California home and auto markets for insurers that refuse. Would take effect January 1, 2028. | In the Legislature, 2026 session. |
| SB 1301 | Addresses non-renewal notices that arrive with no documentation of the reason and no clear path for the homeowner to fix it. | In the Legislature, 2026 session. |
Read them together and the shape is clear. If SB 1076 becomes law, the carrier's obligation is triggered by the home meeting a standard. The homeowner's job becomes showing that it does, on a date, in a form the carrier cannot wave off. If SB 1301 becomes law, the carrier has to tell you why. Either way, the conversation turns on evidence.
Sources: California Legislative Information (SB 1076, SB 1301); Senator Pérez press release, February 18, 2026; Consumer Watchdog. Bill status changes; check leginfo.legislature.ca.gov for the current version before relying on any provision.
SB 1076 leaves the standard to the Commissioner. The reference point most observers expect is the state's existing Safer from Wildfires framework, which already defines the mitigation insurers must recognize in pricing. Its structure-level items:
Every item on that list is visible from the ground and none of them is reliably visible from the air. That is the whole problem, and the whole opportunity.
Source: California Department of Insurance, Safer from Wildfires.
Whether the request comes from an underwriter writing a new policy, a renewal reviewer, or a reconsideration after a drop, the evidence question is the same three parts:
Phone photos answer the first question. A dated, GPS-located, tamper-evident record answers all three. That is not a guarantee of any outcome; it is the difference between an assertion and evidence.
Sealed Home Record is a guided walkthrough that produces a GPS-located, timestamped, cryptographically sealed record of your home's exterior condition: roof, vents, the first five feet, eaves, defensible space. It cannot be backdated or altered after capture, and anyone you send it to can verify it without trusting you or us.
Free, open now. One click, no card.
Claim your free record$69 a year.
Start my recordAbout an hour on a Saturday; the walkthrough tells you where to stand and what to shoot. A sealed record is documentation. It does not promise an insurance outcome and we do not guarantee one.
Document the finished exterior. If you want a construction record as well, capture at rough framing and again at completion; the seal dates each set.
Yes. A dated record of a cleared, mitigated lot is evidence for the parcel, and the offer covers standing and rebuilt homes alike.
The free offer is 91001 only, drawn at the zip line for simplicity. Everyone else starts a record at the standard price.
No. It gives you evidence for a reconsideration request, and documentation for the next carrier's underwriter. Outcomes depend on your home and the carrier's model.
No. It is an independent documentation service operated by Fenris LLC. Not an insurer, adjuster, public adjuster, or claims consultant.
Because if SB 1076 passes, the first thing every carrier will say is "prove it," and Altadena should be the first place in the country where every rebuilt home already can.
Only you, and whoever you choose to send your evidence packet to. Photos are encrypted and never published.