The evidence list — and why it matters to a board

Regulation 5-1-28 enumerates what an insurer must be willing to consider as evidence of mitigation, and this is the passage that changes what an association's paperwork is worth:

receipts and photographs of property-specific work; “county, local municipalities' or community-level mitigation certificates of completion”; inspection reports from fire departments, certified wildfire inspectors, or state or local compliance programmes; and “letters, reports, certifications from HOA, wildfire councils, or mitigation contractors.”

An association that runs a fuel-reduction programme and issues its members a signed letter documenting it is, from October 1, 2026, generating a document a Colorado insurer must review. That is a materially different position from the one the state's own market study described, where “mitigation investments rarely translate into premium discounts” because the models could not see community work.

The clocks

Notice timing. The wildfire notice must go out with new policies effective, and renewal offers sent, on or after October 1, 2026 — to applicants within 15 days of a completed application, to existing policyholders in the renewal offer, and, for anyone being non-renewed because of their wildfire score or classification, the score or classification must be included in the non-renewal notice.

Evidence review. Where a policyholder submits evidence of completed property-specific or community-level mitigation, the insurer must review it and, if applicable, update the score or classification within 30 days of receipt. If it declines, it must explain in writing within 30 days.

Appeals. Section 5.G is unusually detailed. Written notice of the right to appeal, with an electronic submission method. At least 30 days from receipt to appeal. Appeals may be limited to once per policy period. Written acknowledgment within 10 calendar days. Written decision within 30 calendar days, including the information reviewed and a detailed explanation. If the appeal window runs past policy expiration, coverage continues at least 10 calendar days after the decision is communicated. A favourable change applies retroactively to the current policy effective date; an unfavourable one cannot take effect until the following renewal. And if the evidence is insufficient, the insurer must say what is missing and allow another 30 days.

Non-compliance may draw civil penalties, cease and desist orders, or suspension or revocation of licence.

What Regulation 5-1-29 adds

5-1-28 is the consumer-facing half. 5-1-29 is the half that runs at the Division, and it is why the first half may actually bite.

From January 1, 2027 an insurer must file, for each model type used: a completed Model Type Questionnaire; an explanation if supplemental company-specific, regional or countrywide data is used; actuarial justification for wildfire rating differentials, demonstrating that the factor selections are consistent with the model output or explaining why they differ; a clear explanation of how the model is used in underwriting decisions including eligibility requirements; and explicit explanations of how the model accounts for property-specific, community-level and state-wide mitigation, identifying which rating factors each affects.

For premium-based or experience-based mitigation it must file exhibits showing the impact of property-specific and community-level mitigation on actual and expected losses and on base premium, for each discount — and, for each one, “explain why the specific mitigation action, standard, certification, or program was selected.” Third-party vendor and external-data requirements apply where outside models or resources are used.

In short: a carrier that cannot document where community mitigation sits in its model now has to say so to the regulator, in a rate filing.

What to do, and one sourcing warning

Before the October 1 renewal season: assemble the association's mitigation file — project dates, acreage, contractor, invoices, before-and-after photographs — and any county, municipal or community-level certificate of completion. Then draft the standard association letter, because the regulation names it.

Check the carrier's website once the rule is live. The discounts, their range or maximum, and the appeal process must be posted, which lets a board price mitigation work before commissioning it.

Diary the appeal clocks: 10 days to acknowledge, 30 to decide, 30 more if evidence is insufficient, retroactive effect if you win.

One warning for anyone reading the rule themselves: a stale draft of Regulation 5-1-28 is still posted on the Division's own site, marked “DRAFT Proposed New Regulation” with a February 14, 2026 effective date. That is not the adopted text. The adopted version's own Section 8 reads “This regulation shall be effective October 1, 2026,” and the Division links it from its adopted-but-not-yet-effective page.

Set expectations honestly

The Division's own figures put the potential annual saving from wildfire mitigation at $3 to $25, against $82 to $387 for hail mitigation, and it drew the conclusion itself that the “lack of available discounts for wildfire mitigation work” means “other solutions, like increased authority to mandate discounts or reinsurance solutions, must be considered.”

So these rules are unlikely to move a Colorado association's premium much. Their value is in availability — being offered a policy at all, and being able to see and contest the score that produced a non-renewal. On the evidence of the state's market study, that is the scarcer commodity.