The Utah Legislature tried to address the unaffordability or, for some, unavailability of home insurance last year.
The state created a program to inspect “high-risk” properties statewide and charge those properties a fee.
Its start date was supposed to be Jan. 1, but now lawmakers are giving state and local officials an extra year to implement it. House Bill 41, which Gov. Spencer Cox signed in March, moves the start date to Jan. 1, 2027.
Bill sponsor Rep. Thomas Peterson, R-Brigham City, says that’s to give time for cities and counties to petition the state to add or remove properties from the fee area.
“[The Division of] Forestry, Fire and State Lands has said they will work with the cities and counties to amend their maps, if it's indeed justified,” the representative said during a House committee hearing.
The program targets properties with buildings in the “high-risk wildland-urban interface,” or WUI, meaning those that straddle wilderness and development. The Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands has a map classifying certain properties as high-risk WUI.
That’s the map local governments can petition to amend this year.
Those properties will pay a fee into the new Utah Wildfire Fund, which is supposed to offset fire-related costs. The fee pays for inspections to make sure property owners are being firewise and maintaining their land.
The fee is expected to range from $20 to $100 annually, depending on the size of buildings on a given property and risk level. The state forester has more information on an online FAQ page.
