INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. – After a gamut of increasing premiums and a notice of non-renewal, the McCloud Condo Association in Incline Village ventured to try something new this year when it came to insurance. The result yielded a 33% premium reduction.

The association worked with RockRose Risk, a new company within this last year that is redefining how property coverage works in high-risk areas.

Andrew Engler, CEO and founder of RockRose Risk, knew from his 20-year background in insurance that wildfires were very misjudged with ratings done at a zip code level or higher. He sought to create a better model.

RockRose Risk does a full site assessment, starting with a macro-view of area fuels reduction projects and then zooming in on the mitigations and home hardening done at the individual property level.

Taking those into consideration, RockRose Risk then advocates for clients with insurance carriers to negotiate cheaper premiums.

“We’d like to give them a big discount back so they can continue to pay to do this mitigation, and, in that way, everyone wins,” Engler says, explaining insurance companies lose less money, property owners are paying less for insurance and more mitigation gets done.

Also within the company’s site reports are recommendations, which if implemented, could result in continued discounts and long-term protection.

For the McCloud Condo Association, RockRose Risk’s approach took the HOA’s over $1 million policy down to around $900,000 in the first year for the same level of coverage.

That places over $400,000 back into property owners’ pockets for further mitigation and savings. Having already cleared areas and created defensible space, the association’s work is finally being reflected in its premium.

The premium was also influenced by mitigations done around three miles away at the Fire Smart Community Pilot in the Tyrolian Village.

“It’s reassuring to know that the market is responding to an expensive problem,” Kate Dargan Marquis, Co-Chair of the McCloud Insurance Committee and condo owner said, who has witnessed their HOA fee double in recent years due to rising premiums.

“We had to do a rapid increase in homeowner assessments,” she recalled, “in order to cover a bill that was immediately due.”

As the Caldor, Tamarack, and Dixie fires, to name a few, burned in and around Tahoe in recent years, McCloud Condo Association’s insurance premiums, which used to be around $155,000 per year, quickly and dramatically rose.

“It was kind of, let’s call it,” Dargan Marquis said, “a knee-jerk reaction to the fires.”

The HOA eventually received a notice of nonrenewal.

In the scramble to secure some type of coverage following the notice, they agreed to more limited coverage and higher premiums.

“But maybe the risk really wasn’t as dire as what the sky-high rates suggested,” Dargan Marquis said, nodding towards the impetus behind the HOA’s exploration.

So, the HOA got to work, first forming an insurance committee bolstered by many HOA members who had critical knowledge and background in insurance and wildfire.

Dargan Marquis herself is a retired California State Fire Marshall and Gregory Schilz, co-chair of the insurance committee, is a commercial insurance broker with four decades of experience. The effort was facilitated by board chair, Julia Nickles-Bryan leading the board’s decision-making process.

The extensive multi-month process of researching, assessing, and eventually presenting RockRose Risk’s assessment to the board led the way for navigating insurance differently in the Tahoe region as the first HOA to utilize RockRose Risk’s new model.

“It’s always a little scary to be the first one,” Dargan Marquis said, “but the evidence was pretty compelling.”

Dargan Marquis credits North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District for its wildfire mitigation work since the late eighties, from fuel breaks, prescribed burns, vegetation management, evacuation exercises and now to retrofitting buildings.

“This is one of the last big steps in the community-wide resiliency,” Dargan Marquis said, “So I think that’s one of the pieces I’m really excited about. This is not just a new project, but a continuum of many that have gone on for literally decades in Incline Village.”

Over this next year, McCloud Condo Association plans on taking a portion of its savings and reinvesting in home hardening on the property’s gutters, eaves, decks and skirting to prevent ember intrusion. Additionally, the HOA will be developing a long-term risk mitigation plan.

Though the insurance policy might just cover the McCloud Condos, the association hopes it has laid the groundwork for influence that goes beyond its property line.

“I’m hoping that leading by example helps people choose to take responsibility,” Dargan Marquis says, “and that the fire department can take advantage of that to improve wildfire resiliency for the entire community.”