Live CAL FIRE + FEMA · California
One record per California property. The homeowner photographs the wildfire mitigation work; the agent reviews the documents and sends underwriting the evidence packet. Pick your side.
I place the policy
Your whole book on the severity map, with homeowner submissions queued for review. Invite a client in one click.
Start a property fileSign in · free tier, no card required
I own the house
Create your free workspace, then collect photos and documents with your phone. Your agent reviews the evidence; your insurer decides coverage.
Free, with no card to enter · The homeowner page
California requires insurers to discount homes that do specific safety work. The incentive exists. What's missing is a standard way to show what a house has actually done.
Priya's insurer declines to renew, not for anything she did, but because her whole area is now rated too risky. Four more say no before she finishes describing the house. Her mortgage requires coverage.
She has already done the work. New Class A roof. Ember-resistant vents. Five feet cleared around the walls. None of it is visible to anyone deciding her case.
Ravi knows the house is a good risk. To prove it he checks a state fire map, then a separate federal flood map, recalls which measures qualify, chases photos and receipts, and assembles something an underwriter will accept.
Then he calls carrier after carrier, and if they decline he documents that he tried, because state law requires that record before the specialty market is an option.
A 35-second walkthrough: look up a California address, get its Fire Hazard Severity Zone and FEMA flood zone, work the Safer from Wildfires mitigation checklist, collect the proof behind each action, and hand underwriting one file.
Thousands spent hardening the house. To an underwriter, still a red dot. Start with the address. CAL FIRE and FEMA, looked up live. The packet so far, and what is still missing. CAL FIRE's own polygons, with the five, thirty and hundred foot zones to scale. Then the eleven actions the state credits, documented or not. The homeowner uploads. You decide what counts, or ask for better and say why. Across your book: who is done, who is waiting. One file underwriting will accept.
An address goes in. A professional evidence file comes out.
Type the address. CertiDwell queries CAL FIRE for the Fire Hazard Severity Zone and FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer for the flood zone. Live government sources, not a cached copy.
The Safer from Wildfires measures the state recognises: Class A roof, ember-resistant vents, the critical first five feet. Sourced from the Department of Insurance's own guidance, grouped the way they group them.
Mark each measure, attach the photo or contractor invoice, tag what kind of proof it is. Every upload is checked for duplicates, low resolution, stale photo dates and whether an invoice actually mentions the thing it's meant to evidence.
Built for the agent, who feels this daily and repeatedly.
A structured evidence file, a review queue and fewer follow-ups for missing documents.
A concrete list of what to do next, and credit for the work already paid for.
A consistent, complete file in a predictable order, instead of a scattered email chain.
An agent may place real coverage off this output, so the boundaries are stated plainly here and everywhere in the product.
Priced by how much each tier changes the outcome. Documentation convenience is worth less than changing which carrier the client lands with.
| Tier | Price | What it adds | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | One new agent property assessment; free homeowner collaboration; existing files stay accessible | Built |
| Pay-per-report | $20 per report, $15 in the 10-pack | Additional new property assessments, with ongoing access to their evidence files | Built |
| Book management | $39 per agent / month | Client list, renewal and IBHS recertification deadlines, daily digest | Built |
| Placement intelligence | $99 per agent / month | Carrier matching, IBHS pathway, diligent-search documentation | PlannedRegister interest |
| Agency scale | $199 per agency / month | Integrations, multi-seat, bulk screening | PlannedRegister interest |
Tiers marked Planned are not for sale. You can register interest in one, which tells us what to build next and buys, reserves and charges nothing. Placement intelligence is planned rather than built because carrier matching and inspector referral still run on sample rules. Enter actual renewal or non-renewal deadlines, or import dates for existing properties. Book management labels any fallback estimate clearly; nothing is read from a carrier. Report credits and subscriptions are bought through Stripe Checkout, so your card is charged at checkout and card details never reach our server. A deployment that is not billing for real says so on the plans page before any card is entered.
What agents ask before they trust a document to an underwriter.
No. CertiDwell does not price or bind coverage and is not an insurer. It gathers the hazard facts and mitigation evidence a licensed agent or broker needs, and the agent places the policy.
A Fire Hazard Severity Zone describes mapped wildfire hazard, classified as Moderate, High or Very High. CertiDwell queries CAL FIRE for this context. Insurers use their own risk models; this is not their underwriting score.
A California regulation listing the mitigation measures insurers must recognise, such as a Class A fire-rated roof, ember-resistant vents, and clearing the first five feet around the structure. CertiDwell tracks all eleven measures and the proof attached to each.
No. Every measure on the Safer from Wildfires list qualifies for a discount under California Insurance Code section 2644.9, but the size of that discount is set by each insurer, and eligibility remains the insurer's decision.
No. The Wildfire Prepared Home designation is granted by IBHS and its approved independent evaluators. CertiDwell is not affiliated with or endorsed by IBHS; it shows how close a property is to the standard and what evidence is still missing.
Before placing California business in the surplus lines market, an agent must document that they genuinely tried the admitted market first. CertiDwell records each declination and produces that report as the agent's own record. It is not a regulatory filing and is not submitted to any authority.
California wildfire today, with FEMA flood zone lookup alongside it. Coverage of other states and perils is not built yet.
Evidence checklist · Photo guide · Hazard maps and insurance · Renewal preparation · Sample packet
The background, in plain English and free to read — no account, no download.
Check a property's fire and flood zones, and see the checklist behind it. The free tier costs nothing.
