How do you check home insurance before buying a California house?

You can learn most of what matters before you are in contract, from the listing, the seller and a few free public lookups.

Start before the offer, because the clock is short after it. The standard California purchase agreement is a contract form from the California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.), not a law. In its June 2026 version, the insurance contingency runs 17 days by default.

Look up the address on CAL FIRE's Fire Hazard Severity Zone map, at osfm.fire.ca.gov/fhsz. Maps for the land the state protects took effect April 1, 2024.

CAL FIRE sent recommended maps for cities and counties in February and March 2025, and each city or county adopts its zones by ordinance. So confirm the zone with the city or county too.

The zone decides which fire disclosures the seller owes you. It does not decide your insurance. In a 2025 consumer alert, the Department of Insurance said insurers use wildfire risk models, "not the Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps."

So a low zone is no promise, and a high one is no verdict. What your fire zone does and does not decide explains the difference.

Not on your own. A home's claims history report is known as a CLUE report. State insurance regulators explain that under the federal FACT Act, only the owner, the insurer or the lender can get one.

So ask the seller to order it and share it. The CLUE report covers up to seven years of home claims, and the owner can get one free copy every 12 months.

The standard purchase agreement covers claims too. In its June 2026 version, the seller must disclose "known insurance claims within the past five years," or let you contact the insurer for them. That is due 7 days after acceptance by default, so ask for it before you offer.

If the seller's insurer sent a non-renewal notice, ask to see it. California law requires that notice to give "the specific reason or reasons for the nonrenewal."

Insurers look closely at roofs, sometimes from the air. In March 2025, the Department of Insurance said it had looked into complaints where insurers "used imprecise drone or satellite photos to assess roof conditions."

The roof's material counts too. The Department's Safer from Wildfires program counts a Class A fire-rated roof toward an insurance discount, and it notes that wood shake shingles are not Class A.

Ask the seller for the roof's age, its material and any permit, and get a roof inspection. How insurers treat roof age has the details.

Wiring now comes with a written warning. Since January 1, 2026, most home sellers must give buyers a notice that an inspection of the electrical system "may be advisable."

The rule skips a building sold within three years of its certificate of occupancy. The notice adds: "Substandard, recalled, or faulty wiring may cause a fire risk and may make it difficult to obtain property insurance."

Ask the seller about the electrical panel and any wiring upgrades before you offer. Then have an electrician inspect them during your inspection period.

AB 38's rule is Civil Code section 1102.19, which covers sales in high and very high fire hazard severity zones. Defensible space is the cleared and managed ground around a home.

Since July 1, 2021, the seller must "provide to the buyer documentation stating that the property is in compliance" with defensible space rules. That applies where a local ordinance requires the paperwork, or where an agency or qualified nonprofit offers inspections in the area. In the second case, the paperwork must be "obtained in the six-month period" before the seller "enters into a transaction to sell," so check its date.

If the seller has none, the statute says "the seller and the buyer shall enter into a written agreement" for the buyer to get it. Where a local ordinance applies, the buyer follows it. Where none does and inspections are offered, the buyer has one year after closing.

For a home in those zones built before January 1, 2010, the seller also owes a fire-hardening notice. It lists features that may make the home vulnerable to embers, such as a roof of untreated wood shingles or shakes. The seller marks the ones they know about.

Since July 1, 2025, that notice also lists low-cost retrofits and which ones were done while the seller owned the home.

Keep these papers. The Department of Insurance counts defensible space compliance as a Safer from Wildfires step that qualifies for a discount. Show the report when you ask about wildfire discounts.

Ask for a quote on the address before you offer. A quote shows who is willing to insure the home and what it will cost, which no public lookup can tell you.

Two public sources add context. The FAIR Plan, the state's fallback fire insurance program, publishes its policy counts by ZIP code.

Statewide, the Plan held 665,673 residential policies as of September 30, 2026, up from 265,909 on September 30, 2022. The Plan says its dwelling policies are for people "unable to purchase coverage with a traditional insurance company."

So a large or fast-growing count in the home's ZIP code is a sign to start your search early.

The Department of Insurance's Home Insurance Finder lists insurers that sell homeowners coverage by ZIP code or city, with a filter for higher fire risk areas. The Department notes that the companies listed "may not be able to accept new business."

Once your offer is accepted, the insurance contingency gives you a set time to decide whether the insurance works for you.