You finally found that perfect new home or property! It's everything you imagined, and more. Of course, it's beautiful. It also fits your budget. The interest rate is good, and the property taxes are fair. What's not to love?
Photo by Daniel Holland on Unsplash
You're Already in Love, But...
Do you know how much it might cost to insure your new place? We've had the opportunity to help many customers with homeowners and farm and ranch coverage for their new properties. And one of the driving costs of this coverage is something you probably haven't considered - how far away your new home is from the local fire department, and what that fire department's Public Protection Classification, or PPC score is.
PPC... What?
The PPC program is used in all 50 states in the U.S., and shows how well your community fire department responds to first-alarm structure fires and fire mitigation. The scoring system is based on a Fire Suppression Rating Schedule (FSRS) used by the Insurance Services Office, also known as ISO Mitigation.
Communities get a PPC score from 1 to 10.
1 means the community has superior property fire protection.
10 means the community’s fire protection efforts don’t meet ISO’s minimum criteria.
A low PPC score means a safer community, and shows that the community is working to provide fire protection for property owners and citizens.
PPC Score and Your Insurance Costs
Remember - the lower the PPC score, the better.
Recently, we helped a customer insure their new ranch. The responding fire department was rated a 10 and this customer's new property was over 5 miles from the fire station. This caused the insurance premium to be roughly double what it would be if the PPC score was 5! Yikes!
Most home and business insurers use PPC scores to determine insurance premiums. Businesses and individuals in a community with a good PPC score typically pay less for fire insurance.
Call Us BEFORE You Fall In Love
As always, we are here to help you with your insurance needs! We can also help by researching the insurance costs in areas you're considering for your new purchase. Finding that perfect place in a community with a low PPC score? Well, what's not to love?
A high PPC score doesn't have to be a deal breaker. Learn more about the PPC Program here.
And do let us know how we can help with your new or existing property coverage.