Nevada lawmakers make wildfire coverage optional

The changes stem from an uptick in disastrous wildfires.

A new Republican-led law—Assembly Bill 376—allowing homeowner insurance policies to exclude wildfire coverage went into effect this year, putting residents in high-stakes areas in increasingly vulnerable situations. Now, when buyers close on a house, they will have the option to purchase homeowners’ insurance without wildfire protection, as the new measure allows providers to offer the coverage à la carte.

Reno-based attorney Matthew Sharp, who represents homeowners in insurance claim cases, said the change is somewhat antithetical to homeowners’ insurance. He said the change comes as homeowners are progressively susceptible to disasters amid climate change. Despite the sensitive timing, the bill passed unanimously in both state houses.

“Your biggest risk if you own a home is the destruction of the home,” he said in an interview with The Nevadan-El Nevadense. “The primary way your home is destroyed is by a wildfire or a fire.”

The bill was created to address large corporate insurers pulling out of the state, particularly in Northern Nevada, because of wildfire risks, The Nevada Independent reports. In 2023, homeowner’s insurance cancellations rose more than 80%, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. In the same year, nearly 5,000 applications for homeowners’ insurance policies were similarly denied, a doubling from the previous year.

Lawmakers authorized the new experimental regulatory program emphasizing innovation and deregulation to expand home insurance options. Under the new scheme, insurers could circumvent existing state insurance codes to temporarily test new insurance products. 

It also allows insurance providers to increase rates up to a threshold set by the Nevada Commissioner of Insurance without undergoing a review process. 

For Sharp, the whole bill is concerning, considering “climate change and the expansion of people living in areas that Mother Nature never intended them to live.” But he agrees that something needed to be done to address the challenges of insuring homes in high-risk areas as fires become “hotter and more dangerous.”

He also cautioned against the new definition of wildfire: “an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of combustible vegetation that originated from outside any residential or commercial property.” The definition, which Sharp calls “so broad,” is also optional for providers under this new provision, allowing brokers to use their own definition with the Nevada Commissioner of Insurance’s approval.

“I’m not saying that there doesn’t need to be a discussion going on about how we deal with these issues that we’ve never had before?” he said. “They should be debated in public, not rushed through some bill … I just don’t think that’s good for the community.”

This article was updated at 3:30 p.m. on Feb. 9, 2026, to accurately reflect Matthew Sharp’s view of the policy as “somewhat antithetical to homeowners’ insurance.”