 An irony is that Boyd bought this house because the previous owners had thoroughly retrofitted it, with things like a new roof, windows, and siding, to be fire-resistant, which should have made it more attractive to mainstream insurers, but none would write him a policy. He has a mortgage, though, so insurance is a requirement of the loan. That left me with a California Fair plan. Which is really expensive. It's going to be over $8,000 a year pretty quick.