ISO Rating

You know that your community’s fire department can prevent your home from burning down, but did you know that its overall quality and performance can affect the cost of your homeowners’ insurance?  How the insurance companies calculate risk depends on the company and their assessment of your community’s fire department.   Many insurance companies rely on the Insurance Services Office (ISO) Public Protection Class (PPC) information to help establish premiums for fire insurance.  The ISO is a private company that markets this information to the insurance industry.  ISO bases its ratings on periodic visits to fire departments, where evaluators assess manpower, level of training, equipment, availability of water and dispatching capabilities.  Based on a 1-10 scale (a “1” being the most exemplary), ratings are assigned to each community on the basis of three factors:  (1) 50 percent of the score looks at the fire department, including staffing, training, geographic distribution of fire stations and adequacy of equipment; (2) 40 percent of the score takes into account the fire department’s water supply; and (3) 10 percent of the score measures the efficiency of emergency communications, such as the 911 system and the number of dispatchers.

Courtland Fire Department is currently rated a 7 out of 10.  Generally, the ISO rating is reviewed about every 10 years.  Some insurance companies do not use ISO ratings in their calculations of premiums, while others use the ISO rating along with a number of other factors such as the age of a home and the type of roof.  To compare our ISO rating with fire departments across the state of Michigan please visit isomitigation.com.