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What is a Protection Class?

By May 19, 2021Insurance

If you look on your homeowners, landlord, or mobile home policy declarations page, somewhere you will find the Protection Class (PC). So what does this mean and how does this affect your insurance rate?

Protection Class

Simply put, your Protection Class is a rating from 1 to 10 that represents municipal fire-protection efforts in communities throughout the United States. Lower numbers generally reflect superior fire protection.

“By classifying communities’ ability to suppress fires, ISO helps the communities evaluate their public fire-protection services. The program provides an objective, countrywide standard that helps fire departments in planning and budgeting for facilities, equipment, and training. And by securing lower fire insurance premiums for communities with better public protection, the PPC program provides incentives and rewards for communities that choose to improve their firefighting services.”

Source: www.isomitigation.com/ppc

Affects On Insurance

A general way to think of Protection Class is “in town or out of town.”

  • Do you have fire hydrants on your street ?
  • Is your responding fire department within five miles?

These two questions are important in determining your protection class. Most insurance carriers will automatically find your Protection Class when validating the property address.

For example, our office is located on 13 Radford St, Christiansburg, VA 24073. We are in Christiansburg town limits. Our properties’ protection class is 5. Most in-town locations in Christiansburg are a class 5, but again this is dependent on your specific address.

Protection Class is one of many factors that goes into your insurance premium. That’s why it’s important to work with an Independent Agent who represents multiple carriers to help compares rates and available coverages.

It is important to note that some insurance carries do not offer products in higher protection classes. For example, a owner occupied homeowners policy with a protection class of 10 is not eligible with every homeowners carrier in Virginia.