The Insurance Services Office (ISO) recently surveyed the City of Bainbridge and Bainbridge Public Safety. The city received a Public Protection Classification of four.
“What that means is that people’s [homeowners] insurance rates will stay low,” said Bainbridge City Manager Chris Hobby at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. “The ISO rating directly affects your homeowners insurance rate because of the risk category. The lower the category, the better off you are. We’re proud of our four and would like to get a three.”
The ISO completed an analysis of the structural fire suppression delivery system provided in Bainbridge. ISO’ PPC plays a role in the underwriting process at insurance companies. Many insurance companies use PPC information as part of their decision-making when deciding what business to write, coverage to offer or prices to change for personal or commercial property insurance.
PPC is important to communities and fire departments by providing a valuable benchmark, and is used by many departments as a valuable tool when planning, budgeting, and justifying fire protection improvements.
Hobby praised the work of multiple divisions of city staff, and BPS Chief Eric Miller singled out Major Doyle Welch for his contributions to the success of the survey.
“The efforts of the public services division and the public safety division showed,” Hobby said, “and we were able to maintain our class four rating, which, frankly, we were concerned about. But not only did we maintain our four, but we came within .7 of a point of getting a three, so we feel like we can make a few tweaks and adjustments and possibly get that to a class three rating, which would be phenomenal.”
Hobby said that the dollar difference between classifications varies company-to-company, but that the difference between a class four and class three could be fairly significant.