GUIDES: CATASTROPHE AND MARKET
Catastrophe risk and a shrinking market
The U.S. Treasury's Federal Insurance Office reported in January 2025 that nonrenewal rates in the riskiest fifth of ZIP Codes ran about 80 percent higher than in the safest fifth over 2018 to 2022. For homeowners in those places the hard question is no longer what a policy costs, but whether a regular policy is available at all.
The guides in this section deal with that situation. The nonrenewal guide turns the notice period into a plan, using the published rules from the Illinois and California insurance departments as worked examples of what a notice must contain and how long it must give. The Texas windstorm guide explains the coastal pool that sells wind and hail cover when private insurers will not, and the conditions it sets before it will. The flood guide covers the peril that neither a homeowners policy nor a windstorm pool includes.
The rule that runs through every page here is the same: residual markets exist to make a house insurable, not to make it fully insured, so read what each one excludes and arrange that coverage separately. Each guide states its sources and the date they were checked.
A practical order applies whatever the letter says. First, identify which document you received: a nonrenewal, a cancellation, or a renewal with changed terms each carries different rights. Second, check the date coverage ends and count the days, because every later step has to fit inside that window. Third, look at the flood question separately, since no homeowners or windstorm policy answers it and a flood policy usually needs time before it takes effect. Coastal and wildfire-exposed homes tend to meet all three problems in the same season, which is why these guides sit together.
Published rules and averages, not a quote and not legal advice. Your state's rules and your policy control.
Nonrenewal: the notice window
What to do between the letter and the end date: sort the reason, shop on an identical spec, appeal where the notice is defective, and avoid a lapse.
Texas windstorm coverage and TWIA
Who is eligible in the 14 coastal counties, the windstorm certificate, flood proof in V zones, and the hurricane cutoff on new policies.
Flood insurance is separate
Why rising water sits outside every standard homeowners policy, and the waiting period that makes timing matter.
Force-placed insurance
When a lapse or nonrenewal leaves the servicer buying coverage: the 45-day and 15-day notices, the refund rule and the escrow limit.
What a FAIR plan covers
The coverage gap between a fire-only FAIR plan policy and a full homeowners policy, five states compared, and the second policy that fills it.
Florida Citizens Property Insurance
The 20 percent eligibility test, the $700,000 cap, the flood requirement, the clearinghouse and takeout offers.
Is earthquake insurance worth it?
Put the 5 to 25 percent deductible in dollars first, then judge the coverage above it, with retrofit discounts and a three-quake example.
Nonrenewal notice rules by state
Eleven states from 30 to 120 days of notice, what a late notice does, and the review deadlines that are shorter than the shopping window.
Dropped after a claim
Cancellation or nonrenewal after a claim: the 60-day window, the short list of cancellation grounds, and which claims eleven states bar insurers from counting.
Wind, hail and hurricane deductibles
Which storm deductible applies and when: trigger rules from Florida, Rhode Island, Maryland, New Jersey and New York, and a stacked loss worked in dollars.
Basement flooding: which policy pays
Burst pipe, sewer backup, sump failure, seepage or area flood sorted by source of water across the homeowners policy, a backup endorsement and the NFIP.
Wildfire risk score appeals
What an insurer must disclose about a wildfire score and when: California's 15, 45, 75 and 30 day rules, the appeal clock, and Oregon and Colorado compared.
Wildfire smoke damage claims
A smoke claim on a house that did not burn: what California's regulator expects insurers to investigate and pay to test, and an evidence log.
Hurricane binding moratorium before closing
A storm froze binding before your closing: the Citizens and TWIA triggers, eight dated suspensions with their hours, flood timing, and a six-step decision rule.
When your home insurer is declared insolvent
Guaranty fund caps for 45 states and DC, why surplus lines policies fall outside, how unearned premium is refunded, and a $397,500 loss worked in dollars.
If your premium rose rather than disappeared, the renewal increase decoder is the better place to start. For a loss already in hand, see the claims guides, and for state published averages, the cost by state table.