MARKET STRESS

Wind, hail and hurricane deductibles: which one applies, and when

Which storm deductible applies depends on what the policy or the state calls the event, not on how hard the wind blew. Most states leave the trigger to the policy form. Florida, Rhode Island and Maryland write it into law with three different clocks, and New Jersey and New York describe it in regulator guidance. A Maryland homeowner whose county was never under a hurricane warning can owe nothing extra from the same storm that triggers a 5 percent deductible two counties away.

General information, not legal or insurance advice. The rules below were read on October 23, 2026 for the five states named; other states may differ and were not checked. Dollar examples use a $300,000 dwelling limit and are illustrations, not quotes. Flood insurance is separate from a homeowners policy.

Three names, three different meanings, one declarations page

Policies use three overlapping labels, and mixing them up is how a homeowner learns the difference at claim time. An all-peril deductible is the ordinary flat amount that applies to most covered losses. A wind or hail deductible is a separate amount, flat or a percentage of the dwelling limit, that applies whenever those perils cause the loss. A hurricane or named-storm deductible is also separate, but it applies only inside a defined event window. New Jersey's Department of Banking and Insurance describes the first split plainly in its homeowner guide: an optional windstorm or hail deductible is separate from the all-peril deductible, lowers the premium, and can be a fixed dollar amount or a percentage of Coverage A up to 10 percent. Hurricane deductibles, it says, apply only to losses in an event designated a hurricane by the National Weather Service, and only if sustained winds of 74 mph have been measured anywhere in New Jersey.

That one sentence contains three separate tests, and each can fail independently: the storm must be designated, the wind must be measured at a stated speed, and the place of measurement is the state, not your street. Other states use different tests. The next table lines up what each rule we read actually switches on.

The clock table

Two more places belong beside the table without being rows. Massachusetts's residual market, the MPIUA, uses a named-storm window of 12 hours before the first National Weather Service watch or warning for any part of the state to 12 hours after the last is lifted; that rule applies to MPIUA policies, not to every Massachusetts policy, and our FAIR plan guide covers it. And Kentucky's consumer announcement does not set a trigger at all. It warns that insurers offer higher wind and hail deductibles, generally as a percentage of the home's value, to hold premiums down, and that homeowners were not always aware their policies had changed.

Florida counts the year, not the storm

Florida's rules are the most detailed because the statute reaches the policy form. Section 627.701(3)(a) requires an insurer, before issuing a personal lines residential property policy, to offer hurricane deductibles of $500, 2 percent, 5 percent and 10 percent of the policy dwelling limits, with exceptions that depend on the limit. For a dwelling limit of $250,000 or more the insurer need not offer the $500 option, and for limits from $1 million up to $3 million it may offer 3 percent in place of 2 percent. The written offer must say which deductible applies if the applicant makes no choice. A policy with a separate hurricane deductible must carry, on its face and in bold type no smaller than 18 points, the statement that the policy contains a separate deductible for hurricane losses which may result in high out-of-pocket expenses, and the insurer must print the actual dollar value of the hurricane deductible on the declarations page at issuance and renewal, section 627.701(4).

The part most owners miss is the calendar. Under section 627.701(5)(a), for personal lines policies issued or renewed on or after May 1, 2005, the hurricane deductible applies on an annual basis to all covered hurricane losses in the calendar year, including losses under more than one policy issued by the same insurer or insurer group. If an earlier hurricane in the same year produced a loss, the insurer may apply to a later hurricane the greater of the remaining part of the hurricane deductible or the deductible that applies to other perils. Where there are hurricane losses on more than one policy from the same group, the highest stated hurricane deductible applies. A homeowner who moves to a lower hurricane deductible at renewal after a hurricane loss must be told in writing that the lower amount does not apply until January 1 of the following calendar year.

The statute also treats the roof separately. Section 627.701(10) lets an insurer include a separate roof deductible, but only if it meets conditions: the roof deductible may not exceed the lesser of 2 percent of the Coverage A limit or 50 percent of the cost to replace the roof; the premium must include an actuarially sound credit; it applies only to a claim adjusted on a replacement cost basis; and it does not apply to a total loss under the valued policy law, to a roof loss from a hurricane as defined in section 627.4025(2)(c), to a roof loss from a tree fall or other hazard that punctures the roof deck, or to a roof loss requiring the repair of less than 50 percent of the roof. When a roof deductible is applied, no other deductible may be applied to that loss. That structure matters in a claim, because the first question about a Florida roof is whether the wind came from a declared hurricane, and our guide to how insurers decide between roof repair and replacement picks up the next question.

Maryland draws the line at the county

Maryland's rule is written as a limit on the insurer. COMAR 31.08.13.04 says an insurer may apply a percentage deductible to a covered loss if the loss was sustained while a hurricane warning was in effect, or within 24 hours after the last warning ended, for the part of the State where the residential property is located, and the definitions make "part of the State" mean the county, with Baltimore City treated as a county. The chapter applies only to policies issued under an underwriting standard that requires a percentage deductible, and its definition of "other storm" lists hail storms, snow storms, thunderstorms, tornadoes and wind storms. An insurer that wants a required percentage above 5 percent must file the underwriting standard and get the Commissioner's approval, with a 60-day review period.

The Maryland Insurance Administration's Bulletin 14-19 FAQs turn the text into situations, and they are the clearest statement of the county test we found. If the insurer required a 1 percent all-perils deductible and a 3 percent hurricane deductible and the county was not under a warning, the insurer cannot apply either required percentage to a loss from the storm. If both required deductibles exist and the county is under a warning, the insurer may apply one or the other but not both; the MIA's reasoning is that applying both would effectively require a 6 percent deductible on a single peril. Required percentage deductibles for tornadoes and winter storms can be applied only when a hurricane warning is in effect for the county. A warning does not need hurricane-force winds measured in Maryland first, and an optional all-perils percentage deductible, one the insured chose, is outside the restriction. If a required hurricane percentage cannot be applied, an all-perils flat dollar deductible, or an optional percentage one, may be applied instead.

Rhode Island: a warning window, a mitigation exemption and one scope trap

Rhode Island's section 27-76-2 applies to policies issuing or renewing on or after July 1, 2008. Under subsection (c), an insurer may apply a deductible specific to windstorm coverage only where the director specifically approved it and it does not exceed 5 percent of the insured value. It applies to losses due to a hurricane during the period starting when the National Hurricane Center issues a hurricane-warning bulletin for any part of the state and ending 24 hours after the last bulletin ends. On Block Island, a loss counts as due to a hurricane when hurricane-force sustained winds are reported there by the National Weather Service, and the same test applies to the rest of the state using any other location. The deductible must be explained with at least two examples, and subsection (c)(4) says it may not be applied to an insured who has installed approved mitigation measures if the insurer has inspected or been given satisfactory proof of installation.

One clause in the same section is easy to over-read. Subsection (e) is a different setting: it lists the conditions under which an insurer may require mitigation measures as a condition of the policy, and one of those conditions, (e)(3), is that no mandatory deductible for windstorm damage shall be included in the policy. That is a condition on an insurer-required mitigation program, not a general ban on windstorm deductibles, which subsection (c) expressly permits within its limits. Read the two subsections separately: (c) sets the limits on a windstorm deductible, and (e)(3) matters only where an insurer is imposing a mitigation program.

New York and New Jersey: where the trigger lives

Neither state, in the sources we read, prints one trigger for the whole market. New York's Department of Financial Services publishes a table of approved independent mandatory hurricane deductibles, revised as of December 13, 2019, listing each company's percentage, territory and trigger. The triggers it lists differ in kind. Some apply the percentage to windstorm losses within 12 hours before or after landfall of a declared Category 2, 3, 4 or 5 hurricane, and keep a fixed-dollar all-other-perils deductible for a Category 1 storm. Others key on a 74 mph hurricane and others on a 96 mph Category 2 hurricane, and the territories differ, with percentages concentrated in the downstate counties and the Long Island shore. We have not named insurers because the table is a filing record, not a ranking, and the practical lesson is that two New York neighbors can have the same storm and different triggers.

New Jersey's guide places the rule in the policy and the weather record. The hurricane deductible, it says, applies only to losses that occur during an event designated a hurricane, only if sustained 74 mph winds were measured anywhere in the state, and the common percentages of Coverage A are 1, 2, 5 or 10 percent. It also gives a worked example of a $200,000 home with a 2 percent deductible, which is $4,000, and a $500,000 home with 5 percent, which is $25,000. The guide adds that because hurricane deductible programs vary, a homeowner should ask how any deductible would apply in their own situation, and that reducing the hurricane damage risk, for example with hurricane shutters, may reduce or remove the deductible.

A stacked loss, worked on a $300,000 dwelling

The table below runs four invented but realistic claims through the rules. Inputs: a $300,000 Coverage A limit, a 2 percent hurricane deductible ($6,000) and a $1,000 flat deductible for other perils. Only Florida's calendar rule and Maryland's county test are applied, because they are the two with text precise enough to compute from.

The Florida rows show something the declarations page does not: the same $6,000 deductible can be spent across several storms, and the $4,000 loss that paid nothing is not wasted if the owner can show it. The Maryland rows show the opposite, that identical damage in two counties can differ by $9,000 in what the insurer pays. Neither is a forecast of a claim. They show why the sentence "I have a 2 percent hurricane deductible" is not a complete description of anything.

Hail and the roof: when a percentage meets an ACV schedule

Hail deductibles bring a second variable into the same sum, which is how the roof is paid. Kentucky's Division of Consumer Protection works the arithmetic in its wind and hail announcement. A home insured for $135,000 with a 2 percent wind and hail deductible owes $2,700 before the insurer pays for roof repair, so a $14,000 repair leaves the insurer paying $11,300. With a flat $2,000 deductible the insurer would pay $12,000. Where the roof is paid on an actual cash value basis, the announcement shows shingles 12 years old with a 20-year life taking 60 percent depreciation, so a $14,000 roof is paid at an actual cash value of $5,600 less the deductible.

Scale those numbers to the $300,000 limit used here and the effect is sharper. A 2 percent hail deductible is $6,000. On the same $14,000 repair paid at replacement cost, the insurer pays $8,000. Paid at the 12-of-20-year actual cash value, $5,600, the repair does not clear the $6,000 deductible, so the insurer pays nothing, and the owner pays the whole $14,000. The depreciation schedule belongs to the roof guides; our old-roof guide has the age table, and the percentage deductible guide covers the arithmetic of choosing between a flat and percentage option and the per-event versus per-season wording, so we do not repeat them.

The lender's ceiling

If your loan is sold to Fannie Mae, the percentage you choose has an upper bound. Selling Guide B7-3-02, dated August 5, 2026, sets the maximum deductible for all required perils on a one- to four-unit property at 5 percent of the property insurance coverage amount and says that if the policy has separate deductibles for different required perils, such as windstorm or wildfire, each individual deductible must stay within the cap. On a $300,000 dwelling limit that is $15,000. A Florida owner who accepted the 10 percent option, $30,000 on that limit, has chosen something a Fannie Mae loan would not accept, and Maryland's approval step for percentages above 5 percent makes the same point from the regulator's side. The guide does not say where other investors or loan programs set their limits, so ask the servicer rather than assuming.

The paper each rule says you should already hold

Each rule above comes with a disclosure duty, and the documents are a faster route to your own trigger than the statute. Pull them from the last renewal package before a storm is forecast.

Maryland's model statement is worth reading even if you live elsewhere, because it states the sum in the plainest form we found. Its example uses a $300,000 Coverage A limit and a 2 percent deductible, which is $6,000. On a covered loss of $25,000 to the dwelling and $10,000 to personal property, a total of $35,000, the policyholder pays $6,000 and the insurer pays $29,000. If the dwelling loss is $5,000, the policyholder pays all of it because the loss is smaller than the $6,000 deductible. The example does two things at once. It shows that the deductible is taken once from the combined covered loss, not once per coverage, and it shows that a small loss can disappear entirely. When your own package lacks anything like this, ask the insurer for the written example before the season starts.

To turn the dollar figure into a break-even, enter it in the deductible trade-off calculator. One habit follows from the three documents. Write three lines on the first page of your policy folder: the deductible in dollars, the event that triggers it as the policy words it, and the date the window opens and closes under that wording. If a carrier cannot supply those three lines in writing, you have found a gap worth closing at renewal, when a change of deductible or insurer costs nothing in lost claims.

What this table leaves out

Five states are not the market. We did not verify rules in the other states, and several large coastal markets are missing, including states where policy forms rather than statutes define the trigger and where percentages arrive through endorsements. We also did not verify some commonly repeated claims, for example that triggers always run from a watch, that deductibles are always applied once a season, or what proportion of policies carry a separate wind deductible. Where a claim has no rule behind it on this page, assume the policy language controls and read it. The line to read is on your declarations page, the endorsement it points to, and the definitions section that defines "hurricane" or "named storm" for that endorsement.

When a windstorm drops a tree on the roof, a percentage deductible sits on top of small tree removal limits. The fallen tree guide works the same claim under a flat and a 2 percent windstorm deductible.

Storm deductible FAQ