Home insurance nonrenewal: what to do

Nonrenewal is not cancellation

• Nonrenewal: the policy runs to the end of its term and then stops. You are covered in the meantime, and states require advance written notice, commonly 30 to 60 days.
• Cancellation: the policy ends mid-term, which insurers can generally only do for narrow reasons such as non-payment or material misrepresentation.

A nonrenewal notice is a deadline, not an emergency. What matters is using the notice period rather than discovering the problem the week coverage ends.

Why it happens

• The carrier is pulling back from your area, typically wildfire, hurricane, hail or flood exposure. This has nothing to do with you.
• Claims history, often two or more claims in a few years, even small ones.
• The property itself: roof age, outdated wiring, an old oil tank, a pool without a fence, a trampoline.
• Vacancy, or the house becoming a rental without the policy being changed. That one has its own page.

The letter must state a reason. Read it carefully, because the reason determines whether this is fixable.

What to do first

• Diarise the end date the day the letter arrives, and work backwards from it.
• Call and ask what would change the decision. A roof replacement, removing a hazard, or raising the deductible sometimes reverses it.
• Ask whether another company in the same group would write you. Large insurers often have a second carrier with different appetite.
• Get your claims history, the CLUE report, and check it for claims that were never paid or never yours. Errors happen, and they price you.
• Do not let coverage lapse. A gap makes the next policy harder and dearer, and breaches your mortgage.

Shopping with a nonrenewal on record

• Use an independent agent who writes several carriers, including regional ones. They know which appetites match your situation.
• Be straight about the reason. It will surface anyway, and a surprise later is worse than a disclosure now.
• Expect to pay more, and consider a higher deductible to bring the premium back down.
• Fix what you can fix first. A new roof or updated wiring changes the conversation.
• Ask about bundling with auto, which sometimes opens a door that a standalone policy does not.

FAIR plans and the last resort

If the private market will not write you, most states run a FAIR plan, an insurer of last resort created to cover properties nobody else will.

• Cover is usually narrower and the premium higher.
• Many FAIR plans cover fire and a limited set of perils, sometimes without liability or theft, so people pair them with a separate policy for the rest.
• Treat it as temporary. Re-shop the standard market every year, especially after improvements.
• Flood is still excluded, as it is everywhere. That needs its own policy.

Your lender will notice

Your servicer is told when a policy ends. If nothing replaces it, they buy force-placed cover and add it to your payment, at several times the market rate, covering their interest rather than your possessions or your liability.

Send the new policy to the servicer as soon as it is issued, and check the escrow figure the following month.

Common questions