Colorado FAIR Plan: what it covers, what it costs, who qualifies

Does Colorado have a FAIR Plan?

Yes. Colorado has a FAIR Plan: the Colorado FAIR Plan Association, the state's insurer of last resort, created under HB23-1288 (signed May 12, 2023). Its Plan of Operation was approved by the Colorado Division of Insurance on July 26, 2024; it began accepting residential applications on April 10, 2025, with the first policies bound mid-2025 (Colorado General Assembly; Colorado FAIR Plan Association, verified May 2026).

It is an unincorporated public entity, not a state agency and not state-funded: every admitted property insurer writing in Colorado has to participate. It writes a basic, named-peril property policy for homes the voluntary market won't take, on a modified DP-1 form (CFP DP 00 01 01 25). The official site is coloradofairplan.com; the consumer line is (833) 554-5425.

A non-renewal notice is jarring after years with no claims, but it doesn't mean you're uninsurable. Coverage will be narrower than the homeowners policy you had, and probably more expensive; the rest of this page lays out the perils, the cap, eligibility, how to apply, and what a FAIR Plan realistically gives you.

What does the Colorado FAIR Plan cover, and what does it exclude?

The base policy covers two perils: fire and lightning. Everything else, including wind, hail, theft, water damage, and liability, is either an optional add-on or not available through the plan at all (United Policyholders, verified May 2026).

The contract is form CFP DP 00 01 01 25, a modified version of the ISO Dwelling Property Basic form (DP-1). That makes it a named-peril policy: only the perils listed on the form are covered, and the list is short. Losses pay out on an actual cash value (ACV) basis, meaning the depreciated value of the damaged property, not the cost to rebuild new. There is no replacement-cost option, no liability coverage, and no loss-of-use or additional living expenses (ALE) if your home is uninhabitable.

The optional 'extended coverage' endorsements you can add for an extra premium are: windstorm, hail, explosion, riot or civil commotion, vehicle damage, smoke, volcanic eruption, and vandalism or malicious mischief. Hail and vandalism are not in the base form; you must elect them.

What the plan does not cover at any price: theft, flood, and earthquake. If you need any of those, you handle them separately (alternatives are below).

Because of those gaps (no liability, no theft, no ALE, no replacement cost), consumer advocates at United Policyholders recommend pairing the plan with a difference-in-conditions (DIC) 'wrap' policy, typically written by a non-admitted excess and surplus (E&S) carrier (verified May 2026). The DIC fills in what the FAIR Plan leaves out. The wrap section below has the details.

How much will the Colorado FAIR Plan cover?

The Colorado FAIR Plan caps a residential policy at $750,000 total, and that figure is a combined dwelling-plus-contents limit, not a dwelling-only number (Colorado General Assembly, HB23-1288, verified May 11, 2026). If your home would cost $700,000 to rebuild, only $50,000 of the cap is left for everything inside it. Commercial buildings get a separate, much higher ceiling of $5,000,000.

That structure matters more in Colorado than in most FAIR Plan states. The cap was set by HB23-1288, signed May 12, 2023, and confirmed in the Plan of Operation; it has not been raised since. Rebuild costs along the Front Range and in the mountain counties have outrun it for a lot of homes, especially after the 2021 Marshall Fire pushed local construction prices up.

If your replacement cost is higher than $750,000, the FAIR Plan still issues a policy, it just stops paying at the cap. The standard fix is to pair it with a difference-in-conditions policy, often called a wrap, written by an excess and surplus lines carrier; that second policy fills the gap above the cap and adds back perils the FAIR Plan excludes. Coverage on the FAIR Plan itself is paid on a replacement-cost or actual-cash-value basis depending on the form and endorsements, a distinction worth understanding before you sign (see replacement cost vs actual cash value).

Who is eligible for the Colorado FAIR Plan?

Three admitted private insurers have to have declined to write you, and no admitted carrier can currently have an offer on the table, even an expensive one (Colorado FAIR Plan Association, verified May 2026). The plan is genuinely last-resort: a private offer at any price, however unaffordable, disqualifies you.

Your non-renewal letter counts as one of the three declinations. The other two usually come from an independent agent shopping you across the admitted market and getting written declines back. Keep every letter and email; the plan asks for the paper trail when you apply.

The property itself also has to meet the plan's underwriting and condition standards (Colorado FAIR Plan Association). The plan doesn't publish a detailed public checklist of those standards, so the practical way to find out whether your specific home clears is to have a licensed agent submit the application.

The public eligibility page doesn't separately spell out rules for owner-occupied homes versus rentals or investor-owned property. On that point, ask the plan or a licensed Colorado agent for the current rule before you apply.

How to apply for the Colorado FAIR Plan

You apply through a licensed Colorado insurance producer; the Colorado FAIR Plan Association does not sell directly to consumers (Colorado FAIR Plan Association, verified May 2026). The agent submits the application on your behalf and any quote, binder, and policy come back through them. If you already have an agent or broker, call them first.

If you don't have an agent or yours doesn't write plan business, the plan's customer-care line at (833) 554-5425 (Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Mountain Time) can refer you to a producer who does. The plan's consumer site at coloradofairplan.com is the canonical reference for application forms and notices; purchases route through an agent rather than a direct-buy portal, so there is no online self-application option.

The plan does not publish a public document checklist or a standard issue time. Your agent will collect the usual underwriting data for any Colorado homeowners application: address, year built, construction details, your estimated rebuild cost, prior carrier and your non-renewal notice, and a recent claims history. Ask for a written turnaround estimate at submission, and ask your agent to issue a binder the same day if your mortgage company needs proof of coverage before your old policy lapses.

What does the Colorado FAIR Plan cost?

Colorado FAIR Plan premium figures and rate filings aren't yet on the public record as of May 2026 (Colorado Division of Insurance). The Colorado FAIR Plan Association was enabled by HB23-1288 (signed May 12, 2023) and its board was appointed afterward; it has not yet published an annual report, an average-premium figure, or a rate filing the way longer-running state plans have. Any specific Colorado FAIR Plan dollar figure quoted by third-party explainers right now is unverified.

What is on the record across FAIR Plans generally: the plan is built as a true last resort, not a price-competitive alternative. The base policy covers fewer perils (named-peril fire and extended coverage), pays losses on an actual cash value basis rather than replacement cost, and leaves out liability and additional living expenses. To get coverage comparable to the standard HO-3 policy you were used to, you stack the FAIR Plan with a difference-in-conditions wrap and the missing endorsements. That stack usually costs more, often meaningfully more, than the standard-market policy you lost. A separate premium-jump explainer walks through the moving parts.

The first Colorado figures will likely surface in the plan's earliest annual filing with the Colorado Division of Insurance.

What's changed recently

The Colorado FAIR Plan Association is the newest residual-market property pool in the country, and the operating numbers (policies in force, total exposure, member-insurer assessments) are not yet on the public record. Here's what is:

The plan was created by HB23-1288, signed May 12, 2023; the board was appointed in January 2024; the Plan of Operation was approved July 26, 2024; and the plan began binding residential applications on April 10, 2025 (Colorado Sun / Colorado Division of Insurance, verified May 2026). By mid-July 2025, roughly three months in, it had bound "more than two dozen families" (Colorado Sun). As of this writing, no policies-in-force or total-exposure figure has been published, no member-insurer assessment has been levied, and no depopulation or takeout program is in place. The plan is in its initial uptake phase, not shedding risk back to the voluntary market.

The legislative backdrop matters. Colorado homeowners premiums roughly doubled between 2018 and 2024, and the state's average homeowners premium now sits around $4,600 a year, among the highest in the country (Colorado Sun, citing Colorado Division of Insurance and CSU REDI data). The Marshall Fire of December 2021, which destroyed more than 1,000 homes in the Boulder County wildland-urban-interface, was the proximate driver of carrier pullback in the foothills and WUI zones, and HB23-1288 was the legislative response. Colorado also passed wildfire-mitigation incentive laws requiring admitted carriers to credit defensible-space and home-hardening work, and Governor Polis announced a homeowners-insurance "roadmap" in 2024 and 2025 covering mitigation, transparency, and the plan itself.

For agents, loan officers, and brokers tracking eligibility and capacity: the plan is open, applications run through a licensed producer, and there is no published rate-filing trend yet to quote. The changelog tracks new data releases as the plan publishes them.

What a difference-in-conditions (DIC) wrap is, and why most Colorado FAIR Plan buyers need one

A difference-in-conditions policy, sometimes called a 'wrap': a second policy you buy alongside the Colorado FAIR Plan to fill the gaps it leaves. The Colorado FAIR Plan's base policy is fire-only, written on actual-cash-value terms, with no liability, no theft, no water damage, no additional living expenses, and no replacement cost (United Policyholders, verified May 2026). A standard mortgage usually won't accept that on its own, which is what makes the wrap the practical answer for buyers needing to clear a lender's hazard-insurance condition.

The wrap adds back the missing pieces: liability, theft, water damage, ALE, and replacement-cost coverage. Consumer advocates at United Policyholders strongly recommend pairing the FAIR Plan with a DIC, explicitly modeled on the California FAIR Plan plus DIC pattern.

Who sells DIC policies in Colorado: independent agents and brokers placing the policy through the excess and surplus (E&S) lines market, with non-admitted carriers licensed to write coverage the standard admitted market won't. An independent agent who already writes E&S in Colorado is your fastest route; ask whether the broker also writes the FAIR Plan, since handling both keeps the two policies in step.

The Colorado FAIR Plan is new, so there isn't yet a public record of typical DIC pricing in this state. Premium varies sharply by rebuild cost, location, and the specific gaps the wrap is closing; a real number comes only from quoting your own address.

Try E&S and specialty admitted carriers before the FAIR Plan

Before going to the Colorado FAIR Plan, try an independent agent who can run two other channels: excess and surplus (E&S) lines, and the small specialty admitted carriers that still write the harder Front Range and wildland-urban interface ZIPs. One of these usually has to come first anyway: Colorado's FAIR Plan, like every state's, is an insurer of last resort, and it will want proof the standard market declined you before it writes the policy.

An admitted carrier is licensed and regulated by the Colorado Division of Insurance and backed by the state guaranty fund. An E&S (non-admitted) carrier isn't: it's a specialty insurer the state allows to write the risks the admitted market won't touch, like a home with a high wildfire score or a rebuild in progress. E&S premiums run higher than admitted, often lower than a FAIR Plan policy, and usually keep the full HO-3 perils, liability, and theft you'd lose stepping down to a DP-1 base form. See the explainer on admitted vs surplus lines.

If a broker has run admitted, then E&S, and both have declined you, the FAIR Plan is the next stop, with the declinations as proof.

What to do this week if you've been non-renewed

1. Save the non-renewal notice and mark the dates. Read it carefully and note the effective date (the day coverage ends) and the date the carrier sent it. Keep the stated reason in writing: wildfire risk, a prior claim, or age of roof. You'll need all of this when you apply elsewhere.
2. Call an independent insurance agent before anything else. An independent agent can run quotes through several admitted carriers at once. The Colorado FAIR Plan is the backstop: admitted-market coverage is broader and cheaper if any carrier will still write you. Ask the agent to document each declination in writing.
3. Apply for the Colorado FAIR Plan through that agent. You cannot buy a FAIR Plan policy direct; it goes through a licensed Colorado-resident agent or broker. Bring the declinations, the non-renewal notice, recent photos of the property, and any mitigation work you've done (defensible space, a Class A roof). Expect a basic named-peril policy, not the broad HO-3 you had before.
4. Line up a difference-in-conditions wrap to fill the gaps. The FAIR Plan covers fire and a short list of named perils. A wrap, sometimes called a DIC policy, adds back liability, theft, water damage, and personal property. The same agent who places your FAIR Plan can usually quote a wrap from an admitted or excess-and-surplus carrier.
5. Mark the renewal date and re-shop the admitted market every year. The FAIR Plan is the insurer of last resort. Carriers re-enter and exit Colorado markets, mitigation discounts shift, and your home's risk profile changes year to year. Re-shop 60 to 90 days before each renewal.

For the full walk-through, see the non-renewal playbook for what to expect at 30, 60, and 90 days.