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

Does Connecticut have a FAIR Plan?

Yes. Connecticut has a FAIR Plan: the Connecticut FAIR Plan, formally the Connecticut Property Insurance Placement Facility, a joint underwriting facility every admitted Connecticut property insurer must join, created under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 38a-328 (Connecticut FAIR Plan). It writes basic property coverage when the regular market declines a home, so a non-renewal here isn't the end.

It is structured as a joint underwriting association of every property insurer licensed to write in Connecticut, with members sharing underwriting profits and losses in proportion to their voluntary market share. Its statutory home is Conn. Gen. Stat. Title 38a (§ 38a-328) with operating regulations at §§ 38a-328-1 et seq.; the same office also runs the state's Coastal Market Assistance Program (C-MAP), a producer-network referral service that tries to place coastal homeowners with admitted carriers before defaulting them to the plan (Connecticut FAIR Plan).

Coverage and limits are tightly bounded; the sections below walk through what's in and out, dollar caps, eligibility, and the application path. For background on the FAIR Plan concept itself, see what a FAIR Plan is; for the step-by-step after a non-renewal, see got a non-renewal notice.

What does it cover?

The plan writes a stripped-down named-peril policy on the ISO Dwelling Fire form DP 00 01 (basic form), not a standard homeowners (HO-3) policy. It covers fire and lightning, internal explosion, and an Extended Coverage block: windstorm and hail, explosion, riot and civil commotion, aircraft, vehicles, and smoke. Vandalism and malicious mischief is included only when the policy carries Extended Coverage, and is excluded entirely if the dwelling is vacant or unoccupied (Connecticut FAIR Plan, verified May 2026).

What the policy does not cover is the longer list: no theft, no freezing, no water damage, no personal liability, and no flood. Settlement is actual cash value, not replacement cost: the insurer pays the depreciated value of what was destroyed, not what it would cost to rebuild today. For homes within roughly 2,600 feet of the Connecticut shoreline, the policy carries two deductibles: the regular named-peril deductible plus a separate hurricane deductible equal to 5% of the Coverage A (building) limit.

The dwelling form (DP 00 01) covers 1-4 family owner- or tenant-occupied dwellings, condominiums, and row houses; larger habitational and commercial risks use ISO form CP 00 99. Because the policy carries no theft, no water damage, and no liability, Connecticut agents routinely pair it with a stand-alone personal-liability policy and supplemental coverages; whether a wrap is worth its cost is covered in the section below.

How much will it cover?

The Connecticut FAIR Plan caps a 1-to-4 family residential policy at $350,000 of Coverage A (the building itself) and $75,000 of Coverage C (personal property), with a $1.5 million absolute combined limit on everything written at one location (Connecticut FAIR Plan, verified May 2026). Habitational deductibles run from $250 to $10,000; you pick yours when you apply.

That $350,000 ceiling is the part most likely to bite. It is low relative to current Connecticut home values, and many shoreline rebuild costs already exceed it. The plan pays up to $350,000 on the dwelling and not a dollar more, regardless of what rebuilding would actually run.

If your home's replacement cost runs above $350,000, the FAIR Plan covers up to the cap and a difference-in-conditions policy, sometimes called a 'wrap', covers the rest. Whether the cap meets your rebuild number is a replacement cost versus actual cash value question worth pinning down before you bind anything.

For commercial property the limits differ: building maximums from $200,000 (frame) to $1,000,000 (fire resistive), commercial contents up to $250,000 (fire resistive) with the contents limit doubling for sole occupancy, and commercial deductibles ranging $500 to $75,000.

Who is eligible?

Anyone with an insurable interest in eligible Connecticut property who has made a good-faith effort to find coverage in the voluntary market and come up short. There is no fixed "declined by N carriers" number in Connecticut; the standard is the diligent search itself, not a counted tally (Connecticut FAIR Plan, verified May 2026).

The property still has to clear the plan's underwriting and condition standards. A roof at the end of its life, an unrepaired loss, an open code violation, or a structure the inspector flags as a hazard can all sink an application even when the market has refused you elsewhere.

Two property types are written out of eligibility on the face of the rules. Vacant property is generally ineligible, with narrow exceptions for property held by an estate or actively under renovation. Farm property is ineligible outright (Connecticut FAIR Plan, verified May 2026). Owner-occupied homes, tenant-occupied rentals, and investor-held one-to-four-family dwellings are not categorically excluded; what matters is the insurable-interest test, the diligent-search standard, and the condition of the building. A landlord with a tenanted three-family whose carrier non-renewed for coastal-wind exposure is in the same eligibility lane as an owner-occupant whose carrier non-renewed for a claim.

What counts as good-faith effort is not codified as a checklist. The practical floor agents work to is quotes from several admitted Connecticut carriers, documented, before the plan application goes in. Eligibility decisions are made on the application, not in advance; a clean diligent-search record and a property in insurable condition are the two things you control going in.

How do you apply?

Through a licensed Connecticut insurance producer. The Connecticut FAIR Plan does not sell directly to consumers; an agent has to submit the application for you (Connecticut FAIR Plan, verified May 2026).

The fastest path: if the agent who wrote your current policy is independent and Connecticut-licensed, they can file the FAIR Plan application themselves. Most independent agents already have the producer login at ctfairplan.com/producers.html. An agent captive to a single carrier that has stopped writing in the area may not; in that case the move is finding an independent agent who already works with the plan. The consumer page at ctfairplan.com/consumers.html is the public entry point, but the application still routes through a producer.

Bring these to the agent: the non-renewal letter with its effective date, the declarations page of the current policy, the property address and year built, exterior and roof photos, and a contractor's or appraiser's rebuild estimate if the dwelling and contents limits together cross the plan's stated threshold. Above the threshold the estimate is not optional; without it the application stalls.

Turnaround is not published as a hard service-level by the plan. The practical pattern: with a complete file, an agent can typically secure a binder within a few business days of submission, and an insurance binder is what a closing or mortgage-escrow office accepts as proof of coverage while the policy itself is issued.

How much does it cost?

The plan doesn't publish a public rate sheet, and no Connecticut-specific FAIR-Plan-vs-standard-market premium comparison is on the public record. What is documented is the positioning: the Connecticut FAIR Plan describes itself as generally more expensive than the voluntary market for substantially narrower coverage, and as a market of last resort rather than a price-competition fallback (Connecticut FAIR Plan, verified May 2026).

Three structural features shape what a FAIR Plan policy actually costs in practice:

• Actual cash value (ACV) settlement, not replacement cost. A claim pays the depreciated value of what was lost, not the cost to rebuild or replace new. On an older roof or a 30-year-old kitchen, that gap is large, and it shows up as a lower-priced policy that pays out less when something goes wrong.
• A $350,000 Coverage A cap. The plan will not write more than $350,000 of dwelling coverage. On a shoreline home with a rebuild cost well above that figure, the policy cannot insure the structure to full value at any premium, which is the point at which a difference-in-conditions wrap (covered below) starts to matter.
• A 5%-of-Coverage-A hurricane deductible on the coast. Coastal Connecticut FAIR Plan policies carry a 5% hurricane deductible on top of the regular deductible. On a $350,000 dwelling that is $17,500 out of pocket before a named-storm claim pays anything.

What pushes the premium higher within the plan: coastal location, older construction, prior claims, condition issues flagged at the inspection. What pulls it down: very little. There is no multi-policy bundle, no claims-free credit on the standard-market scale, and no negotiating room. If a non-renewal or a recent rate filing sent the premium sharply higher, the move that usually saves money is a different admitted carrier first; the FAIR Plan is the floor when admitted carriers all say no (see why premiums jump).

What is changing right now?

Connecticut's FAIR Plan remains one of the country's smallest, with roughly 1,187 habitational policies and about $304M of exposure as of FY2024 reporting (Insurance Information Institute). No material rate or rule change to the plan itself is confirmed for the 2025-2026 cycle.

Pressure is in the voluntary market, not the plan. Along the Long Island Sound (Fairfield, New Haven, and New London counties), admitted carriers have been raising hurricane percentage deductibles, tightening roof-age and proximity-to-coast underwriting, and selectively non-renewing shoreline homes. Some of that book is migrating to the FAIR Plan or to C-MAP; the plan's own eligibility has not changed, but voluntary appetite for coastal wood-frame stock has narrowed.

The regulator changed in April. Josh Hershman was confirmed as Connecticut's 34th Insurance Commissioner on April 13, 2026, replacing Andrew Mais, who retired in late 2025 (Connecticut Insurance Department). No 2025-2026 rate filing or rule revision has been published against the plan's program itself; the FY2024 III table remains the most recent published count, and the plan's annual report is the next document that would refresh policies-in-force, exposure, and any member-insurer assessment activity.

For shoreline producers, the operative question this cycle is the diligent-search trail, not the FAIR Plan rule book. The plan's own rules from last year still apply, but admitted carriers willing to quote shoreline frame stock are thinner than the prior renewal cycle. Refreshed counts and any rule changes will land in the Connecticut FAIR Plan's annual report; see the changelog for what has been logged here since.

Do you also need a wrap (DIC) policy?

Most buyers do, in pieces. Connecticut doesn't sell a packaged "wrap" or DIC product the way California does. The state's FAIR Plan is a narrow named-peril dwelling-fire form (basic DP 00 01) with no personal liability, no theft, no water-damage, and no loss-of-use coverage (Connecticut FAIR Plan, verified May 2026). A lender will accept it for the fire/hazard requirement to close, but it is not a homeowners policy.

To rebuild what a standard HO-3 normally bundles, independent agents in Connecticut layer on stand-alone pieces: a personal-liability policy or umbrella from an admitted carrier for the slip-and-fall and dog-bite exposure; a separate contents or scheduled-property policy if theft and personal-property coverage matter; and a water-backup or service-line endorsement if the carrier will offer one. No single Connecticut policy form covers all of that as a DIC.

The practical path at the closing table: ask an independent agent to quote the FAIR Plan dwelling fire and the second-policy stack at the same time, then bind them together. Costs for the wrap side vary by carrier, contents value, and liability limit; the figure isn't published in any one place, so price it before close. For how a packaged wrap normally works in states that do sell one, see what a difference-in-conditions policy is.

Alternatives to the FAIR Plan in Connecticut

The Connecticut FAIR Plan is rarely the first stop. Because Connecticut's voluntary market is comparatively healthy, most non-renewed homeowners can still find a policy through an admitted carrier before falling back to the plan.

Three paths to try, in order:

1. An independent agent running admitted carriers. Independent agents can quote several admitted carriers (companies licensed and regulated by the Connecticut Insurance Department) in one sitting, including smaller specialty insurers that write homes the big national brands won't. This is usually the fastest path to a full HO-3 homeowners policy with liability and theft included.
2. Excess and surplus (E&S) lines carriers. If admitted carriers decline, an E&S broker can place coverage with a non-admitted carrier; surplus-lines insurers aren't regulated for rates and aren't backed by the state guaranty fund, but they often write the perils a standard policy excludes and the homes admitted carriers reject. Coverage is broader than a FAIR Plan policy; price varies a lot.
3. The FAIR Plan, last. Use the plan only if the first two paths have closed. It writes named-peril basic coverage and excludes liability, theft, and water damage, so you'd typically pair it with a separate liability policy.

A single independent agent or broker can run all three in the same conversation; see how to find one. Eligibility for the FAIR Plan generally turns on documented declinations from the voluntary market, so the agent's paper trail doubles as the eligibility evidence the plan will ask for.

What to do this week if you just got a non-renewal notice

A non-renewal notice is jarring, especially after years without a claim. It is not an emergency: in Connecticut the notice period gives time to line up replacement coverage in an orderly way. Work the steps below in order.

1. Read the notice carefully and note the end-date. The date on the letter is the day coverage stops, not a deadline to reply. Pull the declarations page from the current policy and keep both in one folder; every later step refers back to them.
2. Ask the current carrier, in writing, for the specific reason. Carriers must state a reason for non-renewal. Knowing whether it is a roof-age rule, a brush-clearance rule, a prior claim, or a book-of-business pullout decides whether a fix on the house brings the voluntary market back or whether the search has to move on.
3. Run three admitted carriers through an independent agent before going to the FAIR Plan. An independent agent can quote several admitted carriers in one sitting. The FAIR Plan is the backstop, not the first stop; standard admitted coverage is broader and usually cheaper if any carrier will write the home.
4. If admitted carriers decline, apply to the Connecticut FAIR Plan through a licensed producer. The plan is sold through agents and brokers, not directly to homeowners. The producer page at ctfairplan.com lists how to start an application and what documents the plan needs.
5. Price a difference-in-conditions (DIC) wrap alongside the FAIR Plan quote. A FAIR Plan policy is named-peril only; a DIC policy, sold through surplus-lines brokers, adds back liability, theft, and water damage so the combined coverage looks closer to a standard homeowners policy. Get both quotes before binding either.
6. Tell the mortgage servicer once replacement coverage is bound. Send the new declarations page to the servicer's insurance department before the old policy lapses. This prevents force-placed coverage, which is expensive and covers only the lender's interest.

The full walk-through, with what to say to the carrier and the servicer, is at /got-a-non-renewal-notice/.