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

Does Delaware have a FAIR Plan?

Yes. Delaware has a FAIR Plan: the Insurance Placement Facility of Delaware, an association of every property insurer licensed in the state, set up under 18 Del. C. §§ 4103-4113 and operating since October 28, 1968 (Insurance Placement Facility of Delaware). If admitted carriers won't write you, this is the backstop.

Delaware's plan is administered jointly with other Mid-Atlantic placement facilities out of Philadelphia, and you reach it through a licensed Delaware agent or broker rather than buying direct; the consumer line on defairplan.com is (800) 462-4972. It writes basic property insurance on an adapted ISO Dwelling Fire form for one-to-four-family homes, a stripped-down policy compared with a standard HO-3 (for the general mechanics, see what a FAIR Plan is). What it covers, what it excludes, the dwelling cap, the eligibility rule, and the apply-through steps are all below.

What does it cover?

The Delaware FAIR Plan writes a basic, named-peril property policy on an adapted ISO Dwelling Fire form (DP 00 01) for one-to-four-family homes, and the ISO CP 00 99 form for commercial property (PropertyCasualty360, verified May 2026).

Covered perils are fire or lightning, plus Extended Coverage: windstorm or hail, explosion, riot or civil commotion, aircraft, vehicles, smoke, and volcanic eruption. Vandalism and malicious mischief sits in the same policy, but only when Extended Coverage is also bought, and not at all if the home is vacant or unoccupied without a vacancy permit.

Three exclusions sit on the policy: theft, personal liability, and flood. These are the standard FAIR Plan limitations and the reason the policy is not a substitute for a full homeowners form on its own.

If the home is in one of five specified coastal zip codes in Sussex County, the policy carries a mandatory $2,000 hurricane deductible (PropertyCasualty360, verified May 2026).

Because there is no liability and no theft on the form, brokers in Delaware typically pair the FAIR Plan policy with a stand-alone liability policy and supplemental coverages. There is no California-style 'difference-in-conditions' product marketed in the state under that name (Insurance Placement Facility of Delaware); the wrap, when needed, is assembled out of separate parts.

How much will it cover?

As reported by PropertyCasualty360 (July 2024, citing the plan's manual), the Insurance Placement Facility of Delaware caps a one-to-four-family dwelling policy at $500,000 when the home is occupied and $335,000 when it's vacant. PropertyCasualty360 is a secondary source; the plan doesn't publish its current rate manual online, so a Delaware-licensed agent quoting the plan can pull the current cap straight from the filing.

If a home's rebuild cost runs higher than $500,000, which can be the case for newer or larger coastal homes, the FAIR Plan pays up to the cap and a difference-in-conditions policy, sometimes called a 'wrap' (a second policy that fills the gaps the FAIR Plan leaves), covers the rest. The cap is a hard ceiling. It doesn't flex with construction-cost inflation, and the gap above it sits on the homeowner unless the wrap is in place. The figure to compare against the cap is what it would cost to rebuild today, not the home's market value; see replacement cost vs. actual cash value.

Contents coverage limits and any recent revision to the cap aren't on the public record. The plan's rate manual isn't indexed publicly, and the Delaware Department of Insurance doesn't publish those figures separately. A licensed agent running a FAIR Plan quote can pull both from the current rate pages.

Who is eligible?

Two tests, both narrow. Anyone with an insurable interest in real or tangible personal property in Delaware can apply, provided they have been unable to buy basic property insurance in the voluntary market. The property also has to pass the Facility's underwriting and condition standards. That is the rule under 18 Del. C. §§ 4103-4113 (Insurance Placement Facility of Delaware, verified May 2026).

As of May 2026, no fixed "declined by N carriers" count appears in the Facility's published rules. There is no two-quote or three-quote threshold on the books. The standard the Facility applies is simply that the voluntary market would not write the property. Documentation usually takes the form of declination letters or notes from an agent who shopped the home; ask the broker handling the application what evidence the Facility is asking for this year.

Ownership status is not the gate. The rule names "any person with an insurable interest," which covers owner-occupants, landlords with tenant-occupied rentals, and small investors. Prior claims and the condition of the home feed into the underwriting test, not into a separate disqualifier list.

Vacant property is the one carve-out worth flagging. A vacant home can be written, but only with a vacancy permit endorsement, and the policy limit drops to the Facility's lower vacant cap. If the house is empty between tenants or during a rebuild, raise that with the broker before the application goes in.

How do you apply?

Through a licensed Delaware insurance producer. The plan does not sell direct to consumers; the application has to come from an agent or broker holding a Delaware property and casualty license.

The facility is administered out of Philadelphia, PA on a shared Mid-Atlantic basis. The main number for agents is (800) 462-4972, with (215) 629-8800 as the direct line, and application forms (including the commercial-fire application PDF) are on the plan's own site at defairplan.com (Insurance Placement Facility of Delaware, verified May 2026).

What to hand the agent: the most recent declarations page from the policy being non-renewed, the non-renewal letter itself, a recent inspection or photos if available, the rebuild estimate the prior carrier used, and a list of any losses in the last five years. The plan writes on a Dwelling Fire form, an adapted DP 00 01, not a standard homeowners contract.

Turnaround isn't published. Plans of this kind typically bind within days when the file is clean and the agent is set up to submit; longer if the property needs an inspection or claims history triggers extra underwriting. If the closing is on a clock, ask the agent to request a binder so the lender has proof of coverage at signing (see: what an insurance binder is).

There is no public broker-finder for the Delaware plan; if your current agent doesn't write it, an independent agent who places coastal or older-home business in the Mid-Atlantic generally can.

How much does it cost?

The plan doesn't publish a public rate comparison against the standard Delaware market, and no Delaware-specific average premium for a FAIR Plan policy is on the record. What is on the record: a FAIR Plan policy in Delaware is generally more expensive than a standard homeowners policy for narrower coverage (Insurance Placement Facility of Delaware, verified May 2026). That trade-off is the rule, not the exception, and it's the reason the plan is described as a last resort rather than a price-competition fallback.

The premium math is straightforward in shape, even without published numbers. The plan writes a basic named-peril fire form (no liability, no theft, no water damage), so a Delaware FAIR Plan policy plus the wrap policy a household typically needs to replace what's missing will, taken together, usually cost more than the standard HO-3 it replaces. The dwelling figure, the construction year, the roof age, and the protection class (how far the house is from a fire hydrant and the responding fire department) are the levers that move the number.

The plan hadn't filed a publicly indexed Delaware rate change at the time of writing. If a renewal premium jumped going onto the plan, what to do when a premium jumps walks through the next steps. A licensed Delaware agent can pull a real quote from the plan and price the wrap alongside it, which is the only way to see the actual combined number for one specific house.

What is changing right now?

Not much, and that itself is the headline. Delaware's FAIR Plan, formally the Insurance Placement Facility of Delaware, sits at the small end of the national FAIR-Plans table: roughly 1,170 habitational and 57 commercial policies, around $250 million in total exposure, per the Insurance Information Institute's FY2024 FAIR-Plans-by-state reporting. No 2025-2026 rate or rule change against the plan has been confirmed on the public record; the plan's annual-meeting materials are the reference point for a current month-end count.

The demand-side pressure point is coastal Sussex County, the Rehoboth Beach / Bethany Beach / Fenwick Island corridor. Voluntary-market carriers there have raised hurricane percentage deductibles and tightened beach-area underwriting through 2024 and 2025, which feeds the placement facility a thicker pipeline of declined risks. The plan itself applies a mandatory $2,000 hurricane deductible in five coastal zip codes, on top of whatever a voluntary carrier writes alongside it.

Inland Delaware, most of New Castle and Kent counties, remains a relatively stable admitted market. The capacity story is concentrated in the beach zips, not across the state.

Three notes for placement work this quarter:

• The III FY2024 figure (roughly 1,227 total policies) is the most recent third-party-published count; for a current month-end snapshot, the plan publishes annual-meeting materials at defairplan.com.
• No 2025-2026 rate or rule filing against the plan has been confirmed; filings, when made, surface in state public records before they appear in any aggregator's table.
• Trinidad Navarro remains Insurance Commissioner, re-elected in 2024. Any material change to Delaware's plan policy count, exposure, or rate structure will be logged on the changelog.

Do you also need a wrap (DIC) policy?

Almost always yes, but in Delaware it isn't sold as a single packaged product.

A difference-in-conditions policy, often called a wrap, is a second policy that fills the gaps a basic FAIR Plan form leaves. The Delaware FAIR Plan writes a named-peril fire form with no liability coverage and no theft coverage. That gap is what a lender will flag when reviewing the binder.

In states with a mature DIC market, one named product wraps liability, theft, water damage, and other excluded perils into a single policy. Delaware doesn't have that single-product market. Instead, brokers assemble the wrap from parts: a stand-alone personal-liability policy plus supplemental endorsements added alongside the FAIR Plan dwelling form (Insurance Placement Facility of Delaware, verified May 2026).

For closing: ask the broker writing the FAIR Plan binder to quote the liability piece in the same transaction. Most lenders require evidence of personal-liability cover; a FAIR Plan declarations page alone won't satisfy that requirement. The stand-alone liability policy typically runs a small fraction of the dwelling premium, but the exact figure isn't published for Delaware and varies by carrier. The full mechanics of how a wrap layers on top of a basic FAIR Plan form sit in the difference-in-conditions explainer.

Alternatives to the FAIR Plan in Delaware

Before going to the Insurance Placement Facility of Delaware, work the admitted market first. An independent agent who writes with several carriers can run quotes from small specialty admitted insurers that still take Delaware risks the national brands are walking away from. Admitted carriers are state-licensed and backed by the Delaware guaranty fund, which the FAIR Plan and surplus-lines policies are not.

If admitted carriers decline, the next stop is excess and surplus (E&S) lines: non-admitted carriers that price risks the standard market rejects. An E&S policy is usually broader than what the FAIR Plan writes (most include liability and theft), and a surplus-lines broker, not a regular agent, places it. The trade-off: rates are unfiled, forms vary carrier to carrier, and there is no state guaranty fund if the insurer fails. See: admitted vs surplus lines.

The order to try, in plain terms: admitted carriers through an independent agent first, then E&S through a surplus-lines broker, then the FAIR Plan as the floor. The FAIR Plan exists because the first two said no, not as a shortcut around them. A broker who writes all three channels can run them in parallel and tell the household where the actual offer lands.

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. The good news in Delaware: the market is calmer than in California or Florida, and the Insurance Placement Facility of Delaware is there if the voluntary market won't take the house. Work the steps in order.

1. Read the notice end to end. Find the effective date of non-renewal and the stated reason. Coverage is still in force until that date, so you have a runway, not an emergency. Save the letter; an agent will need the reason code.
2. Call an independent agent who writes more than one carrier. Independents can quote several admitted carriers in one sitting. Tell them the non-renewal reason up front so they don't waste a quote on a carrier that will decline for the same reason.
3. Get quotes from at least three admitted carriers before going to the FAIR Plan. Admitted carriers are licensed and regulated by the state, and their policies are broader and usually cheaper than the FAIR Plan. The Insurance Placement Facility is a last resort, not a first stop.
4. If the admitted market declines, ask the agent to bind the Delaware FAIR Plan and price a difference-in-conditions (DIC) wrap alongside it. The FAIR Plan covers fire and a short list of related perils; the wrap fills the gaps a standard homeowners policy would have covered, such as liability, theft, and water damage.
5. Tell your mortgage servicer what you're doing before the deadline. Lenders force-place insurance the day coverage lapses, and force-placed policies are expensive and protect the lender only. A short email with the new policy number prevents that.

The full walkthrough, with what each document should say, is on the non-renewal page: got a non-renewal notice.