Utah FAIR Plan: there isn't one; HB 562 died in 2026 committee, what to do instead

Does Utah have a FAIR Plan?

No. Utah has no state FAIR Plan and is not a PIPSO member. For homes admitted carriers won't take, the route of last resort is the surplus-lines (non-admitted) market, governed by the Utah Insurance Department under Utah Code Title 31A, Chapter 15. The next stop isn't a state plan; it's a surplus-lines broker.

The 2026 General Session came closest to changing that. HB 562 would have created an Access to Insurance Plan Association, Utah's first true residual-market property plan. The House struck the bill's enacting clause on March 6, 2026, effectively killing it for the session. Until the legislature tries again, surplus lines and a thin set of specialty admitted carriers carry the high-risk load.

In practice an independent agent runs admitted carriers first; if everyone declines, a surplus-lines broker handles the placement (non-admitted coverage isn't sold direct). The Utah Insurance Department homeowners page is the official starting point. See: what a FAIR Plan is, and the non-renewal playbook.

What does it cover?

There is no Utah FAIR Plan, so there is no standard coverage form to describe here. In states that do have one, a FAIR Plan typically writes a named-peril dwelling-fire form (DP-1 or DP-3): fire, lightning, internal explosion, and a short list of extended-coverage perils such as windstorm, hail, smoke, riot, and vehicle damage. Liability, theft, water damage, flood, and earthquake are typically excluded.

Because the practical fallback in Utah is the excess-and-surplus (E&S) market and a handful of specialty admitted carriers, what is available varies by carrier rather than by a single state-defined form. Many surplus-lines homeowner policies are written on a named-peril dwelling-fire chassis with explicit exclusions matching the FAIR Plan list above; some carriers offer an HO-3-style open-peril form at a higher premium. Liability, theft, and water-damage coverage are routinely cut or sub-limited; flood and earthquake are excluded, and need separate policies.

The practical reality: there is no single coverage answer in Utah because there is no single insurer of last resort. What gets written depends on which carrier a broker can place you with. The alternatives section below names who is writing today; the wrap question covers whether a second policy is needed to fill the gaps the surplus-lines form leaves behind.

How much will it cover?

Utah has no FAIR Plan, so there is no statutory dwelling cap to quote. Two routes still write hard-to-place Utah homes: the surplus-lines (E&S) market and a handful of specialty admitted carriers. Both set limits policy by policy, capped by the carrier's appetite rather than state law. The ceiling on any one quote is the rebuild cost the carrier will agree to underwrite.

On any quote, ask the broker for three numbers explicitly. Dwelling (Coverage A) should be set at the home's full replacement cost, not market value or the mortgage balance. Personal property (Coverage C) on surplus-lines forms often defaults to a fraction of dwelling or to actual-cash-value valuation; either can be raised. Replacement cost versus actual cash value is the difference between rebuilding the home in full and being paid only its depreciated value. Loss-of-use (Coverage D) covers temporary housing while a covered repair is underway.

If the rebuild figure tops the surplus-lines quote, a difference-in-conditions or "DIC" wrap from a second carrier can fill the gap on dwelling, plus the liability, theft, and water-damage coverage many E&S homeowner forms strip out. The wrap is sold by a separate broker channel; ask the agent quoting the primary policy whether they have a DIC partner.

Who is eligible?

There's no Utah FAIR Plan, so there's no decline-by-N or diligent-search test to qualify for. Eligibility, in the way other states' FAIR Plans use the word, doesn't apply. What replaces it is the underwriting of whichever channel will write the risk after the voluntary market declines: a specialty admitted carrier if one still binds, otherwise the surplus-lines (E&S) market.

Specialty admitted carriers in Utah work off the standard underwriting set: roof age and condition, the prior-claims record on file in CLUE, distance to a fire station, and, for homes in the wildland-urban interface, defensible space and home-hardening detail. A standard non-renewal does not bar you; a recent total-loss claim or an obvious condition issue can.

The E&S route has no statutory floor and no decline-and-qualify path. Eligibility is whatever a non-admitted carrier's underwriter accepts. Access is broker-only: a surplus-lines broker licensed in Utah (Utah Insurance Department, Excess and Surplus Lines). Owner-occupied homes, rentals, and investor properties move through the same channel; the policy form shifts (HO-3 for owner-occupied; DP-1 or DP-3 for rentals or vacant property), and prior claims and condition issues weigh more heavily in pricing than on the admitted side.

How do you apply?

There is no FAIR Plan application in Utah, because the state hasn't established one. The route after a non-renewal runs through a Utah-licensed agent or broker, not a state pool.

An independent agent shops the standard admitted market (Utah-licensed property carriers) first. If no admitted carrier will write the risk, the same agent, or a separate surplus-lines broker, places it in the excess and surplus (E&S) market through a non-admitted carrier (Utah Insurance Department, Excess and Surplus Lines). E&S carriers don't file rates with the state and don't sit behind the Utah guaranty fund, so what's on the binder is the policy.

Have the non-renewal letter, the most recent declarations page, recent photos of the home and surrounding vegetation, and any prior-claims history ready before the first call. If wildfire was the reason for non-renewal, the underwriter will want to see defensible-space work documented in photos. Ask for the binder in writing the moment a carrier agrees to bind (see: what an insurance binder is); a mortgage company will not accept a verbal yes.

Turnaround varies from a day to several weeks depending on the carrier and the property; a clean submission with photos and a current declarations page moves faster. There is no central broker-finder for Utah surplus-lines placements, so an agent who already writes in the affected county is the fastest entry.

How much does it cost?

Utah has no FAIR Plan, so there is no FAIR Plan rate filing or plan-published average premium to compare. The cost question moves to the markets that actually write hard-to-place Utah homes: excess & surplus (E&S) lines and a smaller pool of specialty admitted carriers.

Two things are generally true of those policies:

• They cost more than a standard HO-3 from a voluntary-market carrier. How much more depends on the address's wildfire-WUI exposure, roof type, defensible space, and prior claims at the property.
• They cover less. Many surplus-lines forms are named-peril or wind-and-hail-limited, with higher deductibles, lower contents limits, and exclusions a standard HO-3 would not carry. A difference-in-conditions (DIC) wrap is often paired alongside to fill the gaps.

The public record does not contain a single state-level surplus-lines premium figure for Utah homeowners coverage. Surplus-lines premiums are not filed for prior approval with the Utah Insurance Department, so no aggregated number exists on the record at the time of writing.

The practical step is to gather three quotes from admitted carriers through an independent agent before going to surplus lines, and to compare each quote line by line against the current policy. If the bill jumped at renewal rather than after a non-renewal, the diagnosis differs (see /my-premium-just-jumped/).

What is changing right now?

The story for 2026 in Utah is a FAIR Plan that almost happened. HB 562 (2026), introduced February 13, 2026, would have created the Access to Insurance Plan Association: a state FAIR Plan in everything but name. The House struck the enacting clause March 6, 2026, killing it for the 2026 session. A successor bill in the 2027 General Session is the next thing to watch.

The market data the legislature was reacting to comes from the Utah Insurance Department's June 18, 2025 Insurance Market Update to the Business and Labor Interim Committee. The homeowners non-renewal rate ran 0.28% in 2022 and 0.87% in 2024, roughly tripling in two years. The number of licensed homeowners carriers fell from 137 in 2023 to 131 in 2024.

On the wildfire side, HB 48 (Wildland Urban Interface Modifications) took the next step: the state's official High-Risk WUI Map became effective January 1, 2026, and insurers must use it for underwriting in those zones.

Beyond that, there are no Utah FAIR Plan policies in force to count, no member-insurer assessments to report, no depopulation program. When a successor bill creates a plan, /changelog/ will pick up the metrics on the day they're filed.

Do you also need a wrap (DIC) policy?

Often, yes. The twist in Utah: there is no FAIR Plan to wrap, so a DIC here doesn't fill FAIR Plan gaps. It fills the gaps in whatever surplus-lines (E&S) or specialty admitted policy a broker can place. Those policies vary widely; some are wind-and-fire only, some carve out theft or water damage, some sit at a low coverage cap. A difference-in-conditions policy (DIC) is a second policy that fills those gaps.

The mechanics: the E&S policy is primary, the DIC sits on top and pays for perils or limits the primary excludes. Common adds back in: liability, theft, water damage, higher replacement-cost coverage, and loss-of-use (Coverage D).

Who sells it: surplus-lines brokers, and a smaller set of specialty admitted carriers writing DIC nationally. A standard retail agent often can't place one. For a buyer mid-escrow, the practical move is to ask the broker handling the E&S quote whether a DIC is needed and whether they can package both. Lenders generally accept the combined coverage if the primary policy's declarations and the DIC together meet the loan's stated minimums; what trips closings up is a primary policy that excludes liability or has a wind deductible the loan documents don't allow.

Cost varies with what the primary already covers and what gets layered back in. Published Utah averages for DIC premiums aren't on the public record. The right ask is a side-by-side: primary policy declarations, DIC declarations, total combined premium.

Alternatives to the FAIR Plan in Utah

Because Utah has no FAIR Plan, the alternatives are the backstop. Two paths, in this order.

First, work the admitted market: carriers licensed and regulated by the state, whose policies are backed by the state guaranty fund if the insurer fails. Beyond the national names, several smaller specialty admitted carriers will write wildland-urban-interface, older-home, and prior-claim risks that the larger insurers turn down. An independent agent can run a stack of admitted quotes in one sitting; that is the cheapest, cleanest outcome and worth exhausting before going non-admitted.

If admitted carriers decline, the next stop is excess and surplus lines (E&S), also called the non-admitted market. The Utah Insurance Department's surplus-lines page describes the channel: carriers without a Utah license that can write risks the admitted market won't, accessed only through a Utah-licensed surplus-lines broker. Premiums run higher, coverage forms vary more, and the state guaranty fund does not backstop them. For the trade-offs in detail, see admitted vs. surplus lines.

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

Work the list below in order. Each step assumes the previous one did not produce a policy you could accept.

1. Pull out the letter and find the expiration date. That date, minus today, is the runway to lock in a new policy. Note the reason code too, which most non-renewal notices include.
2. Call an independent agent, not a captive one. An independent agent can run a single application across many admitted carriers (insurers licensed and regulated by the state) at once. Ask them to start with admitted carriers before going anywhere else. Utah has no FAIR Plan; the admitted market is the cheapest tier available.
3. Ask the agent for surplus-lines (E&S) quotes if admitted carriers decline. Surplus-lines carriers are non-admitted, write hard-to-place homes, charge more, and often issue named-peril policies; the state guaranty fund does not back them. Get the admitted-carrier declination letters in writing.
4. Get a difference-in-conditions (DIC) wrap quote on top of any stripped E&S policy. A DIC fills back the perils a surplus-lines policy strips out (liability, theft, water damage). Specialty brokers write these, and the agent running the E&S quote can usually source one.
5. Tell the mortgage servicer before the current policy lapses. Lenders force-place coverage when they see a gap, which costs more and covers only the lender's interest, not the home. A short call or email avoids that.
6. Keep every email, declination, and quote. If the non-renewal reason is disputable or feels retaliatory, the Utah Insurance Department takes consumer complaints, and the paper trail is what they ask for first. See: what to do after a non-renewal notice.