Personal insurance
For homes from the Gulf Coast to the Atlanta suburbs. If your carrier raised your wind deductible, flagged your roof or sent a non-renewal, we shop the home with other markets.
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The short answer
Homeowners insurance in Texas pays to repair or rebuild your house, replace your belongings and cover your liability if someone is hurt on your property. Most policies include wind and hail, often with a separate percentage deductible. Flood is never included. Near the coast, wind may have to come from the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) instead.
Wind deductibles
Usually a percentage of the dwelling limit
Coastal wind
TWIA in 14 coastal counties and part of Harris County
Flood
Separate policy, usually a 30-day wait
Home types
Houses, condos, rentals, mobile homes
Hail and hurricanes. Every spring brings hail from Dallas to Houston, and every summer brings a hurricane season along the Gulf. Carriers have responded by raising rates, raising deductibles, tightening roof rules and leaving some ZIP codes. Plenty of homeowners in Katy, Sugar Land, Pearland and League City have had a renewal arrive with a bigger wind deductible or a note saying the company won’t renew at all.
A captive agent can only offer the one company they work for. As an independent agency, Tree Insurance Agency quotes the home with several carriers, including regional companies that still want Gulf Coast and older homes. Our Katy office handles Houston-area homes every day, and our Fayetteville office writes Georgia homes with the same approach.
Most Texas home policies now carry two deductibles. One is a flat dollar amount for things like fire or a burst pipe. The other applies only to wind and hail, and it’s set as a percentage of your dwelling coverage (Coverage A), not a percentage of the damage.
Here’s what that means in dollars. A home insured for $400,000 with a 2% wind and hail deductible has an $8,000 deductible for a hail or hurricane claim. If a storm does $12,000 of damage to the roof, the policy pays $4,000. If it does $7,000 of damage, the policy pays nothing.
We put the dollar figure for each deductible option on the quote, so you can compare a 1% and a 2% deductible against the difference in premium and decide what you could actually pay after a storm.
Along the coast, many private carriers won’t write wind and hail at all. The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) is the state’s insurer of last resort for that coverage. You keep a regular homeowners policy for everything else and add a TWIA policy for wind and hail.
TWIA covers the 14 first-tier coastal counties and the part of Harris County east of Highway 146. To qualify, at least one private insurer must have declined the wind coverage, and the home needs a windstorm certificate of compliance (WPI-8) showing it meets the building code. Homes in V flood zones built or remodeled since September 1, 2009 also need flood insurance first. TWIA won’t sell a policy while a hurricane is in the Gulf, so don’t wait until June.
Homeowners policies, and TWIA, don’t cover rising water. That means storm surge, a bayou over its banks or rain that pools and flows in through the doors. Flood needs its own policy, from the National Flood Insurance Program or a private flood carrier.
You don’t have to live in a mapped flood zone to need it. The Texas Department of Insurance points out that more than half of the homes flooded by Hurricane Harvey were outside designated flood zones. A new NFIP policy usually takes 30 days to start, so buying one when a storm is already forecast is too late. We quote flood alongside the home so the dates and limits line up.
The roof and the systems behind the walls drive more homeowners underwriting decisions than anything else. These are the questions carriers ask, and the ones we ask before we shop.
Many carriers limit or refuse homes with roofs past 15 or 20 years. Know the year it was replaced and whether it’s shingle, metal or tile.
Some policies pay replacement cost for a roof, while others pay actual cash value, which subtracts depreciation. On an older roof the gap can run thousands of dollars.
Older homes are judged on their updates. A 1960s home with new wiring, plumbing and HVAC is a very different risk from one with original systems.
When an older home is damaged, the city may require current code on the repair. Ordinance or law coverage pays for that extra cost.
The standard homeowners policy covering the house, other structures, belongings, liability and living costs if you have to move out during repairs.
The association insures the building. Your policy covers the inside of your unit, your belongings and your liability.
A dwelling policy for homes you rent out, including lost rent while the house is being repaired.
Your landlord’s policy doesn’t cover your things. Renters insurance does, along with your liability, for a modest premium.
Written on policies built for how these homes are constructed and tied down.
The most common reasons are roof age, recent wind or hail claims, or the carrier cutting back in your area. Your non-renewal notice should state the reason. Send it to us with your declarations page and we’ll tell you which carriers are still writing homes like yours, and whether a roof replacement would change the answer.
Most Houston homes don’t. TWIA only covers the 14 first-tier coastal counties and the part of Harris County east of Highway 146, so Katy, Cypress and most of the city get wind and hail from their regular homeowners policy. If you live in La Porte, Seabrook or another area east of 146, TWIA may be your wind option.
Yes, in most Texas and Georgia policies, but your wind and hail deductible applies first, and it’s often a percentage of your dwelling coverage. Some policies also pay roofs at actual cash value, which subtracts depreciation for age. Check both before a storm. We can read your current declarations page with you and point out both numbers.
Enough dwelling coverage to rebuild the house at today’s labor and material prices, which is often different from its market value or what you paid. Add enough personal property coverage to replace what you own, and liability of at least $300,000 if you have savings to protect. We run a replacement cost estimate as part of every quote.
Yes. Independent agents can bundle when the policies are written in the same agency. Many of our carriers offer a multi-policy discount when the home and cars are with the same company, but sometimes splitting them saves more. We price it both ways and show you the totals.
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