Best high-risk homeowners insurance companies
Key takeaways
- The characteristics of a home and a homeowner’s risk profile could cause an insurance company to consider a home high risk.
- Understanding your home’s potential for risk can help you find ways to reduce the likelihood of a claim.
- If you cannot find a policy in the private market, you may need to consider your state’s FAIR Plan or a surplus lines insurer.
Finding affordable home insurance is challenging enough, but it’s much harder if you’re in the high-risk category. For homeowners in that group, it could be hard to find any policy, let alone a cheap one.
Characteristics of your home, like its past claims, roof age and weather in your area, could make it a high-risk property. Or, if the property itself is fine, the homeowner could be the reason an insurer considers a policy high risk. For instance, homeowners with poor credit and lengthy claims histories tend to fall into the high-risk category. If your property is high risk and you’re unable to find a policy in the private market, you may need to rely on your state’s FAIR Plan or a surplus lines insurer.
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What is high-risk homeowners insurance?
Before a home insurance company agrees to write you a policy, it will first evaluate the risk of doing so. Remember, private home insurance providers are not like utilities or water companies that are legally obligated to service your home. Private insurance companies are for-profit businesses with the right to not issue policies for properties they deem too expensive to insure.
With home insurance, risk can be understood as the likelihood that someone will file a claim — and claims cost a home insurance company money. To account for future potential financial losses, most home insurance companies charge higher premiums to homeowners they deem more likely to file claims. They may even deny a policy application.
There are a couple of different things that signal high risk to a potential insurance company:
| Homeowner characteristics | Home characteristics |
|---|---|
| Poor credit (in most states) | Roof age |
| Criminal history | Home age |
| Aggressive dogs | Weather risks |
| Home insurance claims history | Crime risks |
| Running a home business | Previous claims |
| Owning a vacant home | Home condition |
Keep in mind that home insurance claims extend beyond just physical damage; liability is also covered. Data from the Insurance Information Institute show that, from 2018 to 2022, the average liability home insurance loss totaled $26,175 per claim — significantly more than the average property damage claim of $15,570. This is where things like a homeowner’s criminal record, owning an aggressive dog and running a home business can come into play.
There’s a lot that you can’t control when it comes to getting high-risk home insurance. You can’t change the weather patterns or uproot your home to a safer ZIP code. But, you do have control over when you choose to file a claim. As a rule of thumb, most insurance experts recommend only filing a claim with your home insurance provider if the estimated repairs are significantly higher than your insurance deductible. Filing claims sparingly (or not at all) could not only help you find a provider but also keep your premiums down in the long run.
Best high-risk homeowners insurance companies
If you are a high-risk homeowner or own a high-risk property, you may have a harder time finding home insurance. But, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. It can help to cast a wide net and collect quotes from multiple providers. Working with a licensed independent agent or insurance broker may also help you secure coverage.
Bankrate’s insurance editorial team hand-selected five of the best high-risk homeowners insurance companies: Chubb, Nationwide, Allstate, Progressive and Kin. The table below lists average home insurance rates for a policy with a $300K dwelling limit.
| Insurance company | Bankrate Score | Avg. annual premium for $300K dwelling limit policy |
|---|---|---|
| Chubb | 4.3 | $3,578 |
| Nationwide | 4.3 | $1,813 |
| Allstate | 4.2 | $2,326 |
| Progressive | 4.0 | $2,239 |
| Kin | 3.2 | N/A |
Chubb
Best for high-value homes
Chubb was named Best for High-Value Homes in the 2024 Bankrate Awards. Needing exceptionally high coverage limits could make you higher risk to some insurance companies. However, Chubb’s Masterpiece home insurance policy is designed with high-value homes in mind. It includes perks like replacement cost coverage, extended replacement cost and water backup.
Learn more: Chubb insurance review
Nationwide
Best for homeowners with poor credit
On average, a homeowner with poor credit pays $4,973 per year for home insurance. However, our research shows that average rates from Nationwide are much lower, just $2,617 per year.
Learn more: Nationwide insurance review
Allstate
Best for flood insurance options
With Allstate, homeowners can choose between a National Flood Insurance Program flood policy or one from private flood insurance provider Beyond Floods. If your home is in a high-risk flood zone, you may appreciate Allstate’s varied flood insurance offerings.
Learn more: Allstate insurance review
Progressive
Best for historic homes
Some historic homes need specialized HO-8 home insurance policies, particularly if a home’s replacement costs are higher than its market value. Progressive offers these kinds of insurance policies to homeowners who have trouble finding insurance for older homes.
Learn more: Progressive insurance review
Kin
Best for homeowners in high-risk weather areas
Kin is a relative newcomer to the home insurance market. It began writing policies in eight high-risk weather states in 2016 and is now available in nine states: Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. Kin was designed specifically with hard-to-insure homes in mind and takes a tech-forward approach when underwriting its policies, considering things like property records, permit data and aerial imagery.
Learn more: Kin insurance review
Why does it matter if your home is considered high risk by insurers?
If your home is considered a high risk by insurance companies, your homeowners insurance could be more expensive when compared to the average cost of home insurance. For reference, the national average cost of home insurance is $2,285 per year for a $300K dwelling policy (as of September 2024). Further, you may have difficulty finding insurance carriers willing to insure your home, especially without significant exclusions or policy limits.
Reasons for home insurance denial
When an insurance company denies your policy application, it is likely because it deems your home too high risk to insure. It’s true that every home insurance company evaluates homes differently, which is why rates vary across providers. But, no matter the company, there are a couple of things that give almost every home insurance company pause:
- Climate events: These will vary based on where you live. But, if your home is in a high wildfire risk zone, along an earthquake fault line or in a hurricane-prone state, you may have a harder time finding a policy.
- Home age: Older homes could be more susceptible to damage, which could make them a high risk to an insurance company. This is especially the case for homes with older roofs.
- Local crime: If burglaries and vandalism are common in your neighborhood, that could increase the likelihood that you’ll file a claim.
- Previous claims: This applies to both the home and the homeowner. If a home is prone to damage, it could be seen as an insurance risk. Or, if the homeowner has a past history of filing claims, that could also be a red flag to an insurer.
- Having a home business: Having a home business could open the door for more liability claims.
States or regions that are considered high risk by insurers
While some natural disasters, like home fires and windstorms, are prevalent in regions across the United States, others are more common in certain regions. According to the Red Cross, the most common natural disasters in each geographic region of the United States are as follows:
- West (Pacific): Earthquakes, wildfires, hurricanes, volcanoes, tsunamis, landslides
- West (Mountain): Earthquakes, wildfires, winter storms
- Midwest: Tornadoes, earthquakes, wildfires
- South and Southeast: Tornadoes, landslides, earthquakes, hurricanes
- Mid-Atlantic and New England: Hurricanes, winter storms
Tips for insuring a high-risk home
As a high-risk homeowner, the first step is to assess the risk. Is it due to a factor related to your home or individual profile, and is it within your control to fix? In some cases, it may be. How you maintain your home is something that insurance companies evaluate. This includes clearing away any external debris outside of your home and repairing any major cracks or damages. You may also want to consider the age of your roof and evaluate whether it needs replacement. The same goes for electrical, plumbing and heating systems.
However, some risks are outside of your control. As such, you may need to find alternative ways to address the hurdles. When looking for high-risk homeowners insurance in these situations, you could:
- Obtain FAIR Plan insurance: The Fair Access to Insurance Requirements Plan, or FAIR Plan, is a government insurance program intended for people who fail to find standard coverage in the private market. Homeowners who insure their homes via a FAIR Plan are typically not eligible for coverage through private insurers because their homes are located in a high-risk area or because of other issues that concern insurers.
- Talk to your neighbors: If your home is located in a high-risk area, your neighbors may have an existing high-risk homeowners insurance policy and may have tips on dealing with barriers to securing coverage. Learning which company insures the other homes in your neighborhood could give you an idea of the companies to request quotes from.
- Speak to an independent licensed insurance agent: A local agent with experience in your area can likely help connect you with carriers that specialize in high-risk homeowners insurance.
High-risk home insurance markets
Some places are simply considered high-risk markets to insure, and that reality is beyond your control as a homeowner. This is especially true as natural disasters like hurricanes, wildfires and catastrophic floods and tornadoes increase in frequency across the country. Amid such challenges, home insurance rates are skyrocketing in some areas, and insurance companies are pulling out of certain markets altogether.
With Florida’s frequent hurricanes, the Florida home insurance market has battled collapse as insurers flee the state. And Florida is not alone; additional states are considered to be high-risk markets due to the prevalence of various types of natural disasters or weather-related events. These include California, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Oklahoma.
What’s more, a study published by Nature Climate Change indicates that flooding will be an increasing challenge in coming years, with Texas and Florida likely to experience as much as a 50 percent increase in flood risk by 2050.
Wildfires are another increasingly significant challenge. Since 1980, wildfires have been the fourth-most common disaster event according to the National Centers for Environmental Information, causing around $135 billion in damage. The wildfire risk is especially prevalent in Western regions of the country and in California. After a string of catastrophic wildfires in the state, several insurers have stopped writing new home insurance policies in California. In fact, State Farm and Allstate recently announced that they will no longer accept applications for property insurance policies there.
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