What does the Connecticut FAIR Plan cover?
Fire, lightning, wind and the other basic named perils, on an actual cash value basis, up to $350,000 on a one-to-four family dwelling. It does not cover theft, freezing or water damage at all, it does not offer replacement cost, and it writes no open-peril form. It is the narrowest of the three New England plans, and a Connecticut owner who lands on it needs a second policy beside it.
Tell us the situation.
One licensed human replies the same business day — not five agents, not an auto-responder. If the policy you have is already the right one, we will tell you.
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Send us what you have. We’ll tell you if it’s right.
Your current policy paperwork, a renewal notice, or nothing at all. A licensed agent reads it and replies the same business day.
The detail
The plan describes its own product plainly: “We provide very basic named peril coverage, which does not include perils such as theft, freezing, water damage, etc.” and “We provide Actual Cash Value - not replacement cost coverage.”
The forms are the basic dwelling form DP 00 01 and the commercial form CP 00 99. No homeowners form and no open-peril form is offered.
Dwelling limits are $350,000 on Coverage A for one-to-four family dwellings and $75,000 on contents. Commercial coverage is capped at $1,500,000 on any single risk; the manual gives $500,000 as the frame-building maximum, while the website says $200,000, and the manual is the document producers work from.
Connecticut FAIR Plan, Consumers page and Producer Manual, June 2025
Personal liability is available at $300,000, $100,000, $50,000 or $25,000 with $1,000 of medical payments, on occupied one-to-three family dwellings only and subject to inspection. No commercial liability is offered.
Since 1 January 2009 every dwelling within 2,600 feet of the Connecticut shoreline carries two deductibles: the named-perils deductible and a separate 5% hurricane deductible for windstorm associated with a declared hurricane.
“NO PRODUCER HAS THE AUTHORITY TO BIND COVERAGE IN THE FAIR PLAN.” The property is inspected at no cost to the applicant, the plan answers with a quotation or declination within twenty days, and an applicant who does not allow the inspection is declined, cancelled or non-renewed.
The plan exists under a statute directing the Insurance Commissioner to “adopt and implement a fire, liability and allied lines underwriting facility” in which every insurer licensed for those lines must participate. The eligibility rule, that coverage was not available through the normal market, lives in the plan’s own rules rather than in the statute.
What this means for you
- Freezing and water damage are simply not covered. In a state where a burst pipe is the most common winter claim, the plan’s form does not include the peril. An owner on the Connecticut FAIR Plan through a winter has no coverage for the pipe, the ceiling below it or the floor, however carefully the heat was maintained.
- Actual cash value on an old house is a small number. A 1920s three-family in New Haven insured at $350,000 pays out the depreciated value of what burned, which on a ninety-year-old roof and original siding may be a fraction of the rebuild. The limit is the ceiling; depreciation decides what is paid under it.
- Build the rest of the policy around it. The honest structure is the FAIR Plan for fire and wind, and a difference-in-conditions or companion policy for the perils it leaves out, where one can be found. On a rental, liability from the plan is available on occupied one-to-three families only; a four-family or a vacant building needs it elsewhere.
- The shoreline deductible is separate and on top. Within 2,600 feet of the water a hurricane brings a 5% deductible on the building limit, alongside the ordinary deductible, and the statute’s trigger for that deductible requires both a hurricane warning for Connecticut and measured winds of 74 miles per hour in the state. Sandy in 2012 met neither and the deductible could not be applied.
- Twenty days and an inspection. Nothing binds on the day. A closing that depends on a FAIR Plan policy needs the application in three weeks early, and a property that fails inspection needs the repair done before it re-applies.
Related questions
- Is the Connecticut FAIR Plan the same as the Massachusetts one?
No, and the difference is large. Massachusetts writes open-peril homeowners forms up to $1,000,000 with replacement cost; Connecticut writes a basic named-peril dwelling form at actual cash value up to $350,000, with no coverage for freezing, theft or water damage. Rhode Island sits with Massachusetts. If a property near the Rhode Island line has a choice of address, it has a choice of plan.
- The Massachusetts FAIR Plan
- Can a business use the Connecticut FAIR Plan?
For the building and contents, on the CP 00 99, up to $1,500,000 on a single risk and less on a frame building. It carries no liability, so a commercial insured still needs a general liability policy, and any business income coverage beyond the form, from another market.
- Commercial property insurance
- How do I get off the FAIR Plan?
By removing the reason for the declination. In Connecticut that is most often roof age, knob-and-tube or fuse wiring, an oil tank, open code violations or a claims history, and the plan’s inspection report lists what it found. Fix the listed items, keep the invoices, and re-market the property at the next renewal with the photographs.
Need this handled?
Reading about it and having it handled are different jobs, and the second one is ours. We place the accounts other brokers decline — claims history, a cancellation, an unusual operation, a business nobody wants to underwrite twice — and we will tell you when the policy you already have is the right one. Tell us the situation and a licensed human replies the same business day.
Written by the licensed brokers at Boring Insurance. Last updated 2026-09-06. See all guides.