What is the Rhode Island FAIR Plan, and what does it cover?
The Rhode Island Joint Reinsurance Association is the state’s insurer of last resort for property, and like Massachusetts it writes full open-peril homeowners forms, up to $1,250,000 on a dwelling since April 2024. It cannot decline a property for its neighborhood. It inspects everything, carries a mandatory hurricane deductible by wind zone that a hurricane warning triggers, and offers no commercial liability.
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The detail
The purpose of the association is “To make basic property insurance available to qualified applicants who have been unable to secure the insurance in the normal market”, and the statute defines basic property insurance to include “broad and special form dwelling coverage commonly referred to as DP-2 and DP-3” and the homeowners package.
“The Association shall not decline or cancel any risk for reasons of neighborhood or area location or any environmental hazard beyond the control of the property owner.”
The plan writes the dwelling forms DP 1, 2 and 3, the owners forms HO 00 02, 03, 05 and 08, the tenants form HO 00 04, the condominium form HO 00 06, and the commercial form CP 00 99, with $500,000 of personal liability available on the dwelling and homeowners programs.
Effective 1 April 2024 the maximum on Coverage A rose from $1,000,000 to $1,250,000 for the HO 2, 3, 5 and 8 forms, and the combined building and contents maximum on the DP 1, 2 and 3 forms rose to $1,250,000; the HO 4 and HO 6 contents maximum is $100,000. The quick-reference page still shows the old figures.
RIJRA, Maximum Limit Increase, Homeowners and Dwelling Programs, effective 4/1/2024
A hurricane, for the deductible, “means a weather related event for which the National Weather Service has issued a hurricane warning for any location in the state other than Block Island”. The deductible is 5% on Block Island, 2% in the Wind Zone 3 towns of Washington County, 1% in Wind Zone 2 (Bristol, Newport, the rest of Washington County and East Greenwich), and a fixed dollar amount in Wind Zone 1, and “may not exceed five percent (5%) of the insured value of the dwelling”.
Rhode Island law provides that a hurricane deductible shall not be applied to an insured who has installed approved windstorm mitigation measures; the plan’s table reduces 5% to 2% and 2% to 1%, or removes the deductible, depending on the measures and the zone. Optional all-peril deductibles of $5,000, $7,500 and $10,000 became available on 1 September 2026.
RIJRA, New Optional Deductible Rule effective 9/1/2026, and Table C
“INSPECTION REQUIREMENT IS MANDATORY FOR ALL PROPERTY INSURED BY THE FAIR PLAN.”
By statute the hurricane deductible “may only be applied once to all hurricane losses that are subject to the hurricane deductible during the calendar year”, and is capped at five percent of the insured value.
What this means for you
- It is the Massachusetts shape, not the Connecticut one. Open-peril HO-3 and HO-5 forms, replacement cost, and a $1,250,000 dwelling limit that is now higher than the Massachusetts plan’s. A Rhode Island owner who has been non-renewed lands somewhere workable, which is not true across the line in Connecticut.
- The regulation forbids redlining by name. The plan may not decline a property for its neighborhood or for an environmental hazard the owner cannot control. It may still decline for the condition of the building, which is what the mandatory inspection is for.
- The hurricane deductible is a wind-zone map. Block Island pays 5%, the South County shore 2%, Newport and Bristol 1%, and inland a fixed dollar amount. The trigger is a hurricane warning from the National Weather Service, not a named storm, and the deductible applies once per calendar year however many storms come.
- Mitigation buys the deductible down, by law. Approved shutters, roof-to-wall connections and opening protection cut 5% to 2% and 2% to 1%, or remove the deductible altogether. On a $700,000 Watch Hill house that is $14,000 against the cost of the shutters.
- Check the limit against the letter, not the website. The plan’s own quick-reference page still shows the pre-2024 maxima. A producer quoting from it will underinsure a house by a quarter of a million dollars.
Related questions
- Does the Rhode Island plan write commercial property?
Yes, on the CP 00 99, with lower limits than the dwelling programs: the quick reference shows $250,000 on a frame building, $500,000 on masonry and $250,000 on contents, and those figures should be confirmed with the plan before relying on them, because the same page is out of date on the dwelling side. There is no commercial liability, so a business still needs a general liability policy from another market.
- Commercial property insurance
- What are the lead paint rules for a rental?
A pre-1978 rental can carry lead liability through the plan at limits from $100,000 to $500,000, which matters in a state with one of the oldest housing stocks in the country and a lead hazard mitigation law with its own certificate requirements. Ask for it by name; it is not part of the base liability.
- How does the hurricane deductible compare with Massachusetts and Connecticut?
Rhode Island triggers on a hurricane warning and caps at 5% by statute. Massachusetts’ FAIR Plan triggers on a named tropical storm plus a watch, which is broader. Connecticut requires a hurricane warning and measured 74 mile-per-hour winds in the state, which is narrower. The three are set out side by side in the hurricane deductible guide.
- Hurricane and named-storm deductibles in New England
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Written by the licensed brokers at Boring Insurance. Last updated 2026-09-06. See all guides.