How to Get Home Insurance After a Fire: CLUE, FAIR, and Surplus Lines

Getting home insurance after a fire is harder than a routine renewal, but it is doable. You will pay more, submit more paperwork, and often need to work through a smaller pool of carriers, but a fully repaired home with clean documentation can be insured. The process runs in two phases: making the property insurable again, then finding a carrier willing to write it.

Make the Property Insurable First

No insurer will bind a policy on a house that still shows fire damage. Before you start collecting quotes, the home needs to be structurally sound, code-compliant, and documented as such.

Expect an inspection, either from the insurer’s own inspector or a licensed contractor whose report the insurer will accept. Inspectors look at the foundation, framing, electrical, plumbing, roofing, and overall structural integrity. Fire weakens load-bearing walls in ways that are not always visible, and the water used to put the fire out creates secondary problems like mold and rot. Anything flagged as a lingering hazard will need to be fixed before the insurer moves forward.

Some carriers go further and require safety upgrades as a condition of coverage: fire-resistant roofing, updated electrical panels, monitored smoke detectors. Even after everything is repaired and upgraded, a home with a severe fire in its history usually carries a higher premium than a comparable home without one.

Permits, Codes, and the Endorsement That Pays for the Gap

Major restoration work almost always requires permits from your local building department. Electrical rewiring, structural framing, HVAC replacement, and plumbing overhauls each trigger their own permits and inspections. Insurers frequently want proof every permit has been closed out before they bind coverage, because an open permit signals unfinished or unapproved work.

Here is the part that catches many homeowners off guard: when you rebuild, local codes require you to meet current standards, not the ones in place when the home was originally built. On an older home, that can add thousands to reconstruction costs. A standard homeowner’s policy typically will not pay for code-related upgrades unless you carry ordinance or law coverage, an optional endorsement. When shopping for your new policy, adding it is worth the modest premium increase.

Deal With Your CLUE Report Before You Apply

Every insurer you approach will pull your property’s claims history. They use the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange, or CLUE, which stores up to seven years of home insurance claims including cause of loss and payout amount.¹ Your fire claim is on that report, and underwriters will see the date, the severity, and the amount your previous insurer paid.

Because that information is already available to any insurer running the report, trying to hide or downplay the fire is pointless and can get a policy canceled or a later claim denied. Disclose the date, the extent of the damage, and the total claim. Most insurers also want to know whether the claim was fully settled and whether the home has been completely restored.

Pull your own CLUE report before you apply. Federal law entitles you to one free copy every twelve months from specialty consumer reporting agencies like LexisNexis.² You can request it through the LexisNexis consumer portal or by calling 866-897-8126.³ Read it carefully. An inaccurate claim amount or a loss attributed to the wrong cause can inflate your quoted premium or sink the application entirely. Federal law gives you the right to dispute errors at no charge, and the reporting company must investigate and correct verified mistakes.¹ To open a dispute, call LexisNexis at 1-888-497-0011 or submit documentation through their consumer help page.

Cause matters, too. An accidental kitchen fire or electrical fault is treated very differently from a fire with suspicious origins. If a fire department investigation ruled the cause accidental, that documentation helps. If arson was suspected or confirmed, even where you were not the responsible party, expect significantly more scrutiny and possible denials. Keep the fire department report accessible, because underwriters will ask about the cause and they want the official document, not your account.

Coverage While the Home Is Being Rebuilt

A standard homeowner’s policy will not cover a home that is still under reconstruction. Many homeowners assume their old insurer’s claim payout carries them through the rebuild. It does not.

Builder’s risk insurance is designed for properties under construction or major renovation. It covers the structure, building materials, and sometimes materials in transit or storage against perils like fire, theft, and vandalism. It also keeps construction-related claims off your homeowner’s insurance history, which matters for future insurability. Your general contractor may carry a builder’s risk policy, but do not assume it protects you as the property owner. Ask to see it and confirm you are listed as a named insured. If you are not, you need your own.

If the home is standing but empty during repairs, watch the vacancy clause. Most standard homeowner’s policies restrict or exclude coverage once a property sits unoccupied for 60 days or more. Call your insurer before you hit that window. You may be able to add a vacancy endorsement, or you may need a separate vacant property policy.

Where to Actually Apply

Your options fall into three tiers. Work through them in order.

Standard Market Carriers

Start with the standard market: large national and regional insurers. Some will write policies on homes with a fire history, especially when the home has been fully repaired and the fire is several years old. Premiums will be higher than what you paid before. An independent insurance agent is your best asset at this stage, because they can submit your application to multiple carriers at once instead of forcing you door to door. If the standard market declines, that same agent has access to the next tier.

Surplus Lines Carriers

When standard insurers decline the risk, surplus lines carriers step in. These are specialty insurers not bound by the same rate regulations as standard carriers, which gives them flexibility to price and structure policies for elevated risks.⁴ A surplus lines underwriter can look at your property individually, weighing the specific repairs and mitigation you have done rather than sorting you into a broad risk category that penalizes any fire claim.

The trade-off is cost. Surplus lines premiums run higher than standard rates, and most states add a premium tax on top. You cannot buy directly, either. Federal law routes these transactions through a licensed surplus lines broker.⁵ Surplus lines carriers also generally are not backed by your state’s guaranty fund, so ask your broker about the carrier’s financial strength rating before signing.

Your State’s FAIR Plan

If both prior tiers turn you down, check whether your state operates a FAIR plan. FAIR stands for Fair Access to Insurance Requirements, and these are state-mandated programs that provide basic property coverage to homeowners who cannot find it elsewhere. As of late 2024, thirty-three states run some form of residual market plan.⁶

FAIR plan coverage is intentionally bare-bones. A typical policy covers fire, lightning, smoke, and internal explosion. It generally does not cover theft, water damage, liability, additional living expenses, or medical payments to others. To close the gap, most homeowners pair a FAIR plan policy with a Difference in Conditions policy from a private insurer. The combination approximates a traditional homeowner’s policy, though the total premium is higher than a single standard policy would have been. Treat a FAIR plan as a bridge, not a destination: maintain coverage while you improve your risk profile enough to return to the standard or surplus lines market.

Do Not Let Coverage Lapse If You Have a Mortgage

Your lender requires continuous hazard insurance on the property, and that requirement does not pause because you had a fire and are struggling to replace your policy. If the servicer determines you have failed to maintain coverage, they can purchase force-placed insurance on your behalf and charge you for it.⁷

Force-placed insurance is expensive, often several times the cost of a comparable voluntary policy, and it protects the lender’s interest rather than your belongings or liability. Federal regulations require your servicer to send a written notice at least 45 days before assessing any force-placed premium, followed by a reminder notice, giving you a window to secure your own coverage.⁷ If you obtain your own policy during or after that window, the servicer must cancel the force-placed coverage and refund any overlapping premium.

Any legitimate policy, including a FAIR plan or surplus lines policy, satisfies the lender’s requirement. If your shopping is dragging on, call the servicer and explain what you are doing. Some will work with you on timing when they can see a good-faith effort.

What to Have Ready When You Apply

Applications on fire-history properties require more documentation than a routine policy. Gather everything before you start:

Repair documentation: invoices, contractor certifications, and photos of completed work
Permit records: closed permits confirming work passed inspection
Inspection reports: independent structural, electrical, or plumbing inspections
The fire department report documenting cause and extent
Your CLUE report and details of the previous policy and claim
An updated replacement cost estimate the insurer can use to set coverage limits

In wildfire-prone areas, some insurers now require a defensible space assessment or a wildfire mitigation plan before they will quote. Requirements vary by carrier and region.

Binding the Policy

Binding is the step that puts the policy in force. On a fire-history property, the insurer may require a certificate of occupancy if the home was substantially rebuilt, a signed statement confirming repairs meet their requirements, or a final underwriting review if anything about the risk changed during the application. Premiums are sometimes adjusted at this stage based on the final inspection.

Until the policy is officially bound, the home is uninsured. Confirm the effective date with your agent and make sure there is no lag between your old coverage ending and the new policy starting. Keep the declarations page somewhere easy to reach, because your lender will ask for it.

The Situation Improves With Time

The same CLUE report that makes this process difficult works in your favor eventually. Claims drop off after seven years.¹ Each year without another claim improves your risk profile, opens up more carriers willing to quote, and moves your premiums closer to what homeowners without a fire history pay. The first couple of renewal cycles are the most expensive. After that, the market loosens up considerably.

1
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. LexisNexis C.L.U.E. and Telematics OnDemand
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 15 – 1681j Charges for Certain Disclosures
3
LexisNexis Risk Solutions. Order Your Report Online
4
National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Insurance Topics – Surplus Lines
5
Congress.gov. S.1363 – Nonadmitted and Reinsurance Reform Act of 2009
6
National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Fair Access to Insurance Requirements Plans
7
eCFR. Title 12 Section 1024.37 – Force-Placed Insurance