High-Risk Homeowners Insurance in California: Your Options After a Nonrenewal

If your California homeowners insurer dropped you, you still have insurance options, and they run in a fixed order. First, check whether the nonrenewal was even allowed: the insurer owes you at least 75 days' written notice with the specific reason, and a home in a ZIP code touched by a recent wildfire may be protected by a one-year moratorium. Next, have a broker shop the admitted market again, because the state's Sustainable Insurance Strategy is pushing carriers to write in wildfire areas they left. If that fails, a surplus lines homeowners policy or a specialist program such as Delos can write the whole home on one policy. The floor is the California FAIR Plan for fire plus a difference in conditions policy for everything else.

"High risk" in California usually means wildfire exposure, but the same path applies to older homes, homes with claims, homes with knob-and-tube wiring or an old roof, and vacant or short-term-rental properties. This guide walks the path in order, with the statute behind each step.

Was my nonrenewal legal?

Start with the notice. California's nonrenewal rules for residential policies live in Insurance Code sections 675 through 679.6 and cover policies on residential property of up to four units, the personal property inside it, and personal liability.^[1] Under section 678, an insurer that does not intend to renew must deliver or mail a notice of nonrenewal at least 75 days before the policy expires. The notice must state the specific reason or reasons for the nonrenewal, give the insurer's consumer phone number, tell you that you may have the Department of Insurance review the matter, and, for residential policies, describe the California Home Insurance Finder, the FAIR Plan as insurer of last resort, and DIC policies. If the insurer misses the 75 days, the policy continues on the same terms for 75 days from the date the notice is finally given.^[2] An offer of renewal with reduced limits or dropped coverage must also arrive at least 45 days before expiration and identify exactly what is being reduced or eliminated.^[2]

Two protections in section 675.1 matter after a fire. First, if your home was a total loss in a declared disaster, the insurer must offer to renew the policy for at least the next two annual renewal periods, but no less than 24 months.^[3] Second, after the Governor declares a state of emergency for a wildfire, an insurer may not cancel or nonrenew a residential policy for one year in any ZIP code within or adjacent to the fire perimeter, based solely on the fact that the home is in a wildfire area.^[3] The Department of Insurance publishes the bulletins that list the protected ZIP codes and a lookup tool; recent bulletins cover the Gann Fire (August 2026), the Gifford and Pack fires (December 2025), the TCU Lightning Complex (September 2025), the Franklin Fire (June 2025), and the January 2025 Los Angeles fires. If you were nonrenewed in a protected ZIP code, the Department says to ask the insurer to reinstate the policy and, if it refuses, to file a Request for Assistance.^[4]

The moratorium has limits. It does not apply to cancellations for nonpayment, and it does not stop a nonrenewal for a reason other than wildfire location.^[3] Insurers may also nonrenew when the moratorium year ends, which is why the year should be spent hardening the home and shopping.

Step one: shop the admitted market again

Admitted insurers are licensed by the state, file their rates with the Department of Insurance, and are backed by California's insurance guaranty funds if they fail. The Department's first advice to anyone nonrenewed is to shop immediately, contact several insurers directly, and ask each one what mitigation would make the home acceptable.^[5]

Three regulatory changes make this worth doing even if you were declined a year or two ago:

• Catastrophe models with a writing commitment. Under the Sustainable Insurance Strategy announced in September 2023, insurers that use wildfire catastrophe models or pass reinsurance costs through their rates must commit to writing in distressed areas at no less than 85 percent of their statewide market share, increasing by 5 percent every two years until met.^[6][7] The Department completed its review of three wildfire models in 2025, and Mercury, Allstate and CSAA were the first insurers to file plans using them.^[8]
• Mandatory mitigation discounts. Since the Safer from Wildfires regulation took effect in 2022, every insurer must offer discounts for a set of home-hardening and defensible-space actions, must disclose your wildfire risk score, and must give you a way to appeal it.^[9] The ten actions are a Class-A roof, ember-resistant vents, six inches of noncombustible material at the base of exterior walls, enclosed eaves, upgraded windows, a five-foot ember-resistant zone including fencing, cleared decks, sheds at least 30 feet away, defensible space compliance, and location in a Firewise USA or Fire Risk Reduction Community.^[10]
• Priority for hardened homes. Homes that comply with Safer from Wildfires get priority in moving from the FAIR Plan back to the admitted market.^[6]

Give your broker the evidence: photos, receipts, a defensible space inspection if the county offers one, and your community's Firewise status. The same file works with every carrier and with the FAIR Plan's own discount program. The fastest way to start is a homeowners quote request for the nonrenewed home; keep the nonrenewal notice at hand, because the broker will ask for the reason the last carrier gave.

Step two: surplus lines homeowners insurance

If no admitted carrier will write the home, the next stop is the surplus lines market. A surplus lines, or non-admitted, insurer is not licensed in California but is allowed to write risks that the admitted market will not take.^[11] Before a surplus line broker places your home there, Insurance Code section 1763 requires a diligent search among admitted insurers actually writing that kind of coverage; the search is presumed adequate when three admitted insurers have declined the risk, and the broker files a signed diligent search form.^[12] Your nonrenewal is the first of those declinations.

The trade-off is written into the disclosure you must sign. Section 1764.1 requires a stand-alone notice in 16-point boldface type, signed by you personally, stating that the insurer is not licensed by the State of California, is not subject to the state's solvency regulation, and does not participate in any insurance guarantee funds created by California law, so those funds will not pay claims if the insurer becomes insolvent.^[13] That is why brokers look hard at the carrier's financial strength rating before placing a home there. The broker also remits the surplus lines premium tax to the state, which shows up as a separate line on the invoice.^[11] Our guides to surplus lines insurance, admitted vs non-admitted carriers and surplus lines tax by state cover the mechanics.

What you get in exchange is usually a single policy with the shape of a standard homeowners form: dwelling, other structures, contents, loss of use and liability under one contract, instead of the FAIR Plan plus DIC stack described below.

Step three: specialist MGAs such as Delos

A managing general agent, or MGA, underwrites on behalf of insurers that give it authority to accept risks in a defined program. In California wildfire country the best-known example is Delos Insurance Solutions, a San Francisco MGA licensed in California as license #0L61656, whose policies are issued by Homesite Insurance Company and Lloyd's of London, both rated A.^[14] Delos uses its own wildfire model to accept homes parcel by parcel, so eligibility depends on the specific address and can differ from a neighbor's. Depending on the program, the paper may be admitted (Homesite) or non-admitted (Lloyd's), and the guaranty fund point above applies to the non-admitted paper. Our Delos guide covers who it writes and how its 2026 expansion changed eligibility.

Other MGAs write California high-risk homes through surplus lines carriers. Ask any of them the same four questions: which insurer issues the policy, whether that insurer is admitted in California, what its financial strength rating is, and whether the policy is written on a full homeowners form or a named-peril dwelling form.

Step four: the California FAIR Plan plus a DIC policy

The FAIR Plan is the state's insurer of last resort, a pool of every licensed property insurer that writes basic fire insurance when the regular market will not. Its dwelling policy is named-peril: fire and lightning, internal explosion and smoke, with vandalism as an optional add-on, and it does not include liability, theft or water damage.^[15][16] As of June 2026 it insured 696,562 policies, so being placed there is common rather than unusual.^[17]

To turn a FAIR Plan policy into something close to homeowners coverage you add a difference in conditions (DIC) policy from a private insurer. The FAIR Plan does not sell DIC; the Department of Insurance lists eighteen insurers that do, among them CSAA, Mercury's California Automobile Insurance Company, Farmers Insurance Exchange, Nationwide Mutual, Pacific Specialty and Zurich American.^[18] The DIC supplies liability, theft and water damage, and the limits and dates need to match the FAIR Plan policy.^[16] Read our guides to the California FAIR Plan and DIC insurance before you bind, and price the FAIR Plan plus DIC total against any single-policy quote.

You apply for the FAIR Plan through a broker registered with the plan; not every broker is.^[15][19] Menlo Insurance Services is a licensed California broker but not a FAIR Plan registered broker, so we cannot place the FAIR Plan policy itself. We shop the admitted, surplus lines and MGA markets for the home, and we quote the DIC wrap or a dwelling fire policy around a FAIR Plan policy you hold.

Step five: use the year to move back

Whichever policy you land on, the goal is to get back to an admitted carrier at a fair price. Three mechanisms help.

1. Harden the home and document it

   The FAIR Plan applies up to 12 wildfire hardening discounts to the wildfire portion of its premium, worth up to 16.4 percent on a dwelling fire policy, for the same actions the Safer from Wildfires framework lists.^[20][10] The evidence file is what an admitted underwriter wants to see.

2. Let the clearinghouse work

   Insurance Code section 10095 requires a clearinghouse through which regular insurers review FAIR Plan policies and make offers via your broker of record, with admitted insurers getting the first option before non-admitted ones.^[21] No transfer is forced, so a good offer can be accepted and a poor one ignored.

3. Shop every renewal

   Carrier appetite in high-fire ZIP codes changes year to year as the 85 percent commitments phase in.^[7] Do not let a surplus lines or FAIR Plan policy auto-renew without a fresh admitted-market check. A homeowners quote request is the fastest way to start one.

What about the cost?

Expect the surplus lines or FAIR Plan plus DIC placement to cost more than the policy you lost, because the price now reflects the wildfire risk the admitted carrier declined to carry. The FAIR Plan's dwelling fire rates rise by an approved statewide average of 29.1 percent from October 15, 2026, with the wildfire portion of the premium driving most of the change; our 2026 rate increase guide explains what that means for a single policy. Surplus lines premiums are not filed with or approved by the Department, so two carriers can quote the same home very differently, which is a reason to have more than one market approached.

This guide is for educational purposes and summarizes California Insurance Code provisions and public California Department of Insurance guidance. Your policy's specific terms, conditions, and endorsements control. Talk to a licensed broker about your actual exposures.

The Bottom Line

A nonrenewal in California is a process with rules, not a dead end. Check the 75-day notice and the wildfire moratorium first. Then have the admitted market shopped under the Sustainable Insurance Strategy, move to surplus lines or a specialist MGA if that fails, and treat the FAIR Plan plus DIC as the floor. Harden the home, keep the receipts, and shop every renewal until an admitted carrier takes the home back.