Windstorm vs Homeowners Insurance in Texas

Coastal Texas needs two separate contracts

Windstorm insurance and homeowners insurance are two separate contracts on the Texas coast. A homeowners policy covers the dwelling, personal property, loss of use and liability. A windstorm policy covers one peril, wind and hail, and exists because coastal homeowners forms leave that peril out.

Inland Texas needs only the one policy. A homeowners form written in Plano, Lubbock or Waco carries wind and hail inside it, under a separate deductible printed on the declarations page.

Coastal Texas usually needs both. A first-tier coastal homeowners policy can be issued with the windstorm and hail peril excluded, and the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) carries that peril under Texas Insurance Code ch. 2210.

What a homeowners policy still covers once wind is taken out

A Texas homeowners form stripped of wind and hail does most of the remaining work on the house. Fire, lightning, theft, vandalism, a falling tree, sudden water discharge from a pipe, and liability for a guest’s injury all stay where they were.

What a coastal homeowners form keeps:

• The dwelling and other structures on the lot, against every covered cause except wind and hail
• Personal property kept inside the house
• Loss of use, which funds a place to stay while the house cannot be lived in
• Personal liability for the household, and medical payments for an injured visitor

The TDI Home insurance guide sets out those coverage parts and the causes of loss each one answers. The exclusions page of the policy form is the only place that confirms whether wind has been removed from a given coastal policy.

How windstorm eligibility works on the Texas coast

Windstorm coverage through TWIA is a last-resort placement rather than an open market. Texas Insurance Code §2210.005 lets the commissioner designate the windstorm catastrophe area, which today covers the 14 first-tier coastal counties and five Harris County cities where the address sits inside the city limits and east of State Highway 146.

Two documents open a TWIA file under TWIA coverage and eligibility rules:

• A declination of wind coverage from the ordinary market on that address
• A WPI-8 certificate of compliance, issued by the Texas Department of Insurance for construction inspected under its windstorm program

A roof replaced without that inspection is the usual reason a coastal file stalls. Coastal and Windstorm Home Insurance in Texas works through the certificate and the forms that sit around it.

What neither policy pays for

Rising water sits outside both contracts. A homeowners policy excludes flood, and a windstorm policy answers wind and hail rather than water arriving at ground level, so surge from the same hurricane becomes a third claim on a third contract.

Outside both the homeowners and the windstorm policy:

• Flood and storm surge, written only under FEMA NFIP policy terms or an equivalent private flood form
• Wear, age and deterioration of the roof covering, which the policy form excludes as gradual loss
• Cosmetic dents to metal roofing, gutters and siding, where a cosmetic damage endorsement is attached
• Damage left by a storm that struck before the policy period began

Flood Insurance in Texas covers that third contract, including the 30-day waiting period on a new NFIP policy.

Which policy answers which peril

Each peril has one home, and the deductible changes with it rather than with the house.

Peril	Policy that answers it	Deductible that applies
Fire, lightning or smoke	Homeowners	All other perils
Theft or vandalism	Homeowners	All other perils
Hail on an inland roof	Homeowners wind and hail coverage	A share of the dwelling limit
Named-storm wind in a first-tier coastal county	A separate windstorm policy, often through TWIA	A named-storm percentage
A pipe bursting inside a wall	Homeowners, as sudden and accidental water discharge	All other perils
Storm surge or a flooded street	A flood policy under FEMA NFIP policy terms	The flood policy’s own deductibles

One hurricane can open three claims on three contracts, each with a deductible of its own.

What to have ready before you ask an agent

Start with the county. The commissioner’s catastrophe-area designation under Texas Insurance Code §2210.005 decides whether a Texas address can reach TWIA at all, and inside Harris County it turns on the city limits and the Highway 146 line rather than on the county.

Have these in front of you:

• The street address, the county it rates in, and the build year
• Both declarations pages, the homeowners one and any windstorm one issued beside it
• The WPI-8 certificate number, if the structure has one
• The roof’s age and covering material, with the date it was last replaced
• The FEMA flood zone, and the elevation certificate if one exists
• Any wind or hail claim filed at the address, with the year

A missing WPI-8 narrows the list of markets willing to look at the house at all.

Aulona Insurance Group places the coverage this question is about: Texas Home Insurance.

Where Aulona Insurance Group is not the right fit

Aulona Insurance Group cannot place every coastal risk, and the limits get said before the file is opened.

Outside what the agency places on the coast:

• A coastal risk that has to go to surplus lines, which the agency cannot place in-house and which older or heavily claimed coastal houses often require
• Commercial and habitational property on the coast, which is written on the business side rather than on a dwelling or homeowners form
• Life, health, Medicare and disability coverage, which the agency does not write at all

Aulona Insurance Group does not issue WPI-8 certificates or perform windstorm inspections; a qualified inspector certifies the structure and the Texas Department of Insurance issues the certificate.

Luka Cenaj, the agency’s licensed principal, reads the exclusions page and the WPI-8 status on a recorded call before Aulona Insurance Group takes a coastal Texas home to an insurer.