How to Send Proof of Insurance to Lender
Ask your insurer or agent to fax, email, or upload the declarations page directly to your lender's insurance department.
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Your lender doesn't need the whole policy, just the declarations page, since it shows the dwelling coverage amount, the policy dates, and your lender listed as mortgagee. If you're mid-shop after a non-renewal, get that page from the new insurer the same day coverage binds, because lenders often give a short window before they force-place their own coverage at a much higher cost. Ask your lender's insurance department how they want it sent and whether they need a specific loan number on the document.
A forced-placed policy only protects the lender's interest in the house, not your belongings or your liability, and it typically costs far more than a policy you choose yourself. If your non-renewal has you shopping anyway, it costs nothing to compare dwelling coverage and price across insurers before you bind one, so the declarations page you send your lender reflects a policy you picked, not one that happened to be available first.
What if the lender says the coverage amount isn't enough
Lenders check the declarations page against your loan balance, and if dwelling coverage comes in under what they require, they'll usually say so before they accept it. This isn't about the house's market value. It's about what the lender wants protected against a total loss, which is sometimes the loan amount and sometimes a figure closer to full rebuilding cost. If your new policy falls short, call the insurer before the lender's deadline passes, since raising the dwelling limit usually just means a quick endorsement, not a new policy from scratch.
After a non-renewal, it's common to end up with a policy that matches your old coverage numbers exactly, even if those numbers were never quite right. Rebuilding costs change with materials and labor in your area, and a house insured for what it was worth five years ago may be underinsured now. Ask the new insurer how they arrived at the dwelling figure on your declarations page, and whether it's based on a current estimate of rebuild cost or just carried over from your last policy.
If you're told the amount is fine but the lender still flags it, check that the loan number and mortgagee clause on the declarations page match exactly what the lender has on file. A mismatched name, like a servicer that changed since you took out the loan, can cause a document to bounce back even when the coverage itself is correct. This is a quick fix, but it has to be caught before the lender's own deadline, since force-placed coverage can start automatically once that date passes regardless of whether your paperwork was just slightly off.
Once the lender confirms the declarations page is accepted, ask for that confirmation in writing or note who you spoke with and when. Mortgage servicing changes hands sometimes, and a coverage mix-up months later is easier to sort out if you have a record that proof was sent and accepted on a specific date.
What happens to the escrow payment during this switch
If your premium is paid through escrow, the lender has been collecting a set amount each month based on your old policy's cost. When you bind a new policy after a non-renewal, the premium is often different, sometimes higher, and that changes what the lender needs to pay out of escrow to cover it. Send the new declarations page as soon as coverage binds so the lender can adjust, rather than finding out at the annual escrow review that the account is short.
An escrow shortage usually gets spread across the next year of payments rather than billed all at once, but the timing of when the lender learns about the new premium affects how it's handled. If the switch happens close to your escrow analysis date, the new premium gets folded in smoothly. If it happens right after that analysis, the gap sits there until the next one unless you call and ask the lender to recalculate early.
If your new policy costs meaningfully more than the old one, which is common after a non-renewal tied to claims or an aging roof, ask the lender's insurance department whether they'll run a new escrow analysis right away or wait for the scheduled one. Some lenders will do it on request, and getting ahead of it means smaller adjustments to your monthly payment instead of a lump sum catching up all at once.
Keep a copy of the new declarations page and the date you sent it even after the lender confirms coverage is in place. If an escrow shortage notice arrives later and the math looks off, having the premium amount and the date coverage started makes it easier to sort out whether the lender used the right figures.
Before you send anything
Check your new declarations page against your old one. Look at the dwelling amount, the mortgagee name, and the loan number. A mismatch there is the most common reason lenders bounce proof of insurance back.
