What Does a Wind Only Policy Cover?
It covers damage from wind and hail only, leaving fire, theft, and liability for a separate policy to cover.
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If your insurer dropped you or won't renew because of your location, a wind only policy fills one gap but leaves others open. It's common along the coast, where insurers have pulled back and the state steps in with a wind pool as the coverage of last resort. That policy pays for wind and hail damage to the house, but your lender still requires coverage for fire, theft, and liability, so you'll need a separate homeowners policy, often called a difference in conditions policy, to cover the rest. Check your lender's letter for what it requires.
A wind only policy and a difference in conditions policy rarely come from the same insurer, which means two premiums, two deductibles, and two renewal dates to track. Rates for that second policy vary, especially for a house already flagged for its roof, its age, or its wiring. Comparing options now shows what full coverage actually costs before the deadline in your letter forces a decision.
What does a wind only policy leave out, exactly?
A wind only policy pays for damage that wind and hail cause to the structure of the house. That's the full extent of it. If a pipe bursts, if someone breaks in, if a fire starts in the kitchen, none of that is covered. There's no liability coverage either, so if a visitor gets hurt on the property, that policy does nothing for it. It also doesn't cover what's inside the house, the furniture, the clothes, the electronics. For all of that, the difference in conditions policy mentioned in your letter or your lender's requirements is doing the work.
Some wind pools also limit what they'll pay for the roof specifically, since roof age and condition are often why coverage got dropped in the first place. A roof past a certain age might be covered for actual cash value rather than the full cost to replace it. That means the payout accounts for wear and depreciation instead of a new roof's price. The declarations page from the wind pool spells out which it is, and that distinction is worth reading closely.
Deductibles on wind only policies also work differently than what most homeowners are used to. Instead of a flat dollar amount, many wind pools charge a percentage of the dwelling coverage, the amount the policy would pay to rebuild the house. That percentage is set by the state's wind pool and listed on the declarations page, and it applies before the policy pays anything toward a wind or hail claim. It's worth finding that number now, not after a storm, since it is usually fixed by the policy rather than something to negotiate.
None of this is optional add-on coverage. A house near the coast still needs fire and liability protection, and a lender still requires it as a condition of the mortgage. The wind only policy and the difference in conditions policy together are what full coverage looks like in places where no single insurer will write it all. Treating them as two pieces of one requirement, rather than one policy with a gap, is what keeps the lender's letter satisfied and the house actually covered.
How do you get a wind only policy and a DIC policy to line up?
The two policies need to describe the exact same house the exact same way. Same square footage, same year built, same roof type, same dwelling coverage amount. If the wind only policy lists a rebuild cost of $280,000 and the difference in conditions policy lists something else, that gap can cause problems when a claim touches both policies at once, like a hurricane that brings wind damage and then a fire from a downed line. Adjusters from two different companies will each look at the numbers on their own policy, and a mismatch can slow down payment or shrink it.
Timing matters too. The two policies don't have to renew on the same date, but it helps to know both dates and put them somewhere visible. A lapse in either one, even for a few days between an old policy ending and a new one starting, can violate the lender's requirement and in some cases trigger force-placed insurance, which costs more and covers less. Lenders check for continuous coverage, not just coverage that exists somewhere on paper.
Flood is worth a separate mention, since it's easy to assume one of these two policies handles it. Neither does. Wind only policies cover wind and hail. Difference in conditions policies typically cover fire, theft, liability, and the contents of the house. Flood damage, including storm surge, needs its own flood policy, usually through the National Flood Insurance Program or a private flood insurer. A house near the coast facing wind pool coverage is often in a flood zone too, so the lender's letter may list flood insurance as a third requirement alongside the other two.
Getting all of this to work together usually means dealing with more than one insurer and sometimes more than one agent. That's normal in areas where standard homeowners coverage isn't available. Comparing difference in conditions policies side by side, and checking how each one treats the roof, the wiring, and the home's age, is what narrows down the real cost of full coverage before the non-renewal deadline arrives.
Before the deadline hits
Pull your declarations page and check the dwelling coverage amount, the roof's payout terms, and the percentage deductible. Match those numbers against any difference in conditions quote before your current coverage ends.
