What Does NCJUA Insurance Cover? Perils, Limits, and Claims

North Carolina FAIR Plan insurance, offered through the North Carolina Joint Underwriting Association (NCJUA), covers basic property losses from fire, windstorm, lightning, vandalism, and malicious mischief on homes, businesses, and farms located outside the state’s coastal beach area. It is a market of last resort for owners who cannot get coverage from a standard carrier, and the policies are narrower than a typical homeowners policy: flood is excluded, liability is generally not included, and only named perils are covered unless you add optional endorsements.¹

Perils the Policy Pays For

The core NCJUA policy is what the association calls “basic property insurance.” It responds to damage caused by fire, windstorm, lightning, vandalism, and malicious mischief.¹

Beyond that base, the NCJUA offers extended coverage, additional extended coverage, optional perils coverage, and crime insurance that can be added to a policy.² Because these are named-perils policies, anything not listed in your form is not covered. Review the declarations page to see exactly which endorsements you have.

What’s Covered on a Home

Residential policies are written for stick-built homes, modular homes, mobile homes, and travel trailers. The structure itself can be insured on either a replacement cost or actual cash value basis, depending on whether the property meets the association’s eligibility guidelines.¹

Personal property, meaning your belongings inside the home, can be added, but on more limited terms. Contents coverage is written on an actual cash value basis only and is capped at 40% of the approved building coverage amount.¹

Additional living expense coverage, which pays for temporary housing and related costs if a covered loss makes your home unlivable, is available at up to 20% of the coverage amount.³

One important gap: dwelling fire policies typically do not include personal liability coverage, which is a significant difference from a standard homeowners policy.⁴ If someone is injured on your property, an NCJUA policy will generally not defend or pay for that claim.

What’s Covered on a Business or Farm

The NCJUA writes commercial fire policies for businesses, and farm owners property coverage falls under its commercial underwriting procedures. Commercial rating follows ISO standards as approved by the North Carolina Department of Insurance.²

Crime insurance is also available and covers losses from robbery, burglary, larceny, and similar crimes. The limits are modest: $10,000 for residential properties and $15,000 for commercial properties.⁵

Coverage Limits

Residential building coverage tops out at $1,000,000. That limit was raised from $750,000 effective December 31, 2023, matching the limit already available through the Coastal Property Insurance Pool.⁶

Commercial properties can be insured up to $2.5 million per risk, with an aggregate cap of $6 million for structures with multiple firewall divisions.¹

If the property is worth more than those maximums, the NCJUA will not write primary coverage until you have arranged excess coverage for the full value of the property elsewhere.¹

What NCJUA Insurance Does Not Cover

Flood is the biggest exclusion. The NCJUA does not provide flood insurance and directs policyholders to the National Flood Insurance Program administered by FEMA.⁷ Owners in Special Flood Hazard Areas who hold federally insured mortgages are required by law to carry separate flood coverage.⁸

Because dwelling policies in North Carolina are named-perils forms, standard exclusions apply beyond flood. These generally include neglect, intentional loss, mold, rust, rot, constant or repeated water leakage, earth movement such as earthquakes, wear and tear, and damage from birds, rodents, insects, or domestic animals.⁴ Motor vehicles are also ineligible for coverage under the NCJUA.²

Vacancy matters. If a property has been vacant or unoccupied for more than 60 days, vandalism coverage may be restricted or excluded.² And the association imposes a storm moratorium: it will not accept new or increased coverage requests while the center of a named storm is within a defined geographic zone near the southeastern U.S. coast.⁵

One recent reduction in coverage is worth flagging: effective February 1, 2025, the NCJUA eliminated supplemental loss assessment coverage for dwelling and dwelling wind policies.⁹ Owners in condo or homeowner associations should not count on the NCJUA policy to pick up assessments from a shared-building loss.

If You’re in the Beach Area

The NCJUA does not cover properties in North Carolina’s beach area. That territory, including the 18 coastal counties and the beach area south and east of the inland waterway and the Outer Banks, is served by a separate entity, the North Carolina Insurance Underwriting Association (NCIUA), also called the Coastal Property Insurance Pool or Beach Plan.¹ If your property is in that zone, you need to apply to the Beach Plan rather than the FAIR Plan.

How Covered Claims Get Paid

Report any loss to your insurance agent as soon as you can. If the agent is not available, claims can be filed through the association’s Consumer Service Portal online or by calling 800-662-7048.¹⁰

Take reasonable steps to prevent further damage and make temporary repairs if needed, keeping all receipts. Wait on permanent repairs until an adjuster has inspected. Photograph everything, and get detailed written estimates.¹⁰

The NCJUA handles claims directly for its full peril policies. For windstorm-and-hail-only policies during a named storm, the member insurer that wrote your primary property policy investigates and adjusts the claim, under North Carolina General Statute 58-45-35(e).¹¹

1
NCJUA-NCIUA. Services and Coverage
2
NCJUA-NCIUA. Manual of Rules and Procedures
3
NCJUA-NCIUA. Operational and Procedural Changes, September 2022
4
NC Department of Insurance. Dwelling Policies
5
NCJUA-NCIUA. Plan of Operation
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NCJUA-NCIUA. Special Form Availability and FAIR Plan Residential Limit Increase
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NCJUA-NCIUA. Home Page
8
NC Bankers Insurance and Wealth Association. Coastal HO Insurance
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NCJUA-NCIUA. Producer Mailing, February 2025
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NCJUA-NCIUA. Policyholder Claim Procedures
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NCJUA-NCIUA. Storm Information