Landlord Insurance: Cost, Coverage and Lender Rules (2026)

What the NAIC measures, and why its dwelling fire line is not a landlord line

The only national, regulator-compiled premium series that touches this product is the NAIC's annual report on dwelling fire, homeowners and renters policies. The edition we used covers the 2023 data year and is dated July 2026; the previous edition (2022 data, May 2025) gives us a second year. Premium is divided by exposure, counted in house-years: “One house-year represents policy coverage on a dwelling for 12 months.”

The report's category called dwelling fire is defined as a “Dwelling fire policy (one family, owner-occupied, non-seasonal buildings)”. It has no line for rentals, landlords or non-owner-occupied dwellings, and the NAIC warns that the dwelling fire figures “are not directly comparable to the homeowners data”. Colorado's regulator publishes its dwelling fire summary under the name “Landlord - Dwelling Fire Summary of Coverage Form”, so the link between the two is real in practice, but the NAIC report does not make it (our reading of the report). The NAIC also notes that “Dwelling fire premiums are generally lower when compared to the five homeowners premiums, reflecting the more limited coverage offered by dwelling fire policies compared to homeowners packages.”

Source: NAIC, Dwelling Fire, Homeowners Owner-Occupied, and Homeowners Tenant and Condominium/Cooperative Unit Owner's Insurance Report, Data for 2023 (July 2026) and Data for 2022 (May 2025), Tables 4 and 5, countrywide totals across all coverage amounts. Countrywide house-years: 101,954,895.5 in 2023. Changes are our arithmetic on the two averages.

Two things stand out. Dwelling fire is a small book, 2.1% of house-years in 2023 (1.8% in 2022), so a few states drive it. And its average fell 3.6% while the HO-3 average rose 10.7%. That is probably not a price cut; the next section shows why.

Same coverage amount: the gap is smaller than the totals say, and 2023 is noisy

On totals, dwelling fire is 59% of HO-3 ($1,019 against $1,737). That ratio mixes two different books. Dwelling fire policies sit at low coverage amounts: 512,143.9 of the 2,119,464.1 dwelling fire house-years (24.2%) are under $150,000 of coverage, against 1,534,169.6 of 56,164,751.3 HO-3 house-years (2.7%), our arithmetic. The NAIC itself says that “In general, the average premium increases as the amount of coverage increases for all policy types.” Comparing within the same coverage amount removes most of that mix.

Source: NAIC reports on 2022 and 2023 data, Table 4, countrywide rows by amount of insurance; percentages are our arithmetic and rounded. Only six of the fifteen coverage bands are shown here; the others are in the CSV.

Read it three ways. First, in the 2022 data the dwelling fire premium rises smoothly with coverage and is 57% to 103% of HO-3 at the same amount, so the 41-point gap on totals is mostly mix. Second, the gap closes as coverage rises: by $400,000 the two are within 6% in both years. Third, the 2023 dwelling fire column breaks the pattern the NAIC describes: $955 at $150,000 to $199,999, then $553 at $200,000 to $224,999, then $1,171 at $250,000 to $274,999 and $624 at $275,000 to $299,999. Something in the reported mix moved: dwelling fire house-years rose 22.4% (1,732,035.9 to 2,119,464.1, our arithmetic), and Florida's dwelling fire average dropped from $1,641 to $950 in a year. We do not know why from the report, and we do not claim a cause. For a landlord the practical reading is narrow: the NAIC dwelling fire average is a poor price anchor, and a band-by-band comparison with HO-3 is the least bad use of it. The NAIC adds a general warning that average premium “is an imperfect measure” of price.

By state: where dwelling fire policies are written, and the averages

The state table shows the 10 states with the most dwelling fire house-years and the two extremes. The full 51-jurisdiction table (50 states and the District of Columbia) is in the CSV.

Source: NAIC report on 2023 data, Table 1 (house-years) and Tables 4 and 5 (state total rows, all coverage amounts). Share of US DW is our arithmetic on 2,119,464.1 countrywide dwelling fire house-years.

Florida and California together hold 54.2% of the country's dwelling fire house-years ((818,532.3 + 329,584.8) / 2,119,464.1, our arithmetic), and Texas takes the total past 61%. Those are also the states where the dwelling fire average is least like that of a typical state: in Florida it ($950) is 34% of the HO-3 average ($2,779), and California is one of only two jurisdictions where the dwelling fire average is higher than HO-3 (the other is Mississippi). A state with few dwelling fire policies, such as the District of Columbia with 527.1 house-years, can swing on a handful of risks. The renters column is steadier: HO-4 averages run from $125 (South Dakota) to $263 (Mississippi). Our rental property calculator uses the same NAIC state averages as an input; this page is the reading of what they do and do not measure.

What a dwelling fire policy covers, and what it leaves out

Price aside, the product is different. The Colorado Division of Insurance publishes a “Summary of Coverage” for dwelling fire policies; the version titled for landlords lists, on one page, what the three common dwelling forms insure:

Source: Colorado Division of Insurance, “Landlord - Dwelling Fire Summary of Coverage Form” (retrieved October 13, 2026). The last row reflects the form's statements that these coverages are “not included on this policy”; the form says it summarizes, and “DOES NOT REPLACE ANY POLICY PROVISION”, and an insurer's policy can differ.

The last row is the one most landlords look for last. The Colorado summary says, in its own words, “PERSONAL LIABILITY: This coverage is not included on this policy.” and “MEDICAL PAYMENTS TO OTHERS: This coverage is not included on your policy.” It points the insured to “options to protect your liability”, which means a separate or added coverage. A homeowners package, by contrast, is built from buildings, contents and liability together, according to the NAIC's description of the HO forms. So the dollar gap between a dwelling fire and an HO-3 premium is not a discount for the same protection. The same summary says of the dwelling's contents: “Renters or tenants should consider purchasing a separate policy.”

Two real forms, read in full. The ISO Dwelling Property 3 (DP 00 03) text is copyrighted and we found no copy of it on a state or federal website, so we read what state-created insurers of last resort publish. The California FAIR Plan Dwelling Property Policy (form CFP 00 01, 07/2017) has Coverages A (Dwelling), B (Other Structures), C (Personal Property) and D (Fair Rental Value) and no liability section (our reading). Its Coverage D pays the “Fair Rental Value” for the part of the location rented to others if a covered loss makes it unfit for normal use, “for the shortest time required to repair or replace” it, and “no more than 1/12 of this coverage for each month” the location is unfit. Its optional vandalism peril excludes loss to property if “the dwelling has been vacant or unoccupied for more than 30 consecutive days immediately before the loss”, and the form counts a dwelling as unoccupied “if there is no person residing lawfully in it”. The Pennsylvania FAIR Plan broad form (DP 00 02 FPPA 07 11) uses a different test: its vandalism, burglar-damage and water-discharge perils stop after the dwelling “has been vacant for more than 60 consecutive days”. Same structure, two different vacancy clocks, which matters between tenants.

What lenders require

If the rental is financed, the lender, not the insurer, often sets the minimum. There are two worlds.

Loans Fannie Mae buys. The Selling Guide topic B7-3-02 (version of August 5, 2026) says policies on one- to four-unit properties securing loans Fannie Mae purchases should be written on a Special coverage form “or equivalent”, and lists the minimum perils: fire or lightning, explosion, windstorm, hail, smoke, aircraft, vehicles, and riot or civil commotion. It continues: “The property insurance policy must provide coverage on a replacement cost basis, with the exception of roofs”, and “The maximum allowable deductible for all required property insurance perils for one-to four-unit properties is 5% of the property insurance coverage amount.” Topic B7-3-01 (December 14, 2022) accepts policies from a state's FAIR plan “if they are the only coverage that can be obtained at the time of the loan closing or policy renewal”. The pages never use the term DP-3. Our reading against the Colorado table: a policy limited to the DP-1 perils with actual cash value would not meet this list on its own, and DP-3 is the dwelling form whose perils and dwelling loss settlement line up with it. B7-3-02 lists no liability requirement; the guide's liability chapter, B7-4, is titled for project developments.

DSCR and other business-purpose loans. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do not buy these loans (DSCR loan requirements), so each lender writes its own rules, and the ones that publish them do it loosely. Pages read October 13, 2026: Easy Street Capital says “property insurance is required to be provided, with the lender’s information included” and that liability insurance “is typically recommended, but not required to be provided by most DSCR Lenders”. LendingOne's guide says “Hazard insurance (and flood, if applicable) is required; many lenders also require rent-loss coverage (e.g., six months).” Kiavi's DSCR guide says underwriting is “where conditions may be issued, such as confirmation of insurance coverage or reserve documentation.” Visio Lending's page explains that “Higher insurance costs mean the debt obligations on the property increase”, which lowers the DSCR. None of the pages we read prints a liability minimum or names a policy form; the amounts and forms are in the lender's guidelines, so ask for them in writing before binding a policy.

If you are financing a rental. The insurance quote is a line in the loan's cash-flow test, so get it before you pick a lender's product. The three lenders below make business-purpose investor loans (DSCR and fix-and-flip); they do not sell insurance, and none of the pages above commits them to a specific insurance requirement.

Renters insurance: what a landlord may require of tenants

Searchers also type “landlord tenant insurance”, and half of that is the tenant's policy. The NAIC's renters form (HO-4) insures a tenant's personal property and has no building coverage; its countrywide average in the 2023 data is $173 a year, up from $171 in 2022 (our arithmetic: +1.2%). Whether a landlord can require it is state law, and the two statutes we read are both conditional.

Sources: Oregon Revised Statutes chapter 90, section 90.222 (Oregon Legislature; text as in the 2025 archive copy we read); Code of Virginia, section 55.1-1206 (Virginia Legislative Information System, read October 13, 2026). The right-hand cells summarize subsections in our words; the quoted sentences are the statutes'.

This is two states, not a census. We did not read the other 48, and a statute's silence is not permission or a ban. Local ordinances and subsidized-housing rules can add limits. A lease clause is only as good as the state law behind it, so a landlord who writes the same renters-insurance clause in every state is relying on the least restrictive one (our reading).

Why premiums are rising, and what the official numbers cover

Two official sources put numbers on rising homeowners premiums, and both are about owner-occupied homeowners policies, not landlord policies (our reading of their scope).

• NAIC, August 5, 2026, analysis of state Market Conduct Annual Statement data for 2018 to 2024: average premium per policy rose in every NAIC region, with inflation-adjusted increases of 18.3% to 43.3% (2.4% to 5.3% a year); company-initiated non-renewal rates rose between 96% and 216%, depending on region; 715 companies wrote homeowners coverage in 2024.
• U.S. Treasury, Federal Insurance Office, January 16, 2025, on 2018 to 2022 data from over 330 insurers: premiums per policy rose 8.7 percent faster than inflation; ZIP Codes in the highest 20 percent of expected climate-related losses paid $2,321 on average, 82 percent more than the lowest 20 percent.
• Catastrophe losses. The NAIC's 2023 report cites Insurance Information Institute data of more than $940.4 billion in insured U.S. catastrophe losses for 2016 to 2025, in 2025 dollars.

For a landlord the gap is plain: there is no official time series of landlord (non-owner-occupied) premiums. The nearest series, the NAIC dwelling fire average, went from $1,057 to $1,019 in one year while HO-3 rose 10.7% (our arithmetic), for the mix reasons above. A landlord watching premiums should compare their own renewals, not these averages.

What a landlord can do with this

1. Compare within a coverage amount, not on totals. For $250,000 to $274,999 of dwelling coverage the NAIC bands put dwelling fire at $1,043 (2022) and $1,171 (2023) and HO-3 at $1,279 and $1,350. It is a sanity check on a quote, not a price.
2. Ask where liability lives. On the Colorado summary, a dwelling fire policy has no personal liability or medical payments; ask whether the quote includes it or whether it is a separate policy, and at what limit.
3. Ask for the vacancy clause in writing. The two FAIR Plan forms we read cut off some perils after 30 or 60 consecutive vacant days; a rental between tenants may be exposed.
4. If you have a lender, send its insurance requirements to your agent first. Fannie Mae's rules (Special form or equivalent, replacement cost except roofs, deductible at most 5%) apply to loans it buys; DSCR lenders' rules are in their guidelines.
5. Before putting a renters-insurance clause in a lease, read the state statute. Oregon and Virginia attach conditions.
6. Read the policy, not the summary. The Colorado document says it does not replace any policy provision.

FAQ

Sources, read October 13, 2026: NAIC, Dwelling Fire, Homeowners Owner-Occupied, and Homeowners Tenant and Condominium/Cooperative Unit Owner's Insurance Report, Data for 2023 (July 2026) and Data for 2022 (May 2025, archived copy); NAIC news release, August 5, 2026; U.S. Treasury Federal Insurance Office release, January 16, 2025; Colorado Division of Insurance, Landlord - Dwelling Fire Summary of Coverage Form; California FAIR Plan Association, Dwelling Property Policy CFP 00 01 (07/2017) and Pennsylvania FAIR Plan form DP 00 02 FPPA 07 11 (archived copies); Fannie Mae Selling Guide B7-3-01 and B7-3-02; pages of Easy Street Capital, LendingOne, Kiavi and Visio Lending; Oregon Revised Statutes 90.222; Code of Virginia 55.1-1206. Calculations marked “our arithmetic” are ours; the parsing scripts and outputs are in the data package. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice, and not an insurance quote.