The surplus-lines route, and what it costs you

The Bureau's figures explain where coastal associations end up when the admitted market declines them. Surplus lines was 5.2 percent of the Maine market in 2024, with 253 companies eligible to write it as of September 2025 — though surplus lines is under 1 percent of homeowners written premium.

The trade-off is regulatory rather than financial. A surplus-lines policy is not subject to the same form and rate review as an admitted policy, which is precisely why a carrier will write the risk. Chapter 950's hurricane-deductible constraint, and the consumer protections that attach to admitted personal lines, do not necessarily travel with you.

That sits on top of the harder fact about association coverage: a master policy is commercial insurance, and the Bureau states that commercial carriers “can non-renew a policy for any reason” — Maine's cancellation-control statutes reach personal auto and personal homeowners lines only.

Read your policy against the lender's requirement too

Fannie Mae's Selling Guide B7-3-03 requires master property insurance to include, in its words, “Windstorm (including named storms designated by the U.S. National Weather Service or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration by a name or number)”, with coverage on “a replacement cost basis” for common elements and residential structures, roofs excluded from that guaranty. It also caps the deductible, at 5 percent of the master property coverage amount or an applicable per-unit dollar figure; the per-unit cap widely reported alongside Lender Letter LL-2026-03 is a flat $50,000, applying to loan applications dated on or after 1 July 2026.

Note the two different concepts a board has to hold at once. Chapter 950 governs when a hurricane deductible may be triggered. The lender rules govern how large a deductible may be and still keep the project financeable. A policy can satisfy one and fail the other.

The questions to put to your agent

1. Does the master policy carry a separate hurricane or named-storm deductible, and what exactly triggers it? Ask for the trigger language, not the deductible amount.
2. Is it a flat dollar amount or a percentage? A percentage deductible on a coastal Maine building's insured value is a number most reserve funds cannot absorb, and the shortfall arrives as a special assessment.
3. Did we receive the chapter 950 notice? Notice to the policyholder is mandatory where a hurricane deductible applies.
4. Is this policy admitted or surplus lines? The answer changes which protections attach.
5. Does the deductible structure comply with Fannie Mae's cap? A project review will ask; better to know first.
6. What does the policy do with a nor'easter or post-tropical storm? That is the Maine event, and it should be the standard deductible.

What Maine law requires of the association, separately

The statutory floor is 33 M.R.S. § 1603-113. Its provisions may be varied or waived only where all units are restricted to nonresidential use; a residential condominium cannot waive them. The declaration may require more. Nothing in the Condominium Act speaks to deductible structure, which is why this is a policy-reading exercise rather than a compliance one.

And a Maine planned community has no statutory insurance floor at all — its obligations come from the covenants and from lender requirements, which in practice means the lender requirements are the floor.

What to watch next

The Bureau's next annual availability report under § 2325-A(5), which is where coastal-market deterioration is documented and where any move to extend cancellation protections to commercial residential lines would first appear. Whether Maine does that is a legislative question; no bill proposing it was identified in the 132nd Legislature, which adjourned sine die on 29 April 2026.