2026-09-12 · Maine · Compliance · Pending — not yet law

What is about to happen. The National Flood Insurance Programme's congressional authorisation expires at 11:59 p.m. on 30 September 2026 — eighteen days from today — unless Congress extends it.¹

This has happened before and been fixed at the last minute more than thirty times since the 2017 fiscal year. It may well be fixed again. But the deadline is real, it is close, and Maine closings scheduled for early October are exposed to it now rather than hypothetically.

What a lapse actually stops

The distinction that matters is between existing and new:

• Policies already in force keep running. A policy purchased before a lapse runs out its one-year term. Claims on it continue to be paid.
• No new policies can be written, and no renewals can be issued. FEMA's authority to enter new flood-insurance contracts expires with the authorisation.
• Borrowing authority collapses. On the figures reported by the Congressional Research Service, the NFIP's Treasury borrowing authority falls from $30.425 billion to $1 billion during a lapse.

That middle point is the operational one. A mortgage in a Special Flood Hazard Area requires flood coverage as a condition of closing. If no new policy can be issued, the closing cannot complete on those terms.

Who in Maine is exposed

Three groups, in rough order of urgency.

Any unit sale or refinance closing on or after 1 October where the lender requires NFIP coverage and the buyer does not already have a policy in force to assume.

Associations whose master flood policy renews near the deadline. A condominium association insuring its building under the NFIP's Residential Condominium Building Association Policy — the RCBAP — is renewing a policy like any other, and a renewal cannot be issued during a lapse.

Owners in newly mapped areas. Maine has 54 policies in the Newly Mapped rate class, where the requirement to carry coverage is recent and a first policy has not yet been bought.

1. National Association of Realtors, FAQ: National Flood Insurance Program Expires September 30, 2026 ↩
2. FEMA, Maine — Risk Rating 2.0 state profile (April 2025): policies in force, rate classes, claim averages, CRS participation ↩
3. Maine Bureau of Insurance, The Availability of Insurance in the Maine Property & Casualty Market (September 2025) ↩