What the FAIR Plan is, and where it is not

The Texas FAIR Plan Association is the residual market for residential property insurance outside the fourteen coastal counties served by TWIA. It exists under Insurance Code Chapter 2211, and Section 2211.056 requires it to file proposed rates with the Commissioner, who must approve or disapprove within 60 days with a 30-day extension available.

The order recites that the filings arrived on 23 February 2026, that the original deadline was 24 April 2026, and that TDI extended it by letter dated 15 April 2026 to 25 May 2026. Commissioner Amanda Crawford signed.

Two Texas residual markets therefore operate side by side on different geography and different perils — TWIA for wind and hail on the coast, the FAIR Plan for residential property elsewhere — and a Texas condominium unit's position depends on which side of that line it sits.

The other three forms, for comparison

The condominium decrease is the second largest of the four filings. Homeowners fell 2.6% statewide, with zone figures ranging from −21.6% in Seacoast Tier 1 to plus 0.3% in Seacoast Tier 2. The Tenants form fell 25.0% in several zones — but the order's table shows an indicated change of −40.4% in Central North Greater Dallas/Ft. Worth against a proposed −25.0%, reflecting a cap the FAIR Plan applied to its own indications.

That capping detail is the reason the tenants figures and the condominium figures behave differently in the order. The condominium indications were inside the cap and passed through unmodified; several tenants indications were not.

Reading a rate change correctly

An approved rate change is a change to the manual rate, not a promise about any renewal notice. The order approves a set of filings; what an individual policy does at renewal also reflects its insured value, its deductible, its construction and protection class, and any change in the amount of coverage carried. A statewide average of −7.5% is a statement about the rate level, not a forecast for a premium.

The zone in which a property sits is the largest single driver in these tables, and the spread here — from −21.0% to −5.5% on the same form in the same order — is over fifteen percentage points.

A note on secondary reporting

Several trade summaries of this order transposed rows between the four filings, attributing the Dwelling Extended Coverage increase or the Tenants decrease to the condominium form. The figures above are taken from the findings of fact in the Commissioner's order itself, which sets each filing out in its own labelled table.

What to watch next

FAIR Plan rate filings are annual and run on the Chapter 2211 timetable, so the next cycle begins with a filing in early 2027 for rates effective later that year. The direction of the 2026 order — decreases across three of four residential forms — follows a period of reinsurance and tax cost relief in the Texas residual markets, and whether it continues depends on catastrophe experience between now and the next filing.