Home insurance in Louisiana: the last-resort market
The Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, known as Louisiana Citizens, is the insurer of last resort for homes in Louisiana, created under La. R.S. 22:2293. It exists for the homes the private market will not cover: where no private insurer will write the house, Citizens will. Citizens is not a competitor to private insurers and it is not a cheaper alternative to them; it is the cover that remains when the private market has said no, and a homeowner who can get voluntary cover should take it.
Citizens runs two plans, and the line between them is a waterway. South of the Intracoastal Waterway, the Coastal Plan covers homes in the coastal parishes where wind and storm surge exposure has driven private insurers away. North of the waterway, the FAIR Plan covers homes anywhere else in the state that cannot get voluntary cover. The split is geographical, not a matter of choice: the address decides which plan applies, and a homeowner does not choose between them. Both plans are last-resort cover, and both are basic property cover rather than a full homeowners policy.
Citizens rates are set by law at least 10% above private-market benchmarks, so Citizens is a last resort in price as well as in availability: a homeowner pays more for less cover than a voluntary policy would give, and the gap is deliberate, so that Citizens does not pull homes away from the private market. What Citizens covers is the dwelling and basic property cover; what it leaves out is as important. Flood is excluded from every Citizens policy, without exception — a Citizens policyholder who needs flood cover must buy a separate policy through the National Flood Insurance Program or a private flood insurer, exactly as a voluntary policyholder must.
Since 2025 there is also a stated-value option: a Citizens policy can be written on a stated-value basis under Act 480 of 2025, so the amount the policy pays is the value stated on the policy rather than a replacement-cost figure worked out after the loss. That is a different bargain from a replacement-cost settlement, and it should be understood before it is chosen: the stated value is the cover, and a house that costs more to rebuild than the stated value leaves the difference with the homeowner. Wind and hail deductibles on the coast are separate from the all-other-perils deductible, and are often a percentage of the insured value — the figure on the declarations page is the one that matters, and it should be read before the policy is bought, not after the storm.
Flood, wind and hail cover in Louisiana
Flood is excluded from a standard homeowners policy in Louisiana, and from every Citizens policy too. Water from rising floodwater, storm surge and overflowing waterways is not covered by an ordinary homeowners policy, and that exclusion matters most in Louisiana, because the same storm that brings the wind can bring the water. Flood cover is bought separately, through the National Flood Insurance Program or a private flood insurer. The lender's side of flood is separate from the policy: if a home is in a FEMA high-risk flood zone and the mortgage is government-backed, the lender will require flood insurance as a condition of the loan — a federal lending requirement, not a Louisiana law. Homes outside the mapped zones can still flood; the requirement is narrower than the risk.
Wind and hail are the other half of the Louisiana storm question, and the deductible is where the cost sits. On the coast the wind and hail deductible is often a percentage of the home's insured value rather than a flat dollar amount, and it is separate from the deductible for other perils. On a home insured for $300,000, a 2% wind and hail deductible is $6,000 — an ILLUSTRATIVE figure, shown only to explain how a percentage deductible works, not a figure any Louisiana rule sets. The declarations page should show both deductibles — the flat all-other-perils amount and the percentage wind and hail amount — before the policy is bought, and the percentage is the figure that decides what a coastal homeowner pays out of pocket after a storm.
A hurricane or named-storm deductible is a separate deductible triggered only by a named storm, and it should not be confused with the ordinary wind and hail deductible. The trigger is the naming of the storm by the weather service, not the strength of the wind at the house, and the policy wording decides which storms trigger it. Read the wording before buying: a policy that carries a named-storm deductible and a policy that does not are different products, and a cheaper premium on a policy with a named-storm deductible may only be cheaper because the homeowner is carrying more of the storm cost.
Your flood zone is an address-level fact, not a state-level one, so check the zone for the address, not for the state. Two houses on the same street can sit in different zones, and a zone can change when the flood maps are revised. The distinction between wind-driven rain and floodwater also matters after a storm: rain that enters through a wind-damaged roof is a wind claim, while water that rises from the ground is a flood claim, and the two are paid under different policies. After a hurricane, the policy wording and the photographs taken at the time decide which water did the damage.
What a standard homeowners policy covers — and what it leaves out
A standard homeowners policy in Louisiana has the same six parts as everywhere in the country: dwelling, other structures, personal property, loss of use, personal liability and medical payments, as the National Association of Insurance Commissioners describes them. The dwelling limit is set by the estimated rebuild cost, not the market value, and the site's homeowners cost calculator works that figure out from the living area and a rebuild cost per square foot. The dwelling part pays to rebuild the house itself; the other structures part covers a garage, a shed or a fence; personal property covers the contents; loss of use pays for somewhere else to live while the house is repaired; personal liability pays where the homeowner is liable to someone else; and medical payments covers small medical bills for a guest hurt on the property.
The settlement method is the detail most often missed, and it decides what a claim actually pays. A roof settled at replacement cost pays what a new roof costs; a roof settled at actual cash value pays the new cost minus depreciation, which on an older roof can be most of the value. The same distinction applies to the dwelling itself and to personal property. Read the declarations page for the settlement method on each part before buying, and check whether the policy has a cosmetic-damage exclusion, which can refuse a claim for hail damage that marks a roof without breaking it. The site's homeowners guide explains how to judge a policy for the house rather than by a ranking, and the guide to home insurance exclusions explains the exclusions in full.
What a standard policy leaves out matters as much as what it covers. Flood is excluded from a standard homeowners policy in every state, and earthquake is excluded too — flood needs a separate policy through the National Flood Insurance Program or a private flood insurer, and earthquake needs a separate earthquake policy. The site's flood and earthquake guides explain the routes. Your flood zone is an address-level fact, not a state-level one, so check the zone for the address, not for the state. Other common exclusions are wear and tear, neglect, and damage that built up over time rather than arriving in a single event: a policy covers sudden and accidental loss, not maintenance the house was already owed.
How to check a quote in Louisiana
Insurance in Louisiana is regulated by the Louisiana Department of Insurance. The regulator licenses insurers, approves the rating plans that set premiums and discounts, and handles complaints when an insurer's conduct is in question. If a claim is denied or underpaid, complain to the regulator with the policy, the declarations page and the claim correspondence in hand, because the regulator decides on the record.
Before buying any home policy in Louisiana, run the checks in this order. First, the licence: is the insurer licensed in Louisiana, under the name on the policy. Second, the cover in writing: does the quote state the dwelling limit, the settlement method and the exclusions, or does it leave them to be discovered later. Third, the dwelling limit against the rebuild cost: is the limit the cost of rebuilding the house, not its market value, and does it reflect the roof, the materials and the local labour cost. Fourth, the deductible stated as a figure: what is the flat deductible, is there a percentage wind and hail deductible, and can you pay it from savings on the day of a loss. Fifth, the price: compare like with like, on identical limits, identical deductibles and identical cover types, and compare the total cost, not the premium alone.
Keep the policy, the declarations page, the insurer's claims number, and the regulator's contact details together where you can reach them after a loss. A flooded house is a bad time to discover that the only copy of the policy was in the house. The site's editorial policy explains how this site reviews its guides, and the contact page gives the address for questions about the site itself — but for a question about a policy, the insurer and the regulator are the authorities, not this site.
Worked example
Consider an ILLUSTRATIVE homeowner in Louisiana buying cover for a house south of the Intracoastal Waterway. She starts with the private market and finds no insurer willing to write the house, so she turns to the Louisiana Citizens Coastal Plan — the last resort for her address, not a choice among equals. She reads what the Coastal Plan covers and what it leaves out, notes that flood is excluded from every Citizens policy, and arranges a separate flood policy through the National Flood Insurance Program before she signs anything. She checks the wind and hail deductible on the declarations page, works out what a percentage deductible would mean in dollars on her dwelling limit, and confirms the dwelling limit against the rebuild cost rather than the market value. She asks whether the policy is written on a stated-value basis and what that would pay after a total loss. She checks the regulator's position before buying, and she keeps the policy, the declarations page and the flood policy together where she can reach them after a storm. The example's value is the method, not any figure in it: no premium is stated, because premiums vary by insurer and by driver. What it shows is that the state rules are the starting point for every quote, and a quote judged against another state's rules is a quote misjudged.