What TWIA Insurance Costs and What It Covers

Updated September 2026

Texas Coastal Windstorm

What TWIA Insurance Costs and What It Covers

The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association sells windstorm and hail coverage in the Gulf Coast catastrophe area when the private market will not. It is not a homeowners policy. Fire, theft, liability, and flood stay somewhere else. The premium is the price of that single peril on a house the admitted market declined.

What TWIA Is

The Legislature created TWIA in 1971 after private insurers pulled back from the coast. It is a residual market, not a competitor shopping for preferred risks. You generally need a declination from at least one authorized insurer that writes wind in the area, plus a property that sits in the designated catastrophe area: the 14 first-tier coastal counties and Harris County east of State Highway 146.

Those counties are Aransas, Brazoria, Calhoun, Cameron, Chambers, Galveston, Jefferson, Kenedy, Kleberg, Matagorda, Nueces, Refugio, San Patricio, and Willacy. Inland hail is a different product. Hurricane timing for the coast is in when hurricane season hits Texas.

What the Policy Covers

The dwelling form insures direct loss from windstorm and hail only. That can include the house, listed other structures, and personal property if you buy a contents limit. Rain that enters through an opening the wind or hail actually made is typically treated as wind damage. Rain that simply blows in through an intact window is not, unless you add a wind-driven-rain endorsement.

TWIA also pays reasonable temporary repairs that stop further covered damage. Debris removal and ordinance-or-law / increased cost of construction are not automatic; they depend on the form and endorsements. Additional living expense is an optional endorsement on a primary residence. It is not on the base policy and is not sold for second homes. If flood is why you cannot live there, TWIA ALE does not pay. How those pieces sit next to an HO-3 is explained in types of Texas home insurance policies.

TDI sets maximum TWIA limits and revises them. Residential dwelling limits have been in the high-seven-figure range in recent orders; manufactured-home and condo-contents caps are much lower. Your policy limit is whatever you buy up to that cap, not the cap itself.

What TWIA Does Not Cover

• Flood, storm surge, waves, and tidal water, whether or not the wind drove them
• Fire, lightning, theft, vandalism, and liability
• Plumbing leaks and most other HO-3 perils
• Wear, tear, and maintenance
• ALE unless you bought the endorsement and a covered wind/hail loss made the primary home unlivable

Wind-created openings versus flood is the fight after every storm. Photograph the roof and openings before cleanup. Surge across the slab is a flood claim, even if the same hurricane tore the shingles. Separate flood coverage is covered in flood insurance in Texas.

How the Price Is Built

TWIA does not use a secret “$2,000 coastal average” that fits Galveston, Port Aransas, and a Harris County house east of 146. Rating looks at territory, construction, occupancy, limit, deductible, and whether the structure is certified.

• Location. First-tier beach and barrier-island territories cost more than inland pockets of the same county.
• Construction and certification. Post-1988 work generally needs a WPI-8, WPI-8-E, or still-valid WPI-8-C. Certified construction is what TWIA agreed to write. How to get that paper is in how to get a WPI-8 certificate.
• Deductible. Coastal wind deductibles are often a percent of the dwelling limit — 1%, 2%, 5% are common choices. Five percent of $400,000 is $20,000 out of pocket before TWIA pays. That choice cuts premium and raises the first check you write after hail or a hurricane.
• Settlement. Replacement cost usually requires insuring at least 80% of rebuild cost. Fall short and the claim can settle like actual cash value. An actual-cash-value roof endorsement makes the premium look cheaper and the roof claim smaller.
• Endorsements. ALE, wind-driven rain, consequential loss, and increased cost of construction add premium because they add payouts.

If a private company will still write wind, compare that quote with TWIA on the same limit and deductible. Residual markets exist because the preferred market left. They are not automatically the bargain. How to shop the accompanying homeowners form is in the Texas homeowners insurance shopping guide.

Eligibility Before the Quote Matters

Besides location and a private-market declination, TWIA wants the property in insurable condition: no open damage, no hazardous maintenance. Homes in NFIP V, VE, or V1-30 zones built or substantially altered after September 1, 2009 generally must show flood insurance. Applications are not a tool to bind coverage while a storm is already in the Gulf. Named-peril versus open-peril structure on the companion house policy is covered in named perils vs. open perils.

A licensed Texas agent submits the TWIA application. You cannot retail it the way you buy a direct-writer auto policy.

Frequently Asked Questions