State laws require notice of cancellation for home insurance when you miss a payment, but don't require a grace period for the payment to be made. Your home insurance company may have its own grace period, but it's better to avoid a lapse in coverage by paying on time.
Written by Penny Gusner
Penny Gusner
Penny is an expert on insurance procedures, rates, policies and claims. She has extensive knowledge of all major insurance lines -- auto, homeowners, life and health insurance. She has been answering consumers’ questions as an analyst for more than 15 years and has been featured in numerous major media outlets, including the Washington Post and Kiplinger’s.
Reviewed by Leslie Kasperowicz
Leslie Kasperowicz
Leslie Kasperowicz is an insurance educator and content creation professional with nearly two decades of experience first directly in the insurance industry at Farmers Insurance and then as a writer, researcher, and educator for insurance shoppers writing for sites like ExpertInsuranceReviews.com and InsuranceHotline.com and managing content, now at Insurance.com.
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In most states, home insurance companies are required to give you notice of a cancellation for nonpayment of premiums. Beyond that, the length of any grace period depends on the insurance company. If you don’t pay by that time, your home insurance will be canceled.
Many states require a 10-day cancellation notice be sent before your homeowners insurance is canceled. However, your state may allow the cancellation notice for nonpayment to be included on your bill and not sent as a separate notice. This means by the time your due date has arrived, proper notice has already been given, and your home insurance company can cancel the policy.
To find out how long you have to pay your home insurance bill, check with your insurance company.
Key Takeaways
If your policy has lapsed due to nonpayment, contact your home insurer as soon as possible to see if you can get it reinstated. You might have to have your home inspected and/or sign a no-loss statement saying nothing occurred during the lapse that you could claim in order to be reinstated without a gap in coverage.
Your mortgage company will be notified if your home insurance is canceled. Because you are required by the terms of the loan to keep a home insurance policy in place, your mortgage company will request that you provide proof of a new policy, or that the old one has been reinstated.
If you fail to provide proof of insurance, the mortgage company can purchase a force-placed policy to cover its interest in the home. You will be charged for this policy, but it protects only the mortgage company.
A lapse in home insurance can make it harder to get coverage elsewhere and may increase your rates.
A grace period is the amount of time a home insurance company allows for you to pay your bill past the due date. Depending on the company, you may have up to 30 days. However, some companies add the notice of cancelation to the bill itself, making the due date the end of the grace period.
State laws vary in terms of how much notice an insurance company has to give you of a cancellation, but it’s important to know that the due date and the cancellation date can still be one and the same. If the bill included notice that you have 10 days to pay, and the due date on that bill is in 10 days, that’s your entire notice and grace period.
If you know that you will have difficulty paying your bill, it’s best to call the company and discuss your options before the bill is due.
You may be able to resolve the issue with your insurance company and get the policy reinstated. If so, this is your best bet for getting coverage back in place.
If not, you can start shopping around for new coverage. It will be more difficult to find a new policy, since insurance companies view cancellation for nonpayment in the past as a risk factor. If you are having trouble finding homeowners insurance after a lapse for nonpayment, your state’s fair access to insurance requirements (FAIR) plan may be able to help.
