FAIR Plan vs. regular home insurance: what a DIC policy is and what it costs

People are often surprised to learn the FAIR Plan isn't a full homeowners policy. It's fire coverage. To get back to something resembling normal protection, you add a second policy — the DIC. Here's how the two options really compare.

Key takeaways

• The FAIR Plan covers fire only. A DIC (Difference in Conditions) policy from a private carrier wraps around it and adds liability, water damage, theft, and other perils.
• FAIR + DIC ≈ a standard policy, but assembled from two pieces and usually more expensive.
• Where you can still get a standard admitted policy, take it — it's typically cheaper and simpler. California county medians run roughly $1,000–$2,000/yr; the FAIR portion alone averages $3,008/yr (as of March 2026).
• DIC pricing varies by carrier and isn't published the way filed admitted rates are, so treat any DIC number as an estimate, not a quote.

Three ways to insure a higher-risk California home

1. Standard admitted policy — one carrier, comprehensive coverage, regulated filed rates. The best outcome when you can get it.
2. FAIR Plan alone — fire coverage only. Rarely enough on its own, and many lenders won't accept it without more.
3. FAIR Plan + DIC — the common fallback. The FAIR Plan handles fire; the DIC handles everything else.

What each option actually covers

Coverage	Admitted policy	FAIR Plan alone	FAIR + DIC
Fire / smoke	✅	✅	✅
Personal liability	✅	❌	✅ (from DIC)
Water damage	✅	❌	✅ (from DIC)
Theft	✅	❌	✅ (from DIC)
Single bill / one carrier	✅	✅	❌ (two policies)

What each option costs

Cost is where the trade-off bites. Using Los Angeles County as a worked example with a $625,000 dwelling limit (the profile the state uses in its filed-rate survey):

• Admitted policy: median filed premium ≈ $1,388/yr (middle 50% of carriers $1,267–$1,764). Source: CDI §12959 filed-rate data, effective May 1 2026.
• FAIR + DIC: FAIR ≈ $2,327/yr (fire-only; California FAIR Plan, March 2026) plus a DIC wrap, estimated at $640–$1,370/yr → roughly $2,970–$3,700/yr combined.

So in this example the fallback runs about 2–2.7× the cost of a standard policy — for coverage that's assembled from two pieces. That gap is exactly why the advice is always: exhaust the admitted market first.

A note on the DIC number. Admitted premiums are public filed data, so we can state them precisely. DIC rates are not filed or published the same way, so the DIC figures above are an illustrative estimate, shown as a range and labeled as such. Your broker's actual DIC quote will vary by carrier, home, and coverage. We never present DIC as a fixed price.

So — is the FAIR Plan "enough"?

On its own, almost never. It leaves you with no liability and no water-damage coverage, and most mortgage servicers expect more. FAIR + DIC is enough for most situations as a stopgap, but it's a stopgap: keep re-shopping the admitted market at every renewal, because carriers are slowly re-entering California under the state's Sustainable Insurance Strategy.

Compare the numbers for your own county on the average cost page, or check a specific address in the map.

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Admitted premiums are filed public data (California Department of Insurance, §12959). FAIR Plan premiums are from the California FAIR Plan's published statistics. DIC costs are illustrative estimates pending carrier-rate data. Everything here is an estimate, not a quote — Who Will Insure refers you to licensed brokers and never binds coverage.