Coastal Home Insurance in Maine

By Jon Merwin, Founder and CEO, Licensed Insurance Advisor

A house on the Maine coast gets hit from two directions. Wind arrives with nor’easters, summer thunderstorms and the occasional tropical system, and salt water arrives when a storm surge lines up with a high tide. Insurers handle those two threats under different policies and different rules, and Maine adds a few rules of its own: a hurricane deductible that depends on which National Weather Service forecast zone your town sits in, and coastal sand dune standards that shape how a damaged house can be rebuilt.

Since 2005 our family-owned independent agency has insured homes from Kittery and York up through Casco Bay, the Midcoast and Down East from our Portsmouth, NH base at 601 Islington St, Unit 206, just across the Piscataqua. We place home coverage with 40+ carriers, so a cottage on a dune, a shingle-style house on a point and a year-round cape in a harbor village can each land with a company that wants that kind of risk. Reach us at insure@portsmouthatlanticins.com or (603) 431-4020.

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Wind and water: two separate claims

Picture a January storm that pulls shingles off the ocean side of the roof, drives rain through the gap and then pushes a foot of seawater across the lawn and into the basement. On most policies that is two claims. The roof, the soaked ceiling below it and the tree that came down on the porch go to the homeowners carrier. The seawater in the basement goes to a flood policy, if you have one, and to nobody if you do not. Our Maine flood insurance page goes deep on the flood side; this page is about the whole house.

Underwriters look at a coastal Maine house with a handful of questions in mind:

• Distance to the water. Many carriers draw lines at set distances from the shoreline, and their appetite changes as a house gets closer.
• Exposure. A house on an open headland facing the Gulf of Maine takes more wind than one tucked up a tidal river behind a stand of spruce.
• Roof age and attachment. An older roof near salt air is the first thing many carriers ask about, along with how it is fastened.
• Construction and elevation. Foundation type, the height of the first floor above grade and whether the house has been raised all matter, especially in a mapped flood zone.
• Occupancy. Year-round, seasonal or rented by the week each mean something different to an insurer.
• Access after a storm. Island homes and long peninsula roads can take longer to reach, inspect and repair.

Maine’s hurricane deductible rule, Rule 960

The Legislature told the Superintendent to adopt uniform hurricane-deductible standards in 24-A M.R.S. §3061, and Rule 960, in force since April 1, 2015, is the result. Its core limit is timing. The clock starts when the Weather Service posts a hurricane warning covering the forecast zone your town falls in, even partly, and it stops a full day after the final warning for that zone is cancelled. Outside that window, the carrier has to use your ordinary deductible (Rule 960, section 4).

A few details in the rule matter when you read your own policy:

• A hurricane warning, as the rule defines it, means sustained winds of 74 miles per hour or more are expected somewhere in the warned area from a tropical, subtropical or post-tropical cyclone (Rule 960 definitions). A powerful nor’easter does not count unless a hurricane warning is issued.
• Once the window is open, the deductible can apply whether or not hurricane-force wind actually reaches your house, and it can apply to wind, rain and wind-driven objects.
• The deductible can be a fixed dollar figure or a slice of the dwelling limit. On a large house, a share-of-limit deductible can mean a five-figure out-of-pocket amount, so look at the dollar figure, not just the label.
• If a policy has both a hurricane deductible and another wind or named storm deductible, only the hurricane deductible applies to losses inside its scope.

Forecast zones do not always line up with county lines. The National Weather Service divides Maine counties into coastal and interior zones, and the Bureau told insurers to use a Maine Department of Transportation map that shows both zones and towns. Its bulletin notes, for instance, that Berwick, Sanford, Alfred, Lyman and Buxton are entirely in Zone 18, Interior York County, that Windham is in Zone 19, Interior Cumberland County, and that Belmont is in Zone 28, Coastal Waldo County (Bureau of Insurance Bulletin 398). A hurricane warning for a coastal zone does not by itself open the window for a town wholly inside an interior zone. Connecticut has its own version of this question, which we covered in hurricane deductibles in Connecticut.

January 2024: what the record tide taught coastal owners

Two storms three days apart, on January 10 and January 13, 2024, gave southern Maine a lesson in what happens when surge meets an astronomical high tide. Just after noon on January 13, Portland’s tide gauge, with records back to 1912, registered 14.57 feet (measured against mean lower low water), topping the 14.17 feet reached in 1978 (National Weather Service Gray). Waves of 15 to 20 feet hammered York County, Wells police called coastal roads impassable, Old Orchard Beach crews made water rescues, Harpswell’s town pier was knocked onto its side and the Willard Beach fishing shacks in South Portland washed away (Portland Press Herald, January 13, 2024). Cape Elizabeth, Scarborough and South Portland reported roads torn up and private property damaged at places like Higgins Beach (Press Herald follow-up).

For an insurance file, the lesson is less about the headline number and more about the pattern. Wind took shingles and trees inland; surge and wave wash did the damage along the shore. Owners with a flood policy had somewhere to send the second claim. Owners who had assumed a coastal house a few lots back from the beach would stay dry found out otherwise.

Rebuilding after a storm: dunes, foundations and code

A big share of the southern Maine shoreline, from Ogunquit and Wells to Old Orchard and Scarborough, sits in a mapped coastal sand dune system governed by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. Repairs to less than half of a structure, within its existing dimensions, can usually proceed as maintenance and repair without a dune permit, as long as the cost stays below half the building’s value (06-096 C.M.R. ch. 355, §4). Past that point, the work becomes reconstruction.

The Department’s storm-repair guidance says a reconstructed building in a frontal dune must move landward to the extent practicable, cannot exceed its prior footprint area or height except as the rules allow, and must stand on a post or piling foundation whose bottom structural member is at least three feet above the highest natural dune elevation near the corners of the old foundation; a flow-through or breakaway-panel foundation does not meet that standard (Maine DEP repair and rebuilding guidance). Engineers, pilings and permits add cost on top of the carpentry.

Three parts of a homeowners policy speak to that cost:

• Ordinance or law coverage helps pay for upgrades a rebuild is required to meet, such as a new foundation type or elevation, plus demolition of an undamaged portion if rules require it. Base policies often include only a small amount.
• Extended replacement cost adds a cushion above the dwelling limit when labor and materials climb after a widespread storm.
• Debris removal and trees have their own limits; wrack, sand and downed spruce can pile up quickly on a shore lot.

Older houses add another layer. Many coastal Maine homes are capes, farmhouses and shingle cottages built long before current codes, and our guide to insuring historic homes explains how carriers think about original materials and craftsmanship.

Coastal Maine, region by region

The southern beaches: Kittery to Scarborough

York County’s beach towns carry the most dune exposure in the state and plenty of summer-only houses. We have dedicated pages for York, Kittery, Ogunquit and Wells and Kennebunk and Kennebunkport. Near the dunes, expect questions about foundation type, first-floor height and whether the house has ever had a storm claim.

Greater Portland and Casco Bay

Cape Elizabeth, South Portland, Falmouth, Cumberland Foreside, Yarmouth and Harpswell mix year-round family homes with high-value waterfront. Casco Bay’s islands bring a separate issue: after a storm, every contractor, roofer and load of lumber may have to travel by ferry or barge, which stretches both the repair bill and the time you are out of the house. Loss of use coverage, which pays extra living costs while a home is uninhabitable, deserves a hard look for island owners.

The Midcoast

From Brunswick and Bath through Boothbay, Damariscotta, Rockland and Camden, homes often sit at the end of long wooded roads on narrow peninsulas. Wind and falling trees are the everyday risk, along with ice on roofs in winter. Carriers also ask how far the house is from the responding fire station and from a hydrant or other water supply.

Down East and Mount Desert Island

Bar Harbor, Northeast Harbor, Blue Hill, Deer Isle and the Schoodic area are heavy on seasonal cottages, some of them large and decades old, perched on granite above the water. Surge is less of a worry on high ledge, but long winter vacancy, heating systems that run unattended and the time it takes to get trades on site after a storm are central to how a policy should be built.

Seasonal homes and summer rentals

A great many coastal Maine houses are second homes. Insurers care a lot about who is there and when. Leaving a cottage closed from Columbus Day to Memorial Day is common, but policies differ on how they treat long stretches without anyone living in the home, and a burst pipe found in April can be a costly surprise. We usually suggest keeping some heat on or draining the system, shutting off the main water valve, adding low-temperature and leak sensors, and arranging regular check-ins by a caretaker or neighbor. More on this is on our Maine homeowners and second home page and our secondary and seasonal home page.

Renting the house by the week changes the picture again. A standard homeowners form may limit or exclude losses tied to a rental business. For short-term rental dwellings we can look at Proper, a specialty market built for vacation rentals, and for longer leases a landlord policy; our {a(“/landlord-insurance-maine/”,”Maine landlord insurance page”)} covers that side. Tell us how many weeks a year the house is rented so the policy matches what actually happens.

Carriers for coastal Maine homes

In Maine our property carriers include Vermont Mutual, Hanover, Concord Group, Andover, Safety, Liberty Mutual, Providence Mutual, Stillwater, Foremost Signature, National General, Openly and Patriot, and we write Cincinnati and Chubb here as well. Every one of them makes its own decisions about how close to the ocean it will go, so the list for a particular house is usually shorter than the list for the state.

• Larger and high-value homes. Cincinnati and Chubb write homes at any dwelling limit; we usually lead with Cincinnati and bring in Chubb when the house calls for it. Openly and National General can fit many homes up to about $5 million.
• Patriot. Patriot can write up to $3 million, subject to underwriting, and fits many well-kept year-round and seasonal homes.
• Condos. Every Maine property carrier on our list except Openly also writes condo unit owners coverage; see our Maine condo page for how a unit policy works with the association’s master policy.
• Valuables and liability. Art, jewelry and collections can be scheduled, and an umbrella sits on top of home and auto liability; our umbrella insurance page explains how umbrellas work.

Have a boat on a mooring or at a dock? Our Maine boat insurance page covers hull, liability and storm haul-out questions, and we can keep the boat and house with the same agency.

Flood coverage for a coastal Maine house

Flood is a separate decision, and on the coast it is rarely a small one. New NFIP flood policies through our agency go to Selective, a Write Your Own carrier. For higher limits or different terms we compare private flood from Aon Edge, CatCoverage, Neptune Flood, Flow Flood, Beyond Floods and The Flood Insurance Agency. An NFIP policy caps building coverage at $250,000 and contents at $100,000, which is why owners of larger shore houses often add excess or private flood. Look up your flood zone with FEMA’s Flood Map Service Center, read plain-language NFIP guidance at FloodSmart, and get numbers through our flood quote page.

An elevation certificate, if you have one, is the single most useful document for a coastal flood quote. If you are buying, ask the seller for it early; our Maine flood page explains the state’s seller flood disclosure requirements.

A coastal Maine homeowner’s checklist

• Find the hurricane deductible on your declarations page and write down what it means in dollars.
• Confirm which National Weather Service forecast zone your town is in.
• Decide whether you need flood coverage, and how much, before a storm is in the forecast; NFIP policies usually carry a waiting period.
• If the house is in a dune area, ask about ordinance or law coverage and extended replacement cost.
• List docks, seawalls, boathouses and detached studios so nothing is assumed.
• Photograph each room and the exterior every spring.
• For seasonal homes, set up heat, water shutoff, sensors and a check-in schedule.
• Tell us if the house is rented, even for a few weeks a year.

Comparing states? We have matching pages for coastal homes in New Hampshire, coastal homes in Connecticut and high-value coastal homes in Massachusetts, plus our guide to coastal flood and wind risk in New England.

Request a quote for your coastal Maine home

Tell us where the house is, how it is built and how you use it, and we will compare 40+ carriers on your behalf. We don’t charge additional fees. We explain the trade-offs between deductibles, flood options and rebuilding coverage in plain language before you decide. Request a quote. There’s no obligation to buy. Fill in the form below, start on our quotes page or phone (603) 431-4020. Phones are staffed 9 AM to 5 PM Monday to Thursday and 8 AM to 4 PM on Friday (Eastern), and we are closed Saturday and Sunday. Client comments are collected on our client feedback page.

Frequently asked questions

Does a regular homeowners policy cover a house on the Maine coast?

For wind, yes, in most cases. A standard homeowners policy covers wind, hail, falling trees and ice damage to the house, subject to the deductible on your declarations page. What it does not cover is flooding from storm surge, wave wash or rising tidal water; that takes a separate flood policy through the NFIP or a private flood carrier. Docks, piers and seawalls are frequently limited or left out, so list them when you ask for a quote.

In Maine, what sets off a hurricane deductible?

Only a hurricane warning. Under Bureau of Insurance Rule 960, the deductible window begins when the Weather Service posts a hurricane warning for a forecast zone covering part of your town and runs until a day after that zone’s final warning is cancelled. Inside the window it can apply even if hurricane-force gusts never reach your street. A winter nor’easter with no hurricane warning leaves your regular deductible in place.

Is my house in a coastal or an interior forecast zone?

The National Weather Service splits Maine counties into coastal and interior forecast zones, and the Bureau of Insurance publishes guidance on which towns fall where. Berwick, Sanford, Alfred, Lyman and Buxton, for example, sit entirely in the Interior York County zone, and Windham sits in Interior Cumberland County. We can check your town and read the hurricane deductible language on your current policy with you.

If my beach house is badly damaged, can I rebuild it the same way?

Not always. Under Maine’s coastal sand dune rules, a building in a frontal dune that needs reconstruction generally must move landward where practicable, keep within the old footprint area and sit on a post or piling foundation raised above the dune. Those changes cost money a basic policy may not pay for, which is why we look at ordinance or law coverage on dune-area homes. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection decides what is allowed on a given lot.

What changes when my Maine coastal home sits empty all winter?

Tell us, because many policies treat a home left vacant or unoccupied for long stretches differently. Carriers usually want the heat kept on, the water shut off or the system drained, and someone checking the house on a regular schedule. Low-temperature and water-leak sensors help, and they show a carrier the home is being watched.

Which carriers do you use for coastal Maine homes?

Our Maine property carriers include Vermont Mutual, Hanover, Concord Group, Andover, Safety, Liberty Mutual, Providence Mutual, Stillwater, Foremost Signature, National General, Openly and Patriot, along with Cincinnati and Chubb for larger homes. Patriot can write up to $3 million, subject to underwriting. Which ones will look at a particular house depends on its distance to the water, construction, age and value, and we compare them for you.

What do you need to quote a coastal home in Maine?

Send the address, year built, square footage, roof age and material, the heating system, how far the house sits from the high-water line, whether it is a primary or seasonal home and whether you rent it out. A current declarations page and any elevation certificate help. Request a quote. There’s no obligation to buy. Email insure@portsmouthatlanticins.com, call (603) 431-4020 or use the form above.

Sources

• Maine Legislature: 24-A M.R.S. §3061 (hurricane deductible program standards)
• Bureau of Insurance Rule 960, §4, as published by Cornell’s Legal Information Institute
• Rule Chapter 960, section 3: definitions (via Justia Regulations)
• Maine Bureau of Insurance Bulletin 398: forecast zones and towns for Rule 960
• NWS Gray public information statement: new flood of record at Portland, January 13, 2024
• Portland Press Herald, January 13, 2024: historic coastal flooding and high winds
• Portland Press Herald, January 18, 2024: storm damage assessments in Cape Elizabeth, Scarborough and South Portland
• Maine DEP Coastal Sand Dune Rules, 06-096 C.M.R. ch. 355, §4 (via Cornell LII)
• Maine DEP: Common questions and general guidelines for repair or rebuilding in the coastal sand dune system
• FEMA Flood Map Service Center
• FloodSmart, the official NFIP site

This page is general information for owners of coastal homes in Maine. It is not legal advice and does not create, change or describe any particular policy; coverage depends on the policy form, endorsements and each insurer’s underwriting. Rules, maps and permit standards change from time to time, so confirm details with the agency responsible and with us. To talk through your own house, call (603) 431-4020.