Buying a coastal house with no windstorm certificate: what it means and what to do

If the coastal house you are buying has no windstorm certificate, find out why before anything else, because the reason decides whether it matters. A missing WPI-8 can mean the house and everything done to it predate the 1988 program, that a certificate exists but sits with TWIA rather than the department, or that work was done without the windstorm inspection the law required, and only the last of those is a problem for wind coverage through the association.

That last case has a remedy, but it takes time a closing date may not have. The scope and published price for certifying construction that is already complete are on the windstorm certification page.

A home inspection is not a windstorm inspection

Buyers sometimes assume the general home inspection covered it. It did not. Section 2210.254 of the Insurance Code says a windstorm inspection may be made only by a qualified inspector, approved and appointed or employed by the Texas Department of Insurance. A home inspector's report describes the house. The windstorm record is the department's, and it is checked separately.

First, search both places

Certificates are public. The department's search returns WPI-8 and WPI-8-E certificates by number or by address, and the association holds the WPI-8-C certificates it issued on applications from January 1, 2017 to May 31, 2020, which are not in the department's results. An empty result in one place is not an answer. The mechanics, including entering an address more than one way, are on the certificate lookup page.

Then compare what came back with the house. List the improvements you can see, such as the roof, the windows, a garage door, an enclosed patio or an addition, and match each to a certificate. The association's certification page lists the work that needs one, and it includes windows, entry doors and garage doors, patio covers and decks, and replacing a roof or a significant portion of one.

Then work out which reason applies

The house and every change to it predate 1988

The department's overview of the association says structures built before January 1, 1988 do not need a WPI-8. Section 2210.251 sets the conditions, which differ depending on whether the area had a building code the association recognizes, and in one case turn on proof of windstorm and hail coverage within the twelve months before the application. A seller's prior policy is evidence a buyer should ask for now, while the seller still has it. The detail is on the page about homes built before 1988.

The date belongs to the work, not to the house. A 1975 house with a roof replaced in 2021 has 2021 work on it, and that work is not covered by the house's age.

A certificate exists but is held by TWIA

Work certified as completed construction in the 2017 to 2020 window carries a WPI-8-C, which the association says remains valid and supplies on request through its own lookup. On the Coastal Bend that window opened the year Hurricane Harvey came ashore near Rockport, so a house repaired after Harvey is worth searching in both places.

Work after 1988 was never certified

This is the case that matters. Section 2210.258(b) says the association may not insure a structure with covered work until a certificate of compliance has issued, subject to that section's exceptions. The bar is written for the association. A private carrier's underwriting is its own and is not set by that section.

The exceptions a buyer can and cannot use

The association's certification page says a residential property built from 1988 to June 18, 2009 that is not certified may still be eligible, with a 15 percent surcharge on the premium. That is a cost, and it belongs in the buyer's numbers rather than in a surprise at binding.

Section 2210.258(c) covers a residential structure a private insurer canceled or nonrenewed, and the proof it accepts can relate to coverage issued to the applicant or to the previous insured. For a buyer, the previous insured is usually the seller, so the seller's cancellation or nonrenewal letter is a document to obtain before closing. The subsection's third condition, that no work was done on the structure between the cancellation and the application, is read line by line on the TWIA eligibility requirements page.

Section 2210.258(d) allows a policy term of no more than 30 days where a department inspection form has issued while the certificate is sought. It is a bridge with a fixed length, and it does not exist until the department's form does. Where the work has to be certified after the fact, the completed construction route and its published price are the place to start.

The remedy, and why it belongs before closing

Uncertified work that is already finished goes through the completed construction route. The department's system information page says the application is a signed WPI-2E with either a sealed post-construction inspection report and supporting documents, or a sealed design. Section 2210.2515(c-1) lets the department deny an application that is not fully documented.

The difficulty is evidence. The department requires inspectors to see work in progress, during and not before or after it, because the connections that matter are covered by the next layer of construction. A finished house has covered them all. Establishing what is behind a finished wall or under a finished roof can mean opening part of it, which is work, time and a conversation with the seller about whose house it still is. What the sealed report has to carry is on the post-construction evaluation report page.

Discovered inside an option period, this is a negotiation. Discovered two weeks before closing, with financing that requires wind coverage, it can move the closing. How the windstorm record behaves in a sale more generally is on the coastal closing page.

Two location checks that are easy to miss

The department's general questions page says a property in a Coastal Barrier Resource Area must have had a building permit or plat filed before June 11, 2003 to be insurable for wind and hail through the association. The county permitting office, the Fish and Wildlife Service district office or the department's windstorm field office can confirm it.

The department's overview of the association also says that for a structure built, altered, remodeled or enlarged on or after September 1, 2009 in certain V or VE flood zones, the association requires evidence of a flood policy where National Flood Insurance Program coverage is available. A Gulf front purchase can need both answers. The association's other conditions, including its policy limits, are on the TWIA insurance page.

A buyer's list

• Search the department's database and the association's lookup, by address in more than one form.
• List every visible improvement and match each to a certificate.
• Ask the seller for WPI-1 application numbers, contractor invoices, permits and the dates of each piece of work.
• If the house predates 1988, ask for the seller's windstorm and hail policy history for the last twelve months.
• If a private insurer canceled or nonrenewed the seller, ask for the letter and for anything built since it.
• Confirm whether the property is in a Coastal Barrier Resource Area and which flood zone it sits in.
• Have your agent confirm, before the option period ends, what the association or a private carrier will write on the house as it stands.

If the answer is that work has to be certified after the fact, start it while the contract still gives you room. The windstorm certification scope for a finished house is published, and an existing building with no recent work is quoted one property at a time.