What This License Is
An Alabama Property license covers coverage on physical property and its direct loss — homeowners, dwelling fire, commercial property, inland marine and the property half of package policies.
Alabama offers this line both ways, which not every state does: you can sit a standalone Property exam, a standalone Casualty exam, or the combined Property & Casualty paper. In practice almost nobody takes the singles. ALDOI's 2025 report records 10 Property exams and 9 Casualty exams given all year, against 1,800 combined P&C. If you want the full property-casualty book, the combined route is covered in the [P&C guide](/insurance/alabama/property-and-casualty/licensing-guide).
Note also what Property does not include. Personal Lines is a separate, narrower line of authority in Alabama with its own exam — holding Property does not confer it, and holding Personal Lines does not confer Property.
Exam Options & Format
The Property exam is 100 questions in 2 hours, needing 70 correct — a raw 70%, no scaling, no series number.
Its parts run 30 questions of P&C fundamentals, 30 of personal lines, 24 of commercial lines, and 16 of Alabama insurance law. Against the combined P&C paper (150 questions, 20 of Alabama law) the standalone gives you slightly less state law in absolute terms but the same proportion of your attention.
Pass rates on a line this thin are not meaningful in the way they are elsewhere: ALDOI recorded 7 first-time Property candidates in 2025, of whom 5 passed. Treat that 71% as a curiosity rather than a forecast. The statistically useful figure for anyone weighing the combined route is the P&C paper's 56% first-time rate, which is the lower of the two main Alabama producer exams.
You can sit Property in a classroom or online through ProctorU for the same $50 — the [Health guide](/insurance/alabama/health-only/licensing-guide) covers the online route, its hardware rules and its stricter ID requirements.
Most Tested Topics on the Alabama Property Exam
Alabama's property law is shaped by two things: a coastline that the voluntary market treats warily, and a rate-regulation system that splits down the middle between personal and commercial lines.
| Concept | The Alabama rule |
|---|---|
| Rate regulation | ⚠️ A split system. Personal lines P&C = prior approval. Commercial lines = file-and-use (482-1-123-.04(a)-(b)) |
| Rate statutes | Ala. Code §§ 27-13-4, 27-13-30, 27-13-68 |
| Credit-based insurance scoring | Permitted but tightly restricted — the scoring model must be filed with ALDOI (482-1-127, esp. -.05 and -.06) |
| FAIR plan | Yes — the Alabama Insurance Underwriting Association (AIUA), the state's coastal beach pool |
| Who AIUA serves | The market of last resort for property owners in Baldwin and Mobile counties, Alabama's two coastal counties |
| Dominant catastrophe perils | Gulf hurricane and storm surge on the Baldwin/Mobile coast; tornado inland — Alabama sits in Dixie Alley |
| Surplus lines prerequisite | A resident property and casualty producer license, a high school diploma, and 3 years of recent full-time P&C experience (Reg 36) |
| Surplus lines diligent effort | Required — a documented search of the admitted market |
| Surplus lines tax | 6% of direct premiums less return premiums, on risks whose home state is Alabama |
| Surplus lines remittance | Paid to the State Treasurer through the commissioner on or before March 1 each year (§ 27-10-31) |
| Producer recordkeeping | 3 years — 2 years for limited lines credit business (§ 27-7-33) |
| Nonrenewal of homeowners | ⚠️ No general individual statute. 482-1-136 governs block nonrenewals only |
The rate-regulation split is the highest-value item here and the one most often stated wrongly. Calling Alabama a "file-and-use state" is half right and therefore wrong: personal lines property and casualty rates require prior approval, while commercial lines are file-and-use. If a question puts a homeowners rate change in front of you, the answer is prior approval; if it puts a commercial package in front of you, it is file-and-use.
The second is a gap rather than a rule. Alabama has no general statute requiring notice before nonrenewing an individual homeowners policy. Rule 482-1-136 imposes notice duties — 150 days to the Commissioner, 120 days to policyholders — but only where an insurer is restricting or nonrenewing a category or group of existing insureds, that is, a block. And Ala. Code § 27-23-28 sits in the auto article and says in terms that nothing in that article applies to nonrenewal. Candidates who reason by analogy from auto get this wrong. The [Personal Lines guide](/insurance/alabama/personal-lines/licensing-guide) works through the cancellation rules that do exist.
Where to Sit the Exam — Alabama's Five College Classrooms
Alabama does not use commercial testing centers. Exams are delivered by The University of Alabama College of Continuing Studies in borrowed classrooms on five campuses, on fixed days at fixed start times. Understanding that format is worth more than memorizing the addresses, because it changes how you plan.
| City | Site | Typical schedule |
|---|---|---|
| Birmingham | Jefferson State Community College, Lurleen Wallace Building Room 322, 2601 Carson Road, Birmingham AL 35215 | Multiple dates, 9:00 a.m. |
| Huntsville | University of Alabama in Huntsville, Wilson Hall Room 214, 960 Ben Graves Drive, Huntsville AL 35899 | Thursdays, 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. |
| Mobile | Bishop State Community College, Business Technology Center Room 159, 351 North Broad Street, Mobile AL 36603 | Multiple dates, 8:30 a.m. |
| Tuscaloosa | University Hall, 275 Kilgore Lane, Tuscaloosa AL 35487 | Mondays, 8:30 a.m. |
| Montgomery | Alabama State University, Ralph Abernathy Annex, 1625 Harris Way, Montgomery AL 36104 | Scheduled Thursdays 12:30 p.m. and Mondays 8:30 a.m. |
A note on Montgomery. The vendor's main static page still carries the line "this location is currently unavailable", but Montgomery sessions are bookable in the live registration catalog at the Alabama State University address above. If you are planning around Montgomery, book from the catalog rather than trusting the summary page — and expect the two to disagree for a while yet.
What the format actually means for you. There is no continuous appointment window and no evening or weekend testing. You choose a session, not a slot. Registration closes 7 days before the test date, so a Monday-morning Tuscaloosa sitting must be booked by the previous Monday. Arrive 15 minutes early; the proctor starts on time and late arrivals are turned away.
And once you have paid, the booking is frozen. You may not change the date, the time or the site, and the fee is not refundable — Alabama offers no reschedule window at all, which is unlike essentially every commercial vendor. The [Life & Health guide](/insurance/alabama/life-and-health/licensing-guide) covers the exam-day rules and the narrow documented exceptions in full.
The alternative is testing online, through ProctorU, at the same fee and schedulable for any time — which for a candidate in Dothan, Florence or Gadsden, none of which has a site, is likely to be the shorter journey. Check the hardware rules first: no Chromebooks, and a current physical photo ID.
What It Costs
$50 for the Property exam, $80 to ALDOI for the license, $5 to NIPR — $135 published, on a first-time pass. Adding Casualty later means another $50 exam and a second NIPR application with its own state fees, which is the arithmetic that pushes almost everyone toward the $75 combined paper.
Add $49.20 for the Fieldprint appointment. If surplus lines is your destination, budget for the prerequisites too — Alabama requires a resident P&C producer license plus three years of recent full-time P&C experience before you can hold a surplus line broker license, so the Casualty exam is a gating cost as much as a fee.
Eligibility Requirements
Alabama asks for 18 years of age (§ 27-7-5(a)(1)), a passing exam, a Fieldprint background check and proof of citizenship. No pre-licensing education has been required since 1 January 2024, when Rule 482-1-147-.03 was repealed.
Property producers should note the recordkeeping rule early, because it applies from your first transaction: Ala. Code § 27-7-33 requires complete records of all transactions under the license to be kept at your place of business for not less than three years, furnished to the commissioner in verified copy on request, and exhibited to insureds during business hours. That last obligation — showing records to the insured, not just the regulator — is easy to overlook.
Keeping Your Property License Active
Important CE details: 24 credit hours per biennial renewal period, of which 3 must be insurance producer ethics (Rule 482-1-110-.05(1)). A credit hour is at least 50 minutes. There are NO line-specific splits — any approved course counts regardless of the license you hold — and NO carryover: excess hours are lost at the end of the period.
24 credit hours per two-year period, 3 of them insurance producer ethics, with a credit hour defined as at least 50 minutes. Alabama applies no line-specific split — a property producer may satisfy the whole requirement with any approved courses — and permits no carryover of excess hours between periods.
The Commissioner will not approve courses that prepare candidates for initial licensure, so you cannot recycle exam-prep material as CE (482-1-110-.06(3)). Renewal timing, the birth-year parity cycle, the 30-day grace period and the reinstatement window are all covered in the [P&C guide](/insurance/alabama/property-and-casualty/licensing-guide).
Quick Reference
Official Links
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