New Hampshire Property Study Guide

Most states approve fire forms and leave the terms to the filing. New Hampshire prints the entire standard fire policy in its statute book and makes its use mandatory — so in this part, the appraisal clause and the proof-of-loss deadline are not policy language that varies by carrier. They are statutory text, and you can be asked to recite them.

The standard fire policy — the statute is the form

RSA 407:22 is titled “New Form Adopted,” and it does exactly that: “The Standard Fire Policy … shall be in the following form,” after which the statute prints the policy. RSA 407:2 makes its use required.

Three details about that form get tested. It carries no edition year — it is not the New York “165 lines” form, though it descends from the same lineage. Coverage attaches at 12:01 AM Standard Time. And the policy period is whatever the parties insert: “for the term of years specified above from inception date shown above … to expiration date shown above.” There is no statutory fixed policy period in New Hampshire.

The claim clocks

Within the RSA 407:22 form, the insured must render proof of loss within 60 days after the loss. Then RSA 407:12 closes the loop from the other side: “The amount of loss under a fire insurance policy shall be due and payable in 60 days after receipt by the insuring company of proof of loss.” Sixty to prove, sixty to pay.

Note the contrast candidates transpose: the health line’s proof of loss is 90 days (RSA 415:6, I(7)). Property is 60.

Appraisal — read the words “any 2”

The appraisal clause in the statutory form reads that each party “shall select a competent and disinterested appraiser,” the two select an umpire, and “an award in writing … of any 2 when filed … shall determine the amount.”

That is not the clause most candidates carry in. It does not say the two appraisers must agree and the umpire breaks a deadlock. It says any two of the three — which means an umpire plus one appraiser produces a binding award over the other appraiser’s objection.

Subrogation in the same form is framed as the insurer’s option: the company “may require from the insured an assignment of all right of recovery against any party for loss.”

Cancellation and nonrenewal — the 90-day side of the pair

Personal property cancellation runs under RSA 417-B, which reaches “personal, family, and household risks” — real property, personal property and legal liability. It does not reach automobile (that is RSA 417-A) or workers’ compensation, and commercial risks go to RSA 417-C entirely.

After a policy has been in effect 90 days — “or if a policy is a renewal, effective immediately” — an insurer may cancel only for six enumerated grounds: nonpayment; conviction of a crime having as an element an act increasing an insured hazard; discovery of fraud or material misrepresentation by the named insured in pursuing a claim under the policy — note the limit, since application misrepresentation is not a listed ground; grossly negligent acts or omissions substantially increasing the hazard; physical changes making the property uninsurable; and the insured’s own request.

Notice is 45 days, cut to 10 days for nonpayment — or where the policy is not a renewal and the cancellation notice goes out within 90 days of the effective date. Both conditions are required for that second trigger. And RSA 417-B:3-a adds a strong consumer protection: nonrenewal is prohibited where it rests solely on the insured having filed a single valid claim in any one policy term — and a coverage inquiry that produces no payment is not a valid claim at all.

The guaranty association — learn the floor as well as the ceiling

The New Hampshire Insurance Guaranty Association (RSA 404-B) pays the lesser of the insolvent insurer’s own policy obligation or $300,000 per covered claim, with workers’ compensation claims paid in full.

Most candidates stop at the ceiling. There is also a floor: a covered claim must be “a net unpaid claim, in excess of $50” after deductions and commissions, and claims cannot be cumulated by assignment to clear it. Insureds with a net worth over $25,000,000 are excluded for liquidations ordered on or after August 23, 2003, and member assessments cap at 2 percent of net direct written premiums.

Rates, credit scores, and the market that isn’t there

Two sections do two jobs. RSA 412:15 sets the substantive standard — rates “shall not be excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory.” RSA 412:16 carries the mechanism: in a competitive market, personal-risk rates are filed at least 30 days before the effective date; in a non-competitive market a filing waits 30 days, extendable by the Commissioner up to 60 more. Predictive and telematics models must be filed too.

Credit-based insurance scores are permitted but restricted, and the operative word is solely: an insurer may not charge a higher homeowners or private passenger auto premium “solely on the basis of information obtained from a credit rating, a credit history, or a credit scoring model” (RSA 417:4, VIII(g)). Rule Ins 3300 adds the guardrails — no score may rest on income, sexual orientation, gender, religion, blindness or other disability, and insurers must make reasonable exceptions for extraordinary life circumstances.

Finally, a market that does not exist: New Hampshire has no FAIR Plan and no property residual facility. Hard-to-place property goes to the surplus lines market, where RSA 405:24 requires that coverage “shall not be placed until the producer has first satisfied the insurance commissioner that the producer cannot procure such an insurance in an admitted company.” The authority to create a plan exists and is unused — RSA 404-C:1 lets the Commissioner adopt one by rule after a hearing.