What does Citizens home insurance cover?

Which policy forms does Citizens write — HO-3, HO-6, DP-3?

Citizens issues its residential business under a family of forms rather than a single product. For owner-occupied, site-built homes, the main form is HO-3 (also labeled HW-2 in wind-only territory), a package policy bundling dwelling, other structures, personal property, additional living expenses, and liability. A more restricted alternative, HO-8, uses named-peril and actual-cash-value style loss settlement and is aimed at older homes. It excludes water damage, one of the most common causes of loss on Florida homes, so it is not a like-for-like substitute for HO-3. For properties that don’t qualify as an owner-occupied primary or secondary residence, such as a rental home, a seasonal property held for tenants, or a house that failed underwriting for the broader form, Citizens writes dwelling fire policies: DP-3 (or DW-2) with broader named-peril coverage, and the narrower DP-1 (or DW-1). Condo unit owners get HO-6 (HW-6). Mobile and manufactured homes have their own parallel set: MHO-3/MW-2 for owner-occupied units and MDP-1/MD-1 for tenant-occupied ones. Renters, whether in a house or a mobile home, are covered under HO-4/HW-4 or MHO-4, which insure contents and liability only, with no structure coverage. Which form applies to a given property is determined by occupancy, structure type, and underwriting eligibility, not by which one a homeowner would prefer to buy.

What separates an HO-3 from a DP-3 in practice?

HO-3 is built for an owner who lives in the home. It packages dwelling coverage on an open-perils basis with personal property, liability, and additional living expenses into one policy, and it is the form most Citizens policyholders in a single-family home actually hold. DP-3 exists for the properties HO-3 wasn’t designed for: homes rented out to tenants, seasonal or non-owner-occupied properties, and homes that don’t meet HO-3’s underwriting requirements. A DP-3 policy covers the dwelling, other structures, and the owner’s personal property left on-site, along with loss-of-rent coverage in place of additional living expenses, since the owner isn’t the one living there. The practical difference for a homeowner shopping between the two isn’t just eligibility. It’s what comes bundled. HO-3 is written as a full homeowners package. Dwelling fire forms like DP-3 are built around the structure and rental income first, with liability and some other coverages typically layered on as endorsements rather than included outright. Anyone buying a DP-3 policy for a rental property should confirm directly with Citizens or an agent which coverages are built in versus optional on that specific policy.

What does an HO-6 cover for a Florida condo owner?

HO-6 is the condo unit-owner’s form, and it is scoped to match how Florida condo ownership actually works: the association’s master policy covers the building’s exterior and common elements, while the unit owner is responsible for everything inside the unit. HO-6 covers the interior of the unit, often described as “walls-in” coverage. That includes interior walls, fixtures, flooring, and any improvements or betterments the owner has made, along with personal property, additional living expenses if the unit becomes uninhabitable, and personal liability. It does not cover the building’s roof, exterior walls, or common areas. That split is exactly why condo owners need to read their association’s master policy alongside their own HO-6, to see where one coverage stops and the other starts, and to size their own limits so they aren’t relying on an association special assessment to fill a gap.

How is sinkhole coverage handled versus catastrophic ground cover collapse?

These two coverages are frequently confused, and Citizens treats them very differently. Catastrophic ground cover collapse (CGCC) is built into most Citizens residential policies automatically, at no separate charge, consistent with the minimum coverage Florida law requires property insurers to provide. It only pays out, though, when a narrow, specific set of conditions is met: an abrupt collapse of the ground cover, a depression clearly visible to the naked eye, structural damage to the building including its foundation, and a governmental order condemning the structure and requiring it to be vacated. Full sinkhole loss coverage is a different, broader protection. It responds to confirmed sinkhole activity causing structural damage without requiring that same all-or-nothing combination of abrupt collapse and condemnation. On Citizens policies, sinkhole loss coverage is optional on HO-3, HO-8, and dwelling fire (DP-1/DP-3) policies, purchased as a separate endorsement, though it comes automatically included on tenant, condominium, and mobile home policies. Because a sinkhole claim can be expensive and hard to verify, Citizens requires a sinkhole inspection, a geotechnical or geological evaluation of the property, when an owner requests the optional endorsement on a property that meets certain conditions, and that inspection factors into whether and how the coverage is underwritten. The bottom line for a homeowner: every eligible Citizens policy already has some ground-collapse protection built in, but it is much narrower than full sinkhole coverage, which has to be requested and underwritten on its own.

Which limits and exclusions come up most often?

A few gaps are worth flagging before a homeowner assumes a Citizens policy covers everything. Flood damage is never included on any of these forms. Homeowners in flood-prone areas need a separate policy through the National Flood Insurance Program or a private flood carrier, regardless of which Citizens form they hold. HO-8, the modified homeowners form, excludes water damage entirely as part of its 11 named perils, which makes it a meaningfully different (and more limited) product than a standard HO-3, not simply a cheaper version of it. DP-1, the more basic dwelling fire form, similarly covers only a defined list of named perils rather than the broader open-perils basis DP-3 offers. And as noted above, liability coverage is standard on HO-3, HO-6, and HO-4 package policies but is commonly handled as an add-on rather than a default on dwelling fire forms, so a landlord relying on a DP policy should confirm liability is actually attached. As with any policy, the declarations page and policy forms Citizens issues for a specific property are the authoritative word on what is and isn’t covered. General descriptions like this one are a starting point for questions to ask, not a substitute for reading the actual policy.

What is a wind-only policy, and what does it leave to another carrier?

A wind-only policy covers exactly what its name says: loss from wind and hail, including hurricanes and tropical storms, and nothing else. It traces back to Citizens’ coastal wind-pool history, when the corporation’s predecessor programs existed specifically to insure windstorm risk in high-exposure coastal areas that private insurers wouldn’t touch. That history is still live today, not just a legacy footnote. Citizens’ current personal policy lineup still includes wind-only forms (HW-2, HW-4, HW-6, DW-2, MW-2, and MD-1, mirroring the HO-3/HO-4/HO-6/DP-3/mobile home forms they pair with), available in certain designated coastal areas. A homeowner who holds a wind-only policy needs a second, separate policy from another carrier, commonly called a difference-in-conditions or “multi-peril” companion policy, to cover the things wind-only leaves out: fire, theft, liability, water damage, and the other perils a standard homeowners or dwelling policy would normally include. Anyone shopping in a wind-pool-eligible coastal area should confirm with Citizens or an agent whether a property is being quoted wind-only or on a full multi-peril form, since the difference changes what a second policy needs to cover.