Commercial Property Insurance in Houston, TX

Here is the mechanic the template pages skip. Inside TWIA’s designated catastrophe area — the first-tier coastal counties plus the slice of Harris County east of SH 146 — standard property policies generally exclude wind and hail, and the coverage is bought back separately. West of that line it is usually inside the policy.

Eligibility diagram Not to scale

For a commercial building inside the area, the buyback usually means one of two placements.

TWIA commercial

The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association writes wind and hail for commercial buildings and business personal property, sold only through registered agents, with maximum limits it re-files each year. We do not print the current maximum here — it moves annually and a stale figure on a web page is worse than no figure. Ask and we will read you today’s.

TWIA is an association of the insurers writing in Texas, not a state agency, and eligibility has real conditions: the property must sit inside the designated area, you must have been turned down by at least one authorized insurer writing wind there, and the structure needs a windstorm certificate of compliance (WPI-8), with limited exceptions. We are a registered TWIA agency.

Surplus lines wind

Where the admitted market declines the peril, a surplus lines placement can carry it. The honesty requirement applies every time: a surplus lines carrier is not licensed in Texas and is not backed by the state guaranty association. Available is not the same as equivalent, and we say which one we are quoting.

West of the line

Wind and hail sit inside the policy, subject to a deductible stated as a percentage of the building limit. Percentages hide numbers: on a $1,000,000 building, a 2 percent wind and hail deductible is $20,000 out of pocket before the policy pays anything. We convert every percentage to dollars before you buy, not after the storm. (Round numbers, for illustration.)

Flood is neither of these. Water rising from outside is a third policy entirely — see flood insurance.

Sources: TWIA — coverage and eligibility; TDI — windstorm insurance and the designated catastrophe area. Verified 27 July 2026.

Commercial property is quoted on the building itself, so the questions are specific and most of the answers are on paperwork you already have:

• The address. It settles the wind question, the flood question and the fire-protection class all at once.
• The building. Year built, square footage, construction type — frame, masonry, steel — and the roof: age and covering material, which carriers ask about harder every year on the Gulf Coast.
• Updates. When the roof, wiring, plumbing and HVAC were last replaced. An older building with a documented update history quotes very differently from an older building without one.
• What is inside. A working replacement value for contents, stock and equipment, and whether anything unusual lives there.
• The current declarations page, if you have one. It gives us your limits, deductibles, coinsurance percentage and valuation basis in about thirty seconds.

If you own the building but lease it out, say so. A landlord’s exposure is a different conversation from an owner-occupant’s and the policy forms differ.