Pennsylvania Property & Casualty: Pennsylvania Property & Casualty Law

Correct

The answer is A: Residential and commercial property at a fixed location, including buildings and contents.

The Pennsylvania FAIR Plan (Fair Plan Act, 40 P.S. § 1600.101 et seq.) provides basic property insurance (the perils of the standard fire policy and extended coverage, plus vandalism and malicious mischief) on real and tangible personal property at a fixed location, both residential and commercial, for eligible risks that cannot obtain that coverage in the normal insurance market. It excludes motor vehicle and farm insurance, so it is not limited to owner-occupied dwellings, to commercial and industrial buildings, or to personal property alone.

Source: Insurance Code §1600.101

Correct

The answer is B: No, because a policy cannot exclude liability that the Act imposes on employers.

A workers' compensation insurer assumes the employer's liability under the Act (WCA section 305(a)(1), 77 P.S. 501), so a policy exclusion cannot cut back coverage for an injury the Act makes compensable. Whether an off-premises lunch injury is compensable is a separate question: under WCA section 301(c)(1) (77 P.S. 411(1)), an injury away from the employer's premises is in the course of employment only if the employee was actually engaged in the furtherance of the employer's business or affairs. Lunch-break injuries are neither always covered nor never covered, and either way the Act, not the policy, decides compensability.

Reviewed in our October 2026 Pennsylvania fact-check.

Correct

The answer is A: A personal residence the voluntary market declined to insure due to its high-crime location.

The Pennsylvania FAIR Plan (Fair Plan Act, 40 P.S. § 1600.101 et seq.) provides basic property insurance to insurable property at a fixed location in Pennsylvania that cannot get it in the normal market, and the Act sets no number of declinations. A residence the voluntary market turned down because of its high-crime location qualifies: the Act bars the facility from considering environmental hazards beyond the owner's control when it decides whether property is insurable. Farm property is outside the Plan, and the Plan's rules make ineligible a building under a government order to vacate as unsafe and one vacant more than a year with no renovation or sale planned.

Source: Insurance Code §1600.101

Correct

The answer is C: It must give the named insured 60 days' written notice stating specific reasons.

Under Article XX of the Insurance Company Law (40 P.S. § 991.2001 et seq.), a nonrenewal is not effective unless written notice is mailed or delivered to the named insured at least 60 days before the effective date. The notice must state the specific reasons and tell the insured of the right to ask the Insurance Commissioner to review the nonrenewal within 30 days. A shorter 15-day period applies only when the reason is nonpayment or a license or registration suspension. An auto policy does not renew by silence in a way that excuses notice, notice to a lienholder alone does not satisfy the statute, and the duty is not limited to driving-record nonrenewals.

Source: Insurance Code §991.2001

Correct

The answer is A: The Commissioner may disapprove it only on specific provisions of law or insufficient support, and must give written reasons.

Article V-A of the Insurance Company Law (the Property and Casualty Filing Reform Act) governs commercial forms. Forms for small commercial risks are filed at least 45 days before their effective date and may be used 45 days after filing unless the Commissioner approves or disapproves them sooner (section 505-A). Disapproval must rest only on specific provisions of applicable law, regulations or statements of policy, or on insufficient supporting information (section 507-A(b)), and the Department must notify the insurer in writing with the reasons (section 508-A). Section 477b, with its 30-day deemer, is the personal-lines rule. Being standard in the industry does not oblige approval or bar disapproval where one of those grounds exists, CERCLA is federal environmental liability law and does not displace Pennsylvania's form review, and the Article sets no premium-reduction test.

Reviewed in our October 2026 Pennsylvania fact-check.