I hate insurance!

[encorehunter]

I hate to dig up a dead thread, but I'm having a few problems with insurance right now. I purchased a home in the country last year, and it is rated at a "95" on the wildfire scale. It was insured by the bank for the first year and I got it under American Family in September, where my other houses and vehicles are insured. I received a letter cancelling my insurance Dec. 31st and a check for the remaining amount. my agent has even called all the othernlocal agents and can not find anyone who will insure it.

My only claim was when a car drove through my yard causing aboutm $4k in damage that was reimbursed by the car insurance. The car insurance company would not pay me directly, and my agent said this would be the best oute to get the damages fixed. My crdit is excellent, so I doubt it would have anything to do with that, and no car insurance claims.

Any ideas from the insurance guys? I have done a lot of wildfire mitigation, metal roof, fire rated concrete siding, every thjng I can think of has been done.

[Gman]

I'm getting the impression that some insurance companies just want out of Colorado. With our hail and fire risks, they just want to take their woobie and go home.

[Dave_L]

Yeah, some properties can be hard to insure. I'd be happy to look at it as we don't operate on the "score" system like AmFam. However, do you know how far to the nearest fire station you are? That can be a big thing along with the value of your home. The higher the value, the closer they want you to be. Just a lot of money on the line so the risk margin shrinks.

You may want to call up some independent agencies yourself. A lot of the independent agencies have companies that either aren't on board with all the rules the local companies have gone with, or are ok with taking the risk to get any/all business they can.

Insurance is a terrible gig in Colorado. Seriously. Between hail, snow, fires, etc, there is no "off season". Most insurance companies are losing money because of the amount of claims going out. Look at a roof claim. Average is $8,000 and if your premium is $1,000, that will take 8 years to break even assuming you dont get hit again (which is nearly a annual thing now in CO). Throw in a totaled car claim for 10k because of hail and now multiply that be the entire state and its bad. Thats not even counting regular accidents and home claims.

Feel free to shoot me a PM. Ive been doing this for 13 years now and have seen all the changes. Its a headache so I'm happy to help you wade through it.

[Irving]

It has nothing to do with you, your credit, or your past claim. A lot of companies have decided to become very strict on what they will insure. The frequency of complaints from my customers having received that same letter has risen from zero last year, to a couple times a month this year.

If Dave can't help you, have him send you my way.

[Alpha2]

I wonder about calling "local" on insurance. These outfits re-sell insurance in much larger markets to reduce their exposure to these things. If they are doing it right, there is no such thing as "local" insurance. Just because of the hail, or fire, or earthquake, etc. etc. But, don't expect them to let you know that. That way they can gig you for your particular "local" issues. I know that in Michigan, it was all about tornadoes. Then in Colorado, it was all about hail. In Cali, it was all about earthquakes. But nobody re-sells in just that area. That would be stupid. Insurance companies aren't stupid. They just want you to think that they are.
Or, I could be wrong, and the insurance companies could have your interests in mind, and not their own. Yeah, that's it!

[Irving]

I think Dave was more referring to local agencies, not the companies themselves. They do sell in other markets to spread risk, but that isn't always enough to prevent losses, as we've seen with big hurricanes and more recently our own wildfires and hail. Policies are written to be different depending on location though. For example, The Hartford will only insure roofs at actual cash value here, and Allstate no longer has a matching clause for roof and siding materials in Colorado.