Posted on 05/31/2006 5:08:40 PM PDT by dasboot
I was notified by my insurance agent that our policy carrier was unwilling to re-up our contract. Reason: 'cost of re-insurance too high'.
No other explanation. Last week I got a notice from my agent that the only insurance I could get was through the MA 'Fair Plan'...state program for problem properties...at DOUBLE the cost.
So I called another agent. She said, "Give me the address."
"Ohhhhh". [And not a good "Ohhhhh"].
She tells me that insurance carriers are, en masse, cancelling insurance contracts [when up for renewal] on any property that is within one mile of a major body of water!
What's going on??? Is this MA only? Nation-wide? A greenie plot to vacate the waterfronts? The fallout of Katrina?
Anyone else getting the screw? Can't find a thing on line about it. Pardon the vanity...don't know where else to find info.
I'm 85' above sea level. About a mile inland from the Atlantic. I'm hoping for a life preserver, here. Getting ready to retire on a tight budget....I can't take much more of this price-gouging. What to do?
Sitting under air-conditioned house arrest for the whole summer is no fun either. I'm in AL.
After a hailstorm severely damaged the siding on my house, my insurance company paid a small fortune to have the siding replaced. There was no threat of cancellation nor a rate increase.
Shortly after 9/11, my house insurance doubled. DOUBLED, for no reason other than insurance company jitters.
I read recently -- it was probably here on FR -- that FEMA is changing its definitions of flood plain area in order to have an...ahem..."larger pool" of mandatory flood insurance payors to replenish their finances. Michigan isn't much of a threat for major flooding, especially hurricane related, but they felt it safe to sock flyover country with the costs of rebuilding the coasts.
I ordered some bare root shrubs (don't have room for any more trees and a lot cheaper) and only three out of about six or seven seem to be taking hold.
Too bad about the neighbor and the dogs. If the heat gets turned up too high, I'll probably capitulate and have it taken down because of the stress of it.
I always got along with my neighbors but one, then I felt guilty and apologized to him, so I don't have my harsh words on my conscience after he died. He was always picking on me for not keeping my area by the alley neater, I wasn't doing anything illegal and was frantically trying to got to school, work and raise three kids by myself.
For the first time, I am trying to get an area behind the garage planted with perenniels and ground cover.
I think what may force me to move is not any people but this two or three varieties of creeping stuff that climbs on everything if you don't keep it pulled down. Didn't used to have such a problem with it, but roots spread from miles away it seems :-). All underground, waiting to pop up unless you whack it. It covered my former next door neighbor's house and entire garage. I notice the whole north side of the house across the street is covered with the stuff. It looks kind of quaint, but they don't want it getting under their siding or roof shingles. It does keep things cooler if that's what you want. That stuff will climb anything. My I digress.
Mainiac, I'm so glad you are getting a new stove, and that is hard work living like you grew up. Everybody has to pitch in. New Englanders except the fruitcake liberals are one tough bunch. Maybe there some tough fruitcakes in that bunch. If it dries out enough, fruitcake is hard as nails.
I meant that last post of mine for you, too, and didn't get your screen name right.
It probably has something to do with this:
http://www.rense.com/general56/tsu.htm
Way back in 1965 the diamond solitaire stone fell out of my wife's wedding set which had been given to me by my widowed mother for when I got married to give to my wife.
We finally concluded that it had fallen out when we were at the roller derby arena in L.A. somewhere up in the bleacher seats.
She never stopped searching until we moved to Monterey.
I've found that victuals go a long way to ease the alimentary unease caused by vicissitudes.
"However, the destruction in the United Kingdom will be as nothing compared to the devastation reeked on the eastern seaboard of the United States."
Something already reeks. :)
That was what occurred to me as well. The massive class-action lawsuit that you *know* is coming will probably result in that software being appropriately fine-tuned.
If it's Katrina-related, it could be a move to mitigate the expense and aggravation of defending against countless countless lawsuits brought by people whose houses flooded, and who are claiming "wind-driven water" or otherwise trying to cover their lack of flood insurance by litigating.
I wonder if adding flood insurance would remove you from the "problem properties" listing. At that elevation, flood coverage should be cheap. It's worth a phone call to find out (if you don't already have flood coverage, that is).
I have wondered why a developer (BIG developer) hasn't come into Prunedale and bought up all the land and master-planned a community there. I think Prunedale is beautiful and prime for an upscale development.
Flood is not covered by homeowner's insurance so the fact that dasboot is 85 feet above sea level is moot. He is one mile from a body of water-a bay. Hurricane damage is what homeowner's covers and it is just too expensive for the insurance companies to offer a product to those in statistically prone areas for 'cane damage. Dasboot says he had a roof claim after a hurricane in 1990 so there is history.
Only if served on brown rice.
Same thing happened to us last month on a house we have owned in Orleans for over 10 years - insurance went from 990 to 1638!
There is a big development planned on San Juan Road. 1000s of homes to go in. It is in the County General plan. Big problem for the area is water. Can't dam the Salinas or Carmel rivers thanks to the tree huggers.
See my post #173
Did you get forced into 'fair plan'?
My next tack is to contact some area Realtors, and find out where they're directing their buyers who're getting their offers together.
I checked a map....I'm more than a mile from any part of the bay, the only thing that close, is a tributary creek of Apponagansett Bay. That's .80 of a mile. Marsh.
Thanks for the help and direction...and the comforting rants.
You are right that homeowner's insurance do not cover flood damage. But since the insurance company seemed to be making an issue over how close the home was to a body of water. I figured establishing that the home was well above base flood elevation might be a good start.
I know after Katrina some cases were filed against insurance companies that refused to cover flood damage from storm surge. Not sure if anything ever came of that, but perhaps the insurance companies are cancelling policies as a preemptive strike.
If the insurance company is cancelling because they fear a claim for wind storm damage I would want to know if the house was built to meet either current building code or the American Society of Civil Engineers standard for wind loads for that region. If the house was not built to meet either of those standards I would have an engineer determine how the house could be modified to meet the windloads.
If it can be shown that the house meets the windloads I do not understand how the insurance company can cancel because of potential wind storm hazard.
Your reply makes sense, but the insurance companies can refuse to renew for no reason at all--just like the signs you see in mini-marts--we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.
Those who live within a mile of the coastlines, those on mapped earthquake faults in California, and also those in California that live in wildfire prone areas, are seeing their policies go up substantially or not be renewed as they have proven over the past couple of years to be bad risks with many claims to be paid. It is a business after all.
BTW I am not affliated with nor work for any insurance company, I have just been following the insurance industry closely in the papers and on the 'net since the 2003 wildfires in California.
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