Can't Get Insured Near Water
Help! My house is less than 1 mile away from a body of water and I’m having trouble getting insurance. I’ve tried State Farm, Allstate, Geico, and Liberty Mutual. No luck. Does anyone have this problem? Which company did you go with? TSC is the only one who said they could insure it, but I…
Help! My house is less than 1 mile away from a body of water and I’m having trouble getting insurance. I’ve tried State Farm, Allstate, Geico, and Liberty Mutual. No luck. Does anyone have this problem? Which company did you go with? TSC is the only one who said they could insure it, but I haven’t heard much about this company. Is it any good? Any complaints?
Thanks
This is UNBELIEVABLE! I decided to try to insure my house with TSC b/c the quote was so low. So, I call them back to start my application and they tell me that they can’t insure my house b/c it’s less than 1000 ft from the water! Why would you give me a quote if you can’t insure the place?!?!
As several other people mentioned, many companies have dropped out of coastal areas (including Allstate & State Farm). The companies are waiting for NY to be hit with a huge storm. I am an independent insurance agent located in Brooklyn. We have many clients within 1 mile of the coastline and have several companies willing to insure coastal regions (including Bay Ridge, DUMBO, and even beachfront in the Hamptons). Insurers are willing to do business in these areas- you just need to know which ones! Feel free to contact me…even if it’s just for advice.
William Smoltino
Narrows Insurance Agency
(718) 745-1500
I was initially accepted by TSC, after been dropped by Allstate like others above, but they came back within the first month and said they would have to increase my premium by 50 percent because they insisted my house was a three-family, even though it is a two-family house (I even had documentation from the city government to that effect, but they weren’t interested). So be prepared for the possibility that they will jack up your premium substantially once you’re feeling secure — my broker told me they’ve been doing that to a lot of people lately. I didn’t like their attitude, so I’ve gone elsewhere.
Thanks for all the responses. I’m going to check with some insurance brokers. All this talk about a hurricane and flooding is getting me very worried. I never used a broker before. If I don’t like the quotes that the broker gives me, can I go thru TSC directly? are you in any way obligated to use the broker after getting quotes thru one? TSC gave me a very good quote, but i’m worried about what crownheights2007.
Ironically, I had TSC insuring my Carroll Gardens Co-op for 3 years before they announced they were dropping me due to my proximity to the water. I was happy with TSC (have them for my car insurance too) but ended up having to move to Allstate for Homeowners insurance.
ok, let’s try this once again.
There are certain places on earth where natural phenomena occur. They are predictable and although random in distribution and location, consistent in their presence.
These trends have been studied and recorded over time.
For instance;
We know that there is a “ring of fire” along the Pacific ocean which is manifested by volcanic activity (75% of the earth’s volcanic activity) and earthquake activity (90% of the planet’s earthquake activity.
We know that the mid-western plains of the United states are the most active area of tornado activity on the planet and every summer brings massive atmospheric turbulence and a new crop of twisters.
We know that the strongest winds on earth are to be found at the top of Mt. Washington in New Hampshire.
We know that every year the Atlantic produces a crop of Hurricanes which start off the coast of Southern Africa, move Westward towards the Carribean and either turn upwards into the North Atlantic/Eastern seaboard or more commonly barrel over the carribbean and into the Gulf of Mexico.
We know that over the past hundred years of recorded hurricanes, there are a certain number of each catagory and most common routes taken. Analyzing the statistics allows scientists and meterologists to predict with some degree of certainty the probability of a hurricaine hitting a certain area.
Ergo, NYC is “due” for a Hurricane, based on past hurricane activity in this area. Not on some whim, like saying London is “due” for a hurricane (because London does not get hurricanes) or saying NYC is “due” for a volcanic eruption (because NYC is not lying over significant volcanic activity sites). It’s all about math and statistics you see. Sort of like saying we are due for rain soon, because, on average, if it hasn’t rained in NYC for 4 straight days, you can usually say it will rain soon. You can’t say the same in Las Vegas though, where it can go for weeks or months without rain.
by the way, this has nothing to do with the “global warming” debate. I happen to believe that the global warming activity is more of a planetary clyclical phenomenon rather than a strictly man-made problem. This is based on the fact that we have had ice ages and warming trends before the existence of man. I also hear that Mars is warming up… and Mars has no humans according to Rover.
I think Joe the Bummer’s point was that the path of hurricanes is not consistently predictable a long way ahead of time. While hurricanes happen somewhere every year the fact that one happened recently does not immunize an area for any period of time. Nor does the fact that one has not hit a particular area for a long time make it more or less likely that it will be hit soon (although it probably makes people in the latter area more complacent, which is dangerous of course). The journalists that say that NYC is ‘due’ for a hurricane are probably misquoting meteorologists.
I know that there is an argument that global warming is making hurricanes in general more common and more severe, but that would seem to increase the probability of anywhere getting hit rather than one particular place. FWIW, one of the country’s leading hurricane experts (Professor Gray at Colorado State) is a major academic opponent of the theory of man-made global warming.
Not to say it can’t or won’t happen here…
I have a house on the North Fork about a block from the beach, my insurance company is Amica.
We were also was dropped by Failstate. Two years back. F them.
What I really don’t get about all of this…
You know 100% damn well that no matter who is insuring you, if and when a big one comes, they ain’t paying you squat for your hurricane waterlogged home. So why bother dropping policies to begin with?