Good/Bad Insurance Cos?
We are closing on a house in the slope in October… gulp. So we’re at the point where need to get insurance for that right away. I found good agents (liberty mutual, brownstone, allstate) from referrals and reading postings here, and now we are ready to compare quotes. But one thing occurs to me. Does…
We are closing on a house in the slope in October… gulp. So we’re at the point where need to get insurance for that right away. I found good agents (liberty mutual, brownstone, allstate) from referrals and reading postings here, and now we are ready to compare quotes. But one thing occurs to me. Does anyone have experience positive or negative, with an actual insurance company on claims? Because all the quote really tells me is price. If one company is good and another awful, that probably matters more than price…although of course we hope we never need to make a claim…
thanks everybody for sharing your thoughts on this. sorry if this repeats an earlier convo.. I could not find this info from a search.
Brownstone is always hard to reach, low-balled our claim, and we still haven’t received all our money yet!
I just noticed they have an ad box on the Forum home page.
I tried Brownstone but phone calls were never answered and they seemed pretty unprofessional. Ended up talking to a friend of mine that is a broker and he helped place my brownstone in something called the NY Brick & Brownstone program and everything seems fine – though I haven’t had to make a claim either. The only problem is I think this program is only accessable through a broker, but the price was great.
Lou Marrotta is my broker and he recently moved from a LI brokerage to Modica Associates in Brooklyn (718-855-1836). Good luck!
I can second State Farm, although I haven’t made a claim (knock wood). I have heard that Brownstone isn’t responsive for claims via a friend who had them.
I have Chubb. We had a huge leak and our roof was destroyed (resulting in a total roof tear off to the tune of $35K) and they refused to acknowledge that we had a loss. BEWARE of Chubb.
I’ve had Allstate for six years on a Bklyn co-op and claimed once for water damage to the floors from the apartment next door. (My premium did not go up.) They first denied the claim, because they said I didn’t file within 48 hours, but my agent backed me up that I called within the time period even if I didn’t file at the time. I received an amount that would replace the floors minus depreciation (from the date of the original floors in the 80s. They said my policy covered replacement of what I had, not for something better than I had.) I could also submit hotel expenses if I left while the work was being done, though I didn’t end up doing that. At first they said checks more than $10K had to go through your mortgage lender, but after sending to two wrong addresses, they canceled that check, and sent a new one directly to me, which had to be endorsed by the bank. The neighbor’s insurer (Chubb) had some sort of good neighbor clause that picked up my deductible as well as the co-op’s renovation fee. The process wasn’t a picnic, but the adjuster and agent were responsive to my many calls.
I use liberty for everything right now.. although i haven’t had a claim (knock on wood).. i do like their customer service ..always helpful.
I use State Farm. Never had a claim, but I do like dealing with my agent. We had to have flood as well- so it’s expensive- but the agent and his office that I deal with are really easy to talk to. His name is Mike Berardino, 914 232 7444
petunia – i think allstate doesn’t cover parts of LI due to the hurricane issues but as far as i know, they still cover NYC.