Insurance - Brownstone Agency for Better Pricing

We have received outlandish quotes to insure our 3 family, 20×40 brownstone: the *best* option is Berkley One, clocking in at $31,000 per YEAR. Chubb is roughly the same, and has said they will not renew policies after May 2024 anyway (thanks, guys). Pure would not even provide a quote. We have owned the property for 20 years and never made a claim. Through 2022, we paid approx. $6,000 a year with Chubb. I have come full circle back to Brownstone Agency, which we used years ago. I always found them kind of loosey goosey (sending renewals like 2 days before expiration, etc) and was spooked by negative reviews of their claims process. Does anyone have experience with claiming on Brownstone Agency policies? I’d like to go in with realistic expectations. Thank you!

Archiefina

in General Discussion 1 year and 3 months ago

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Archiefina | 1 year and 2 months ago

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Just some more info: by increasing the deductible considerably, I can bring Berkley down to about 19K. While Berkley’s $7.4M coverage is ridiculous, so is Brownstone Agency’s proposed $1M policy (which was my coverage in 2004, when we purchased). I’ll see if Brownstone can increase their coverage amount. I’m actually leaning towards Berkley for peace of mind.

xuytbjicwnofjdde | 1 year and 2 months ago

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My guess is that it’s not as much about the value of the house as it is the replacement cost. These companies are basing premiums off of some formula of worst case scenario of cost to rebuild a total loss, the likelihood of that loss, and a little generic “inflation” bump (a little greed for good measure). Same exact sized house in one neighborhood can obviously be worth twice as much or half has much if it were in another neighborhood in Brooklyn. But cost to rebuild it is the same in any neighborhood, as we are all part of the same labor and raw material market. And now flood zone is obviously a bigger deal. Given the minuscule chance of total loss, and if you can handle damages yourself, it makes more and more sense to go with a discount carrier.

RobertGMarvin

in General Discussion 1 year and 2 months ago

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FWIW my last couple of three year renewals with Brownstone Agency were handled much better than earlier.

catboot | 1 year and 2 months ago

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Same here. We had Chubb until they decided to quadruple the rate telling us that they have appraised our brownstone at 6 million (at which point I offered to sell it to them immediately). Our homes, beloved as it is, it not worth a third of that. Anyway…. After searching all over, we begrudgingly went back to Brownstone Agency. I don’t like them and agree with the OP that they are not the most buttoned up operation and routinely screwed up the renewal process when we had coverage through them years ago. Fingers crossed that maybe they got their act together?

hkapstein | 1 year and 3 months ago

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Personally, I expect little from a claims process. I carry a high deductible and fix minor damage at my own expense, while the insurance is only intended to cover large claims I’d be willing to take to court if I had to. I’d never want an insurance company holding me hostage to fix 20k of damage in my home that I paid them with my own premiums. And so far, the insurance companies seem pretty happy with this arrangement too.

RobertGMarvin

in General Discussion 1 year and 3 months ago

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Only one minor claim, settled >40 years ago. I’ve been civered by Brownstone Agency since 1974.