Insurers See Storm Clouds Over Brooklyn
Home insurers are increasingly dropping coverage or raising fees for Brooklynites, claiming the borough’s properties are in a high-risk hurricane zone—no matter how landlocked those properties happen to be. According to an article in New York Magazine, Allstate and other big firms have been nixing policies in neighborhoods like Park Slope and Ditmas Park, saying…
Home insurers are increasingly dropping coverage or raising fees for Brooklynites, claiming the borough’s properties are in a high-risk hurricane zone—no matter how landlocked those properties happen to be. According to an article in New York Magazine, Allstate and other big firms have been nixing policies in neighborhoods like Park Slope and Ditmas Park, saying they’re vulnerable to a Katrina-like catastrophe. “There’s no differentiation [in terms of] distance to water,” notes insurance broker Banach, who says he’s seeing two or three non-renewals every week. Sure, the city’s surrounded by water, but it seems pretty boneheaded to tax owners all over Brooklyn without regard to how close they are to the coast, or whether they’re in flood zones. As the flood maps show, not all areas are created equal when it comes to the threat of flooding. Anyone have trouble getting coverage lately?
The Storm Before the Storm [New York]
I, too, was dropped by ALLSTATE but told that my fate could have been different if I had multiple policies with them and not coming off a three year cycle. I was also told that my rate was going to shhot up 33% anyway, if they didn’t drop me.
Not a jerk – just a different political philosophy I guess…
I happen to think that people take risks every day and need to be responsible for those risks. Sadly most people dont understand insurance and just want everyone to pay pay pay when the risks we take end up hurting us.
Government does regulate insurance and addresses all complaints seriuosly.
But not understanding the risk you take (i.e. buyng a house in a hurricane zone, next to a raging river, or 2 feet above sea level) and how that can effect you is not the business of the government.
Maybe we should get rid of the entire insurance industry all together and let the government (i.e. tax payers) just pay everyone when anything goes wrong in our lives.
BTW – I read the article – seems to me the biggest disconnect is with replacement cost coverage versus actual cash value.
“They only offered to pay half the cost of fixing the damage…” If you have a ACV policy it doesnt pay to replace or fix damage, only what the depreciated value of the property was worth at the time of the loss…
Read your Policys! You get what you pay for.
THis guy who wrote this below needs to read the Bloomberg article post at 11.17
There needs to be some sort of government oversight on insurance companies like FDA for food and drugs.
What a jerk!
******
Insurance company’s are not stupid – greedy maybe – but not stupid.
Brookly and Manhattan are prime candidates for massive Hurricane destruction!
Regardless if you live on the top of the hill or next to the ocean, the reality is the insurance company is not covering for storm surge or flooding (that is a flood policy). Your proximatey, or lack thereof, to a flood zone is irrelevant in Hurricane (Windstorm) coverage. They are taking a gamble on some of the highest property values in the country for WIND and ensuing water damage from wind driven rain.
I work alot with insurance companys and all of you who bash them for not doing the right thing in Katrina are mislead. The folks insured down there had WIND coverage, not storm surge or flood.
The outcry of people trying to compell the insurance companies to pay for something they did not cover, and therefore did not collect premium for, is essentially the same argument as people in the subprime mess (banks and individuals) that are demanding a bailout from the government.
If you want to know why insurance company’s are pulling out of New York – Look no further than Katrina. Imagine the billions and billions this liberal state will try to force insurance companies to pay even when they had no intention of covering flood damage as part of hurricane coverage.
Its all about risk people – and that risk is too great here…
Posted by: guest at September 12, 2007 1:21 PM
1:15 – Your condo association will take care of the property insurance as part of the maintenance fee. You only need to woryy about personal contents insurance which is fairly cheap.
I would try to get a hold of the condo master policy though and make sure the building has replacement cost coverage and acceptable limits at the very least.
Insurance company’s are not stupid – greedy maybe – but not stupid.
Brookly and Manhattan are prime candidates for massive Hurricane destruction!
Regardless if you live on the top of the hill or next to the ocean, the reality is the insurance company is not covering for storm surge or flooding (that is a flood policy). Your proximatey, or lack thereof, to a flood zone is irrelevant in Hurricane (Windstorm) coverage. They are taking a gamble on some of the highest property values in the country for WIND and ensuing water damage from wind driven rain.
I work alot with insurance companys and all of you who bash them for not doing the right thing in Katrina are mislead. The folks insured down there had WIND coverage, not storm surge or flood.
The outcry of people trying to compell the insurance companies to pay for something they did not cover, and therefore did not collect premium for, is essentially the same argument as people in the subprime mess (banks and individuals) that are demanding a bailout from the government.
If you want to know why insurance company’s are pulling out of New York – Look no further than Katrina. Imagine the billions and billions this liberal state will try to force insurance companies to pay even when they had no intention of covering flood damage as part of hurricane coverage.
Its all about risk people – and that risk is too great here…
There’s some good informative posts on this thread.
Im about to be a condo owner and its good to know on insurance company options.
I’m ok with renting.
Ditto to 11:55. We went with Chubb over State Farm on our single-family. The price was about 1/3 higher. But I was dubious about SF’s commitment to covering us in a loss situation. They spit out a quote in about 30 seconds after taking only a few minimal details about our house. Other than location, type of construction and single vs. multi-family, they didn’t ask about size, age of systems/roof, adjoining properties, etc. Chubb was much more thorough. The first thing that came to mind when I experienced their cavalier attitude with my application was, “Uh oh, I’m going to get what I pay for.”
Allstate wouldn’t take our application. The only other quote we were able to obtain was Fireman’s, which was comparable to Chubb. We checked with 3 brokers (in addition to calling SF directly) and they all came back with Chubb.
To 11:33,
I pay approx $5,600 for 3-year coverage. I went through an insurance broker 6 years ago for my 2-fam Bstone in Fort Greene. Originally, we paid like $7,000 for the first 3 yrs (didn’t know what we were doing…just took advice of broker).
Renewal came around, and by then I knew what to consider…
Liability insurance- we now have $1 mil per occurence (covers slip and falls, damage to your neighbor’s property, if my dog bites you, etc.)
Replacement cost- very important to consider. Broker suggested upon renewal that at the very high end, to reconstruct/repair a bstone to its original splendor using “like kind materials”, it would be around $275 per sq liveable foot (so not including your cellar). Thats what I took (seems ok).
Incidentals- if the city sewer line backs up, floods my basement, burglar break-ins,and a bunch of other stuff I’d rather not think about.
And then I had to tell them to knock off some $ from the quote they gave because I have a security system, fairly new roof, fire escape, and its a 2fam with no tenants (just my family means less liability risk to them.).
Then Im sure they consider your FICO scores and other discriminatory bs.
Obviously they’ll consider how long you’ve been with them.
Ya gotta haggle.
In the end, its all relative… the guy up the block laughed at me when I told him my quote (said he pays like $3,000 every 3 yrs).
But then again, he’s been insured for over 30 yrs and I’m sure he doesn’t have “full” coverage like I do.