Re: Co-housing friendly HOA insurance carriers
From: Sharon Villines (sharonsharonvillines.com)
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 2015 07:13:45 -0700 (PDT)
Insurance is insurance. "Cohousing friendly" is not an issue. You want good 
insurance. Money is money. Banks are banks. No cohousing dollars out there with 
pictures of common meals.

It is of no value to have a cheaper rate if the company doesn't pay claims or 
raises your rates if you make a claim or doesn't pay for 2 years. The questions 
to ask the agents -- an agent who represents more than one company -- is how 
soon claims are settled, how soon do adjusters inspect damages, etc. -- in real 
examples. Compare the companies. Do the research. Use the library databases to 
find business journal articles on insurance companies. The companies that 
insure commercial property are different than the ones that insure homes and I 
don't know if Consumer Reports rates them. But they may discuss the issue. 
Contact CAI and see what they have.

To lower rates, raise your deductible. That often makes a major difference. If 
your deductible is $10,000, put $10,000 in a reserve fund to "insure yourself" 
against any costs below that. Build the fund from the savings.

Service is important, not just fees. 

This example is from personal Condo insurance, but is the best one I have. This 
is the message I send to individuals when they ask the same question. Compare 
this experience with AMICA with other insurance companies:

> I've had AMICA since seeing how they handled other claims. When a friend was 
> robbed of a lot of expensive jewelry and dining silver, they settled the 
> claim quickly and fairly with no dickering. Six months after the claim was 
> settled, they called to say their claims adjuster had suddenly died after a 
> long illness they hadn't known about. They were checking to be sure all his 
> clients for the last year had been adequately served. Who does that????
> 
> On my car insurance -- I sold my car and turned in the plates. I only had 2 
> months left on my insurance policy so I just let it lapse--too much trouble 
> to call, etc., for about $60. AMICA was notified by the state that I had 
> turned in the plates. They called me to see if I had a claim or was buying a 
> new car. During the call she noticed that I had 2 months of payments "unused" 
> and said AMICA would refund them. I said it was fine, not to worry. I had 
> sold the car and wasn't buying a new one. They insisted on refunding the 
> extra 2 months of payments.
> 
> My unit at Takoma Village was flooded just after I moved in, the developer 
> was responsible and my insurance policy was at most 6 weeks old. I called 
> AMICA to ask how I should go about claiming damages from the developer -- I 
> had not a clue. Instead, AMICA said it was their job to collect from the 
> developer. AMICA's adjuster came out 3 days later (two of those days were 
> weekend days) to determine what the payment should be. I told him only the 
> living room and kitchen were affected. He said no, this is an open plan and 
> you can't replace one part of the floor without replacing all of it--it won't 
> match. I was reimbursed sufficiently to replace the whole floor, even the 
> closets. No dickering or second opinions. The adjuster does claims for 
> several companies and said AMICA is the best. I had the check in a week. 
> $8,000.
> 
> My premium for a two bedroom apt is $365 a year. I'm a mutual member/investor 
> and I received dividends of ~$100 each year.
> 
> When I called in 2012 to discuss whether I needed to increase my coverage 
> they said it looked fine and that the only thing I didn't have was coverage 
> for extra assessments--$15 a year. I had never heard of this before but since 
> my daughter was assessed $2,000 a month for three months when the boiler in 
> her condo building had to be replaced, I took it. Takoma Village has adequate 
> reserves, but disasters happen.
> 
> And the insurance policy is written in plain English.

One of our units was just flooded from a frozen sprinkler pipe in the attic. 
Even though the sprinkler pipe was the association's our insurance doesn't pay 
for damages inside her unit. I didn't know that until this happened and I'll 
bet you didn't either. Even if the pipe belonged to the association, they don't 
pay damages.

Everything was moved to storage by a moving company. She had to stay in a hotel 
for weeks. Walls and ceilings torn out and replaced (not all but enough). 
Flooring replaced. It was and still is a mess because everything had been 
jumbled and moved to one room to get it out of the water. Packed by people who 
only saw the jumble, and unpacked by the same people. Very helpful people, but 
her stuff has been effectively shuffled. As well as her life. Think if she had 
had no insurance on top of that. A $5,000+ hotel bill.

I don't know who her insurance company is or how much of this they paid, but I 
can't recommend AMICA highly enough. If their premiums were twice as high, I 
would choose AMICA. One claim for my floors and they have paid for themselves 
for years and years.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org





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