Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: coho insurance question

[Craig Ragland (craigragland]

This is a great question - and one that I'll ask the person handling
insurance at Songaia (another Puget Sound community) to respond to. Kathleen
and Kay - if you would like to address it at the upcoming NW Cohousing
Gathering in 3 weeks, I'm sure it would be of interest to other communities,
given the potential cost savings.

I was recently contacted by an insurance company that is interested in work
with Coho/US to develop a special, cohousing-focused insurance program. It
looks like a reputable company that focuses on specialized niches and
working with associations, like Coho/US to make it practical for them to
learn the specific needs of different types of the insurance needs for
specialized types of groups, e.g. Songaia had some real challenges getting
insurance because of our VERY large amount of common property compared to
conventional condominiums.

The theoretical promise of creating such a program is that cohousing
communities could get better quality insurance at a lower cost. However, it
would be easy for this promise not to be met - and to actually create a
program that doesn't truly meet the needs of groups vs. addressing this
independently. To take this type of project on would probably require that
we have strong estimates of the total scale of the actual sales and then
shop it around to different insurance companies, rather than just reactively
pursing a relationship with this specific company.

I brought up the concept to the Coho/US board and we decided not to pursue
it in an active way - now... as my current priorities are about things like
the Conference Call from Saturday, staff support, continuing to improve our
established services, the upcoming National Conference, etc.

Looking ahead, I envision that Coho/US grows so that we are in a position
that allows us to take on new projects like this insurance program, but our
current staff would be way to stretched to take on the due diligence and
evaluation required for us to create and sustain such a complicated new
program would be a big project.

I'd be interested in any input on this.... insurance, potential for
coho-specific programs, my priorities, etc.

Craig

On Mon, Oct 27, 2008 at 1:11 PM, Kay Wilson Fisk <kwwilson [at] 
bartcommunity.org
> wrote:

>
> Our policy is with Farmers, and the premium is $6240 for 24 units in 6
> buildings, 1 house, and a barn/garage.
>
> Kay
> Bartimaeus Community
> Meadow Wood Condominium
> Bremerton, WA
> www.bartcommunity.org
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kathleen Groshong [mailto:kathleen [at] pugetridge.net]
> Sent: Sunday, October 26, 2008 3:42 PM
> To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> Subject: [C-L]_ coho insurance question
>
>
> It's budget season here at Puget Ridge Cohousing and we are again reviewing
> our community condo insurance.  We are interested in your comments,
> especially from communities structured as condos....who is your current
> insurance carrier/company and what kind of insurance costs are you
> expecting
> in 2009?
>
> Also, if anyone has a recommendation on a cohousing/condo coverage
> insurance broker  in the Seattle area, I would be interested in that as
> well.
>
> Thanks very much.
>
> Kathleen Groshong
> Puget Ridge Cohousing, Seattle, WA
> kathleen [at] pugetridge.net
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
>
>
>


-- 
Craig Ragland

Coho/US executive director
http://www.cohousing.org
craig [at] cohousing.org

Please try email first, include your phone number (w/time zone) - or give me
a call: 425-487-3550 (Pacific)... communicate!