[quote=svelte][quote=Coronita]
I think my umbrella is through a company called RLI. It doesn’t have to be the same as your homeowners and auto, you just need to maintain the minimum liability on the rest of your insurance. I’m sure of that…[/quote]

I would be afraid you’ll end up with insurance companies pointing the finger at each other in a situation like this.

I have all mine through the same company…I probably pay a tad more but it will be harder for them to deny a claim.

I also stay with well known companies. My dad went with some small insurance company for his rentals. One of the rentals had a major fire while occupied by a tenant and the insurance company refused to pay. He had to take them to court to collect from them. Lots of time, hassle, and sleepless nights to save a few bucks.[/quote]

I think what you are referring to is often overlap and gaps in insurance. Yes, that does happen too. usually with the more rinky dink insurance companies …In my case, cost wasn’t the only factor, it was also the availability of insurance.

For example, my agent is an allstate agent but also an agent for other triple A rated insurance companies. He does this for decades because insurance companies change their exclusions all the time and often times one carrier will drop people even if they made no claims, simply because their home was determined to be a in a fire hazard zone.

Allstate, for instance, right now refuses to insure people near a canyon and does not want to underwrite any new rental attached properties. So that’s one of the reasons why I have a mixture of insurance.

Also, there when it comes to rentals, different companies have different criteria when it comes to water claims. Some companies treat any water claim (whether it was your fault or not) as an incident, and too many incident makes you uninsurable for that carrier. So if you had someone upstairs flood one of your units, if you file a claim against your own insurance and have them go after the owner upstairs, even if it ends up being their fault, it still counts as a claim on your property. Some insurance co’s count per property incident. Some insurance co’s count per real estate portfolio. So it depends.

When it comes to auto, the gap usually around theft of person property inside a car…Sometimes, homeowners will say it’s auto and vice versa. There’s other situations like that too.