OB insurance will go from 1000 to 3400

[gzz]

Nationwide is dropping the coverage after 8 years. I have never made an insurance claim in my life, not property not auto.

No major company is writing property now.

Such an absurdity that insurance is about 1% of replacement cost but the rate of loss in OB is under 1/10,000. There’s been only one house burned down in the past 15 years (an arson of a cottage on Abbot St around 2008).

I would drop insurance at those rates, but the mortgage company requires them and the rate is too low to pay off.

I hope to see some new entries to our market or the remaining companies step up.

[bibsoconner]

I feel your pain. I’m in the OB/Pt. Loma area.   My house insurance has been going up a lot in the last few years.  I’m curious, if your house were paid off (as mine is), what would you do?  It seems extremely risky to drop insurance completely.  Perhaps there is a very high deductible plan or some such thing?

For the car insurance, I’ve been too lazy to look into it, but my understanding is that it’s not technically required to have insurance, but you have to be able to prove you have readily available reserves to use in the event of an accident.

My house (and car) insurance is through State Farm btw. I’ve tried to shop around and get quotes from other companies, but couldn’t find any that would insure my house.  The last company that approached me several years ago was AAA.  After their house inspector claimed “of course we’ll insure this house – it’s fantastic!”, I got a form letter saying they declined to cover it due to it being (1) old, and (2) multi-level.  I’ve found cheaper car insurance but not really once you take into account the State Farm Discount for having multiple policies.

[sdrealtor]

The biggest source of insurance claims at least here is water damage and mold. Being that close to the sea creates risk of loss for that

[gzz]

If the house in question burned down the value if the property would barely be effected.  So no I wouldn’t insure it if I didn’t have to. When it was under 1k a year though I never really thought of it.

State Farm gave me the best quote by far on my east county house so I moved my office liability and cars to them in gratitude.

[gzz]

Every time I have heard about serious mold issues it has been non-coastal tract postwar homes.

The first house I rented in OB (built around 1930) had solid hardwood walls, both interior and exterior, with no drywall or insulation of any kind. The wiring was either below the house or attached to the wall and covered by thin mental protectors.

[sdrealtor]

Ive seen plenty of mold in coastal homes but it not just mold. Its water damage which is the even bigger issue and why I listed it first. The coastal air can reek havoc on plumbing and pipes

[bibsoconner]

Hmm @gzz  I get that much more of the value is caught up in land not property, but I’m guessing (and just guessing) it would cost over 1/2 million to rebuild from scratch. That’s not chicken feed.  What’s a robust estimate of rebuilding per square foot for the Pt. Loma coast?  But along those lines, I do wonder if there is a policy that basically covers nothing except a complete disaster or close to it.  Like, a 100K or 200k deductible.

Knock on wood, no mold damage for me!  Perhaps I need to move to Arizona or Utah so that never happens 🙂

[gzz]

Good news! After two 3k+ quotes and more “no new customers” I found one for $1250.

Nobody would rebuild the existing house, it is old and on a large multifamily zoned lot. Most likely it would be redeveloped as four two-story living space houses over semi-sunken garages. Townhouse style but detached. The prior owner had approved plans to do this but lost his financing for it in the 2008 financial crisis.

 

[bibsoconner]

@gzz, Congrats on insurance. Can you say which company? State Farm?

[sdrealtor]

Congrats and sounds like you have a good long term property to hold onto for your family

[gzz]

Allstate. Signup was easy too.

[Coronita]

Weird given that allstate recently said they wee no longer writing homeowners insurance policies in CA…and my former insurance broker was from allstate and said they stopped writing a lot of homeowner insurance policies in CA.

[gzz]

Sorry, the local agent had Allstate branding but the policy is Bamboo Insurance of Utah.

[Coronita]

That makes sense, because Allstate and State Farm stopped offering insurance coverage.

 

But WTF is Bamboo Insurance?

 

Never heard of it.

 

[Coronita]

Wait, never mind…

Dude…. Did you even do your due diligence?

 

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bamboo-completes-first-close-of-series-a-funding-raising-16-million-301627531.html

It’s like a startup. Who does their underwritting?

I’m really surprised your were sent by an allstate agent to a startup insurance underwriter. How many claims have they handled, and have they dealt with a massive claim for instance like from a wildfire?

 

[Author]

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