Difficulty getting Landlord Insurance due to claims history

[Veronica Giggers]

Hello everyone. Is anyone having trouble getting insurance coverage after filing a couple of claims? Are the insurance companies even interested in the customer's anymore, or are they completely fixated on how much money they can rake it? 

[Bill B.]

I assume these wee large claims, well over $10k? I assume thsi because your deductible should be $2,500 or $5,00- and you should never make a claim under $10k. (Or insurance companies will stop offering you insurance when you make so many claims.) But when you make larger claims they lose 5-10 years or maybe 20 years of “profit” every few years. 

Are the claims property, weather, maintenance, or “bad luck” related?

In almost 30 years with a dozen properties. (Call it 350 “property years”.) I’ve covered a $3,500 and a $5,500 loss out of pocket. And made 2 X $30k claims. (Both toilet supply lines 15-20 years ago when they used that defective version of stainless supply lines.) So that’s once claim every 175 years and 1 self insure in the same period. The higher deductibles save me about $200 per year per property. So I save $2,400/yr. Every 366 days the higher deductible pays for itself. 

If it’s just been bad luck try asking about higher deductibles. I’ve been with Allstate for 20+ years. I’m sure they aren’t the cheapest but even after rates doubled it averages around $1,100/yr. And they were so good about handling the claims I’ll probably never switch. You could try that insurance company that advertises on the podcasts. NRIEG or something close to that. They may have a higher risk tolerance.