feeling stuck: umbrella insurance

[Jenn Kinchen]

Hi Bigger Pockets investors-. I've been looking into getting umbrella insurance for some time now for extra protection as I have multiple renters living both in my primary home and rental property.  I'm running into all kinds of roadblocks.

A few years back, when I was a newer home owner I made the terrible mistake of filing two water related home claims 2 years in a row (last one now about 2 years ago). The CLUE report is coming back to haunt me every time now... 

As as a result, nearly all the major insurance carriers are entirely unwilling to provide me with umbrella policy insurance at all and the only one who would even take me for regular home insurance on my properties for a reasonable rate was Nationwide- who has absolutely horrible customer service and won't ever get back to me 90% of the time I've asked a question or for a quote on anything and its like pulling teeth dealing with them. I was hoping to switch away from Nationwide altogether, however, so far they were the only ones willing to provide me an umbrella insurance quote and it would still require switching my auto insurance and paying a $400 higher premium on that plan, which ultimately turns into the same premium rates as the high risk insurance.

The only other quotes I got were from high risk carriers offering high risk insurance for over $600 plus switching my auto.

I've also read up that its not a good idea to try and switch the properties currently under my name into an LLC now, that its very risky.

Please help, unsure what I can do or who else to try without paying an arm and a leg or leaving myself vulnerable for years to come?  I'm also concerned what will happen when I try and get insurance for a next property purchase- that no insurance company will take me.

[Jason Bott]

Originally posted by @Michael Plante:

Originally posted by @Jason Bott:

Originally posted by @Jenn Kinchen:

Hi Bigger Pockets investors-. I've been looking into getting umbrella insurance for some time now for extra protection as I have multiple renters living both in my primary home and rental property.  I'm running into all kinds of roadblocks.

A few years back, when I was a newer home owner I made the terrible mistake of filing two water related home claims 2 years in a row (last one now about 2 years ago). The CLUE report is coming back to haunt me every time now... 

As as a result, nearly all the major insurance carriers are entirely unwilling to provide me with umbrella policy insurance at all and the only one who would even take me for regular home insurance on my properties for a reasonable rate was Nationwide- who has absolutely horrible customer service and won't ever get back to me 90% of the time I've asked a question or for a quote on anything and its like pulling teeth dealing with them. I was hoping to switch away from Nationwide altogether, however, so far they were the only ones willing to provide me an umbrella insurance quote and it would still require switching my auto insurance and paying a $400 higher premium on that plan, which ultimately turns into the same premium rates as the high risk insurance.

The only other quotes I got were from high risk carriers offering high risk insurance for over $600 plus switching my auto.

I've also read up that its not a good idea to try and switch the properties currently under my name into an LLC now, that its very risky.

Please help, unsure what I can do or who else to try without paying an arm and a leg or leaving myself vulnerable for years to come?  I'm also concerned what will happen when I try and get insurance for a next property purchase- that no insurance company will take me.

 Jenn, all Umbrellas will require the Home and Auto to have high liability limits, like $250k or $300k.  So if that is increasing your costs, I'm afraid that's unavoidable.

On average, an Umbrella that goes over your Home, Auto and 3-10 rental units runs about range of $300-$400 for $1M.

A few other comments,

1) There are Umbrella options that do not count Property claims against you.  This sounds like an underwriting guideline of a particular insurance company.

2) Not sure why switching to an LLC would not be good. It should have no impact on the insurance coverage/pricing.

 Is that 300-400/month for home and 10 rentals?

 Michael, that's per year.