Weird insurance quote situation - any advice?

[Loren Howe]

It’s my first time buying a commercial property and I’m still in escrow.  I’m naive and wanted to get some input on what may be happening and what you would do.  

To avoid escrow delays and tenant upset, I decided to stick with the prior management company.  The prior Farmers insurance was relatively cheap so near the beginning of escrow I asked the management company if they could switch over the policies (or get a new policy) from Farmers using their contacts.  I assumed this was something a management company does and at any rate they said no problem.

After about a month and various excuses for delays in getting a quote, I decided to get a backup quote from my normal insurance agent.  My agent found a policy from Hartford somewhat higher than the current Farmers insurance which the management company was trying to transfer to me, so I told my agent I was waiting for a comparison quote.  

Fast forward to the LAST day of escrow, I wake up to two calls.  One from the management company telling me they finally got a quote which is double the current insurance price and no longer using Farmers but instead using Hartford.  Their Hartford quote is also well above the price my own agent had gotten me from Hartford and at least initially appears to be identical coverage.  The second call is from my insurance agent upset that I have apparently “signed over the Hartford quote they obtained” to my management company’s insurance agent.  My agent says the only way for her to get back the ability to write me Hartford insurance, was to send a written notice that she was to be my agent with Hartford.  All this was Friday so I just asked clarification from the management company on why the quote was so high versus existing insurance, or my own agent’s Hartford quote.  Then I called my agent and explained that I had never given permission to sign over her quote to anyone else and that I could send her anything in writing and would prefer to go with her quote.

Escrow happened to be delayed for other reasons, so I have some wiggle room in trying to sort this out. Otherwise, normally I would’ve been forced to use the high quote coming through my management company. 

Mostly, I’m just wondering what exactly happened here. I didn’t realize that one insurance broker can apparently block another insurance broker and take over their quote?  I thought multiple brokers could get quotes from any insurance issuer.  I certainly never signed anyone exclusive rights to be my insurance broker unless the management company is taking a very liberal interpretation of general wording in the management contract.  Anyway just trying to figure out what’s happening, what I did wrong, and any advice on sorting it out in the very short time frame I have left or in the future for switching policies.