All Forum Posts by: Aaron Letzeiser

Quote from @Samantha Rosenbaum:

Hi Aaron, 

I’ve insured both these properties outside Obie before with the same escrow and never had any similar experience so that seems odd. 

Both times this happened my escrow has confirmed the payment has already been remitted. 

I did ask the team if they can price match lower quotes I got. That email remains unanswered. 

As you can see below, on 3/4 my account has “night sign of cancellation” per your team. And then on 3/6 I got a “notice of cancellation” that my policy is cancelled.

I can certainly appreciate that insurance is a regulated industry, but I’m sure you can appreciate this is a pretty bad customer experience. It’s not an intent to cancel or notice of something about escrow, simply it’s cancelled. When I just asked if it would be cancelled. 🤷🏽‍♀️ I’ve just never had a similar experience with any other home I’ve insured, and both through Obie had this same problem. Both times I called escrow who confirmed payment already sent. 

Insurance premiums are skyrocketing while also essentially being a commodity product so all in all, going with the easiest provider (smooth, no issues, no headaches, there when you need them) with lowest cost for same coverage seems to make sense to me, to Nina’s original question. 

best,

Sam

 Hi @Samantha Rosenbaum. Thanks again for more context. As mentioned, I'm happy to jump on a call or chat through DM (I'll send you my cell via DM) because I think there's a lot more that occurred here, and certainly opportunities for our team to improve, but just to be clear since this was posted on a public forum:

1. The first time this came up, we sent out a significant number of emails to you that went unanswered until the Notice of Cancellation went out January 6, to which you let us know that your Escrow company sent payment December 16. The challenge there is that payment was due in November and your escrow company would have known that since there was a Due Date on the invoice. As mentioned in my previous reply, it's incredibly frustrating that escrow companies take too long to pay and it's effectively out of both of our hands, which leaves you in this uncertain and unnecessarily complicated situation. 

2. As for the second more recent policy that was renewing, this one was also unpaid and you were receiving emails to that end. When we did hear back from you, the team let you know that it had not been cancelled but that it was still unpaid (the March 4 email screenshot you posted). At the same time, and within another response ticket you had generated by responding to a different email from us, you told the team that the price of the policy had gone up and you were going elsewhere. In response to that email, another distinct team member who reviewed that email moved forward with cancelling the unpaid policy renewal (the second email screenshot you posted). So I can see where two distinct processes that were taking place here over the same days created crossover and confusion -- one was answering your question about the policy being unpaid but had not yet cancelled, and another where the team member processed the cancellation request after you let us know you'd be going elsewhere.

Again, I'll shoot you a DM now. Feel free to give me a call and happy to chat through any resolution  

 Hey @Samantha Rosenbaum - thanks for the note and feedback. I see this is your first comment on BP - welcome to the community! 

Always happy to jump on a call or a DM to chat through this in greater detail. From what I can see on our records, there seems to be a bit of a miscommunication about cancellations vs. pending cancellations. Two reasons this happens in insurance: 

1. Escrow companies take their sweet time processing payments. It's not unusual to see them cut checks days to weeks after the due date of an invoice they received 30+ days prior! This puts every insurance provider in a tough spot and causes unnecessary worry for homeowners and landlords like yourself who are the ones receiving pending cancellation and cancellation notices. This unfortunately leads to point #2 below.

2. Each state requires certain mandatory notices be sent out to insured. They dictate the timing and sometimes the language of those notices. We can't get the timing of those wrong. We don't want to send them out too early because the escrow check may be in the mail still within a reasonable amount of time, but we also legally can't send them too late. 

Without digging in deeper, with some of the context you provided, and when seeing what was sent back to you, it appears your policies were pending cancellation for non-payment, but were not necessarily cancelled. So the system will keep sending notices of pending cancellation during that state mandated period of time, but it's correct they were not yet cancelled. 

Again, like I said, always happy to chat and I'll follow up with our service team to make sure they're also providing sufficient context to you and other customers with similar questions.

Hi @Colleen Lex - thank for reaching out! I can see your quote requests and the email back and forth, but it looks like there was a response. I'm sorry if that didn't get to you. I'll have the agent reach back out ASAP! 

@Chris Kittle we can support an 8 unit property in Michigan at Obie. And if not, we have dozens of appointed agents in Michigan that I can refer you too. Feel free to shoot me a DM.

 Hi @Francois Navarre. First and foremost, I'm incredibly sorry to hear you were impacted by the fires. My heart breaks for everyone in the area. We have both family and employees directly impacted and I can't imagine what the community is going through.

I'm also sorry that you're feeling like the response time has been slow or that the carrier's claims team is acting in bad faith. It looks like they have been in contact with you previously and have communicated the inspection date. As I'm sure you can imagine, it's been incredibly difficult for even the claims adjustors to gain access to the properties. We've had reports of folks waiting hours each day just to receive a pass to enter residential streets, which is enormously frustrating when our sole priority is helping the community rebuild as quickly as possible.

As for your comment about finding excuses already not to cover something, can you send me an email directly or a DM on that? If there hasn't been an adjustor to the property yet, a coverage determination letter sent, or you feel like you haven't heard much from the claims team, I want to make sure I understand what gave you that impression.

Again, I'm so sorry you've been impacted and I'm available directly to help in any way. Please feel free to DM me on here or shoot me an email.

Expensive, yes. But certainly not the most expensive in the country.

 @Eric Robertson I'm the founder at Obie Insurance. Happy to help point you in the right direction or introduce you to some great independent agents that work with us in Maryland. How many houses do you have? That will largely help to determine the right fit in the landlord market for someone with a portfolio. 

Feel free to shoot me a DM if I can be helpful.

 Checking in to it. The average sales response is pretty quick so I'm surprised you didn't hear back.

 Hey @Tim Halbert. Great question. I'm the Co-Founder at Obie and there's been a few times in this thread that a similar question has come up. The short answer is that much of the rental market is moving to the "surplus" market. What matters here is the actual carrier's rating (ours ranges from AM Best A+ to A- only). Take a look at some of the other responses I've made in this and feel free to DM me with any questions!

 Congrats on the upcoming close! I'll shoot you a DM