All Forum Posts by: Christopher Perry

Quote from @William Collins:

It seems you've fallen for one of the oldest tricks in the book insurance is for things you can't plan for. Let me correct that insurance is for the things you can't pay for as opposed to can't plan for. These insurance claims that you filed are not of a catastrophic nature. The insurance that you really need is for the catastrophic events. The small minor issues and I mean under $10,000 are things that you need to plan for to be able to accommodate so that when you need it you have insurance to cover for the big stuff (fires, floods, trees falling on houses, ETC). Now there is a couple ways to get around this as far as I know if this is a smaller property you could switch it from a company name to a personal name and try to pull it under say AAA insurance. You could also quite clean the deed from an LLC to a personal name or vice versa to achieve the same result but it may not work. The other thing to do is shop the policy with another provider. Different underwriters will not taken to account all other insurance agencies claims. Hope that helps.

William, 

Your response is what I was looking for. Could restructuring the asset or assets in an LLC separate claims or future claims so the responsibility is owned individually to that property.

Currently I accept my position, but would like to explore future options protecting me from these kind of misfortunes.  At the time of these accidents my ability to absorb tens of thousands in clean-up and repair cost wasn't that strong. Going forward I will have a better understanding of going to claims. 

V/R Chris

Quote from @Henry Clark:

Looks like you joined BP back in 2016.   This is your second post since then.  The above issues should not have occurred in the way they were handled.  This type of discussion is fairly common on BP.

I would stop and take an inventory of all of your REI business practices. What other practices need to be reviewed?

 Henry, 

Not sure if you are taking a jab at me for sharing and asking for the same shared experience. Take note that I have only two posts since 2016 doesn't have anything to do with anything I'm asking for input about. I could say you have over 2000 posts means you have too much to say. 

Now that's out of the way, I can say my business practices are sound and I am learning. Scaling is a goal of mine and I have realized that this goal is better achieved by making acquaintances. Sharing my experience is a dual purpose. It helps me with the responses and it helps others by me sharing my problem. 

When you ask what other practices need to be reviewed what do you mean? I don't want to imply my perspective as I find it to be poor in taste when communicating effectively. 

V/R Chris

Quote from @Bill B.:

The claims will follow the property no matter whose name is on it. 

There is no way I would have made a claim under $7-$10k with a $2,500 deductible. These sounds like sub $5k problems, but you could be underselling them. 

A decent insurance company should go after the utility company’s insurance company, refund your deductible, and not count it against you. 

I’ve explained 1/2ma dozen times about how much you can save with high deductibles, especially once you have more than a few properties. 2 claims might not sound liek many to you. But I’ve made 2 claims in 25 years with 12 properties (both over $30k, one Allstate refunded my deductible after suing the plumbing manufacturer.). I’ve covered 2 myself. ($4500 and $6500)

 Your reply is valued and the insight is appreciated. I left out a lot of detail about these incidents and timing above all else took president. The clean out of both these claims starts at 6500. I had a hard time proving the cause of the utility work until ground was broke to dig up the earth barring the sewage pipe. Just to get an excavator on sight cost me ten grand and another 8k to repair and sleeve the affected pipe to the road. Ultimately a year later the utility company paid me out but they refused to notify my insurance company to rectify my claim even after my hard line request. They told me it was my problem. I ended up accepting there terms along with an agreement to not pursue for any future damages. Military activation and a pregnant wife also complicated the processes. 

The second claim was at my primary and during Christmas, if I knew then what I know now I would have handled things differently. The space was large and there was a lot of water, the boiler was replaced during closing and the service tech told me the Warrenty was outside the agreement even though the boiler was on its second season. 

Long story short I learned a hard lesson.

Hello All, 

I have found myself in a pickle due to a chain of events that resulted in an insurer choosing to drop me from coverage due to multiple claims from multiple properties. I have both policies in my name and have been hit with sticker shock going to market shopping for new coverage. 

Due to this bad luck, I am stuck thinking if there's another way of structuring so these claims fall separate from my ownership. Does anyone have advice or knowledge of strategies that protect from these unfavorable rates and terms associated with multiple claims in a short period of time?

Currently being told my yearly rate will be 6000 a year in Connecticut, and I should avoid any new claims as this number will be soft in comparing what I would be charged if I furthered my risk threat. I would consider both claims insurance worthy as one was due to a utility company puncturing my sewage pipe with a pole support cable, and the other was a failed expansion tank on my 1-year-old boiler during Christmas.

Any feedback on this would be great, even if it's shared horror stories.  

Hello Bigger Pockets Community, This is my first post. I've researched and researched more. I created a plan based on most techniques and offering I've found on this site. I closed on my first multi-family a few weeks ago. I didn't know it, my first glance but after the second look I found the potential. I looked at least 3 dozen properties during a hot market in southern Ct. Before I made my choice on a three family. After closing I felt great! I walked around and finally had more time at the property I never had during showings. This is when I noticed things that I never noticed! Electrical and plumbing updates on the outside of walls, other than inside the studs. Obvious structure damages that was tied to other damage that was hidden. Repairs that were there to conceal lack of maintenance. Termite damage for days on the floor joist!!! I got a great deal! I dropped 20k of the asking price and I negotiated the seller to eat the closing cost, but I missed the issues. My Real-estate agent was great and my inspectors were above average. The damage wasn't found until I decided to fix the known problems. I'm m guessing the seller knew the issues and gave me the deal was got because of the known issues. Today I'm 15 days in to demo! I'm now ready to rebuild. There's to much to list as far as descriptions of what's been torn apart but I will be forth coming on the success of my repairs and rental potential when I'm finished. For any potential investors, buy cheap, plan, and don't be afraid to get dirty!