All Forum Posts by: Eric Belgau

@Curtis Bidwell Which bedroom community are you in? (Feel free to PM me if you'd prefer.) There are always people interested in starting restaurants or expanding one they have, so it would be good to know about the available space.

FYI, I work with a number of people in the cannabis industry, and you're right to say "no," given that it's a primarily residential mixed-use building, which probably means kids living in the apartments. (For the record, though, although the property and health hazards get the news, the biggest issue I see in the I-502 business is under-capitalization. Most of the real health/property issues come from MMJ businesses, which in WA operate with an unfortunate lack of regulation.)

@Zhao Huang You can (and should) cover it as a rental (landlord insurance) while you have a tenant in there. Once the inherited tenant is out, you can convert to a homeowner's policy. If the lack of a contract presents a problem with your preferred carrier, don't be discouraged. It can be done. Curtis gives good advice: a knowledgeable broker can help with virtually any situation.

The automatic coverage for newly purchased property isn't the best way to cover a home you plan to flip. That's not what the coverage was designed for, which can cause issues if a claim comes up.

You should be getting a builder's risk policy to cover the period of the flip, and you should also make sure you have coverage in place - yours or a contractor/sub's - for every company and person that sets foot on the property.

@Benjamin Timmins Don't get caught up on names like "landlord insurance" and "homeowners insurance." You need a policy for a multifamily policy, and you need coverage for your personal property that's in it.

Just open the conversation with "I need coverage for a multifamily building, and I'm going to occupy one of the units" and let the agents do their jobs. Get a few quotes, though, and definitely include a quality broker in your search. Lots of factors can affect the premium cost and the details of the coverage for a multifamily building.

@Andrew Herrig

The "duty to defend" referenced above is an important value of your insurance policy, and I've certainly seen insurance companies set the lawyers loose on their clients' behalf.

However, your insurance company is going to have to look at the situation like a claim, and it sounds as though what you need right now is a good strategy.

An attorney is the best source for that, with insurance in your back pocket as a remedy if the situation were to become costly.

If you're out to brokers, you should be able to get a Liberty quote from one of them. (Liberty sells through captive agents and brokerages.) Liberty/Safeco will write it and their pricing tends to be competitive.

When you're dealing with a captive and run into a problem, it's advisable to ask to speak with the agent. If a CSR or producer at a captive is really knowledgeable and good, options open up for that person and they don't remain a CSR/producer for very long. So you'll rarely have really experienced, expert people sitting in that seat.

@Account Closed I was just going to add the caveat "you can never say never" in reply to @K. Marie Poe but exceptions don't make very good rules.

Generally, in order to have Errors and Omissions insurance there has to be a standard by which the service you're providing can be judged. Where there's a license, trade organization, or some other governing entity involved, that standard can exist. The insurance basically covers a practitioner's failure to live up to that standard, except when that failure is intentional or illegal.

For the most part.

Realtors, financial advisers, doctors, lawyers, property managers, architects, and a host of other professionals work within systems defined by licensing boards, professional associations, etc., establishing a standard. That creates a marketplace for E&O coverage for those professionals, and there are good policies that are worth buying.

Policies differ from state to state, and exclusions tighten and loosen over time. It's not impossible to find an E&O policy that would cover a Realtor when that Realtor is a participant in the transaction. But it's a terrible idea for a Realtor to assume that because the office has E&O coverage it is in force when he/she is a participant in the deal.

It is possible to go to the E&S market and find insurance for just about anything. However, that doesn't mean the insurance will be worth anything, once the policy requirements and exclusions have been taken into account.

Joe - that's not an indictment of or comment on your policy. Just a clarification of the generality.

@Account Closed is spot on. It's not that you can't insure yourself. An Errors & Omissions policy just isn't the right place to do it in most cases. In addition, E&O policies can be extremely narrow.

For example, even if you're a licensed agent, the E&O policy for your agency might easily exclude wholesaling-type deals.

Regardless of whether your licensed or not, if you talk to your insurance broker about the specific exposures you're concerned about, you should be able to cover most of them with other casualty products.

Perhaps more importantly, that conversation can help to highlight the exposures you can't insure, which may help you to avoid bad situations.

A guy who is there doing work should be covered under workers' compensation insurance - either his employer's or yours. Each state's W/C laws are different, but here's a link to the Illinois handbook. http://www.iwcc.illinois.gov/handbook013013.pdf It's only exciting reading if you're a nerd. If you're not a nerd there are phone numbers to call on the first page after the cover.

Their general liability insurance is a different animal, and for you (and most others here) the line you want to look at closely is "Products and Completed Operations - Per Occurrence," since that's what will pay if they do shoddy work.

With that said, you should have a liability policy on any premises you own.

@Jake Silcott You only need one policy in force. I assume that by "rehab insurance" you mean a builder's risk policy, which covers the property and the improvements as they're made.

If you're acting as a contractor, or if you're doing the flips as a business, then you should probably insure the business as well.

You should probably find a good broker there in Denver who you can sit down with and discuss what you have and what you're doing, in order to determine how best to cover it.