house insurance without fire coverage

My house is frame,with a brick veneer. I'm raped on insurance because I'm a distance from a fire station. I'm about to retire my mortgage. Does anyone know of a source of homeowners WITHOUT fire coverage? I'm retired and The current 4k for homeowners is a killer. i'd gamble on the fire coverage if it would save serious bucks. I have rentals I could move into in a worse case scenario. I want liability coverage. Anyone manage this? the location is why I don't sell out. Bad idea?
 
it sounds like you want an umbrella liability policy. I have never heard of homeowners without fire---but i have heard of fire without homeowners.
 
4K a year is a lot of money. But your investment is a bunch more.
at 5 years without you save 20K.
20K is not much of a house.
I think if your the sol-owner you should be the guy saying what you need.
I did the same thing with my Collision on my Pick-up. I had a 2 year loan that said I have to have it. I did pay it but in 2 years then I stopped it. I guess if I wreck it I pay,if you hit me then you pay.
 
I'd shop and also try to find out why you insurance is so high. You might find another carrier that is a little more reasonable or if their is an underlying reason for it being so high you might be able to eliminate it and get back to a more normal rate.
 
Ask your agent about renters' insurance. Contents, yes. Liability will depend on the company.

Our homeowner's is only 17% of that, probably for more insurance because I bumped it up to better cover outbuildings.

When we first got homeowners', I was refused by several companies. Turns out the problem was no heating system (we don't need one). When I asked what the problem was, they worry about frozen pipe water damage. I asked if they could exclude that. Nope, it's a full umbrella or nothing.

With an all concrete/steel house (dirt roof), the agent asked why I wanted fire insurance. I didn't. To them, homeowners' was fire insurance. To me, it was everything else.

Good luck changing their fixed program to fit your needs. I hope you're only insuring your house, not your ground. Automatic coverage increases sometimes are incorrect.
 
You have rental house you could move into ? That s your insurance !
Look around your area at the old houses that have been there for years, just use common sense and be careful with what you do.
 
The house is up to date design,only 20 years old,But, Florida farm bureau is known for its BS. I resent not having another option. the house is nice,I love the location,but need to lower my expenses for full retirement. they wouldn't even lower premiums if i put a diesel pump on a pond 50 yards away. A crappy agent doesn't help either.
 
Home owners insurance are covered by basic policies, HO1, HO2 and so on. The standard policy is HO3. Covers fire, water (but not flood) ice and so on. Excludes movement of ground (earth quake/mud slide) and Flood, pus a few other much smaller things. Flood insurance is subsidized by the government. You may buy it from you agent bundled with your policy but it's really separate.

What you are looking at trying to do is only cover you personal items, not the structure itself, plus liability from what I gather. You should be able to buy a policy like that because your agent should be able to tailor a plan for you. If not check other agents. I would think that renters to cover your personal items and a separate property liability policy. I just talked to my agent a week or so ago about a property liability policy (no insurable buildings on site on a small piece I may buy). And yes I can get just that.

Rick

Rick
 
It must be nice to own your own home. I hear this all the time where I work people think they save big money on insuarance but what if some thing would happen. I live in SO.Ca. We have what we call earth quake insurance but here the stink about that you have to pay a co payment of 10% of what it coast to rebuild your home. This insurance is not cheap and most homes that are old do not get to qualify for it.My question is what if you had some thing happen are you still covered and are you still going tohave a home. Insurance covers your home to make sure you are in a home.Retirement means fixed income hope you can afford the big coast of repairs and rebuild your home with out insurance.
 
I got NOWHERE with Farm Bureau, total idiots here. Keep searching. I tried several companies before I found something that worked with a reasonable price.
 
(quoted from post at 16:37:08 04/20/14) The house is up to date design,only 20 years old,But, Florida farm bureau is known for its BS. I resent not having another option. the house is nice,I love the location,but need to lower my expenses for full retirement. they wouldn't even lower premiums if i put a diesel pump on a pond 50 yards away. A crappy agent doesn't help either.

Crappy Farm bureau may be, however it appears that they will insure you when no others will.
 
You pay $4000 a year for house-insurance? Are you in a hurricane prone area? Our place in NY just went up to $550 per year and we're nowhere near any fire stations. I though OUR bill was high until you cited your's.
 
Are you in an earthquake area or hurricane zone?
You might want to think about putting in a pond.
My H.O. insurance was reduced a little cause a neighbor has a large deep pond off my driveway.

Can you switch companies?
 
(quoted from post at 14:36:42 04/20/14) My house is frame,with a brick veneer. I'm raped on insurance because I'm a distance from a fire station. I'm about to retire my mortgage. Does anyone know of a source of homeowners WITHOUT fire coverage? I'm retired and The current 4k for homeowners is a killer. i'd gamble on the fire coverage if it would save serious bucks. [b:e31010fa3a]I have rentals I could move into in a worse case scenario.[/b:e31010fa3a] I want liability coverage. Anyone manage this? the location is why I don't sell out. Bad idea?

How many rentals? A lot of landlords find that after about 15 rentals, paying an agent for insurance doesnt make financial sense, self insuring becomes a better deal. In your case, with $4000 on the "rental" that you live in, it would be even less than 15.

If I was you, I would pencil out dropping insurance on your place as well as the rentals, pool that savings into an account and self insure. Self insuring is not for everybody, I think its mostly because everybody has become conditioned to expect "someone else to pay" when things go bad but if you think about it, bad things dont happen all that much. Besides, insurance companies are not providing insurance at cost, they have a hefty profit built in.
 
What about liability on a slip and fall on the rentals? A shyster attorney and a crooked resident could own your buildings with a minor injury.
 
You didn't say how much your house replacement value is that is the house not he land it's not going anywhere.
I have USAA if you or your father was in the service you can. Get it at a. Ery god price.
Walt
 
You will not find a homeowner's policy that excludes fire coverage for the simple reason that fire is the greatest risk for your home. And you will have a hard time getting an umbrella policy without first having homeowners's insurance.

You get insurance to cover losses you can't afford. If you can truly handle the loss of your home (plus demolition costs) and you have liability coverage on all your rentals, then "self-insuring" may be an option. But you need to seriously consider the worst-case scenario. A lot of retired folks let their homeowners insurance lapse to save money, only to find themselves without a place to live after their homes are gutted by fire.

Shop around some more and see what you can do to get your premium down. Raising the deductible can help. What kind of roof do you have? In most parts of the country, a house with a shake roof is almost uninsurable. Re-roofing with a fire-rated material can make a big difference.
 
I don't believe companies are allowed to write policies in the admitted market without fire coverage. You might have to have your agent find something in the non-admitted market or Lloyds, but you won't be saving much money, if you can even find it. The fact that you have brick veneer means nothing, there's frame under that brick, unless you have a masonry building with brick covering it. Fire is still the #1 cause of loss on property insurance, to go with out is, frankly, foolish. If you want to save some money talk to your agent about bare bones coverage with a high deductible (you obviously think you can afford a total fire loss on your own, so you can afford to pay a high deductible or losses from the ancillary coverage that don't have high frequency of loss).

Regards,

Whiz (35 years in the insurance business).
 
Just out of curiosity, how far are you from a fire station? What kind of outfit is the fire department?
The rate seems obscene... but if you live 40 miles from a station behind a locked gate at the end of a 2 mile lane... mabey it isn't...

Rod
 
If you got "nowhere" with Farm Bureau, then go to the neighboring county. Agents are agents. Idiots are idiots. You may have just gotten hold of the new, idiot agent.

Gene
 
(quoted from post at 21:31:14 04/20/14) What about liability on a slip and fall on the rentals? A shyster attorney and a crooked resident could own your buildings with a minor injury.

You are talking different insurances...

http://www.biggerpockets.com/articl...d-limit-your-personal-liability-as-a-landlord

While most homeowners insurance have coverage for liability, things like somebody twisting an ankle on the ice the homeowner failed to salt and scrape away, thats not adequate for a landlord. Using your example, if all it took was a shyster and crook, you would be out of business anyway if they could take your buildings. The fact remains, if you are much of a landlord, you need a general liability insurance policy. What a landlord dont need is casualty insurance. Landlords dont make claims anyway so why have it? Want to know what happens after the second or third "my tenant flooded the house" claim? Ya, you get dropped. If you are super lucky, you get trippled. $900 a year insurance jumps to $3000. So if a landlord cant claim unless the house burns to the ground, its of limited use. Thats where self insurance pops up.

Say you have 10 rentals, typical small house, not perfect but OK rentals. While you can grab them for 25-35,ooo around here, value them at about $50,000. Insurance on those run about $700 a year... times 10... $7000 a year and the only thing you can use if for is basically a total loss situation, if you use if for more than that, you are looking at about $20,000 a year.

So self insure and pocket the $7000 and hope some moron dont burn one of the shacks down before the 7.14 years it takes to buy a whole new shack. Is it a gamble? Of course. Is it worth the risk? Of course. Its a risk you have to take or you are just sending your insurance agents kids to Harvard while yours have to get jobs at McD's. Like I said though, too many people are conditioned to think they need insurance so they can make someone else pay when a loss occurs.

Seek out a good insurance agent and run things past your accountant, they will be able to tell you when its time to pull the pin and start self insuring.
 
(quoted from post at 16:31:30 04/20/14) You pay $4000 a year for house-insurance? Are you in a hurricane prone area? Our place in NY just went up to $550 per year and we're nowhere near any fire stations. I though OUR bill was high until you cited your's.

Mine here on the farm is about $16-1700 a year. I just upped the coverage to 80%. We are considered "unprotected" because the nearest fire station is 13-14 miles away. That's only $40K on the barn. If the barn went I'd never be able to replace it for $40K. Every building on the place raises the cost if you have it covered.
 
If I was you, I would pencil out dropping insurance on your place as well as the rentals, pool that savings into an account and self insure.

You can't save money that you didn't have in the first place!!!
 
(quoted from post at 12:28:28 04/22/14)
If I was you, I would pencil out dropping insurance on your place as well as the rentals, pool that savings into an account and self insure.

You can't save money that you didn't have in the first place!!!

Apparently the OP has the money because he's already spending it on insurance for his house and his rentals. What Rich is suggesting is for the OP to have an umbrella liability policy, then place the rest of what he would have been spending on insurance into an account to be used to cover loss that would currently be covered by insurance. He would be spending the same amount as he is now.
It's actually a more common practice than many realize.
 
That seems outrageous. Does that include coverage on all the rentals also?

I had a heck of a time getting insurance on my new house. Insurance companies don't like log homes. If a fire burns an exterior wall, it is very expensive to repair or replace. Most companies see it as a total loss.
 
(quoted from post at 07:28:28 04/22/14)
If I was you, I would pencil out dropping insurance on your place as well as the rentals, pool that savings into an account and self insure.

You can't save money that you didn't have in the first place!!!

Clearly you didnt read the link or my post. If you did, you would have understood that depending on how many rentals you have would depend on when you stop paying the agent and start self insuring. Its not that hard to understand, its just simple math. But then again, not everybody understands math...
 
I took out a homeowners policy a number of years ago. Still have the same policy, although I have taken some outbuildings and such off to cheapen it up. I don't ever recall being asked how many miles away from the fire department I lived. That shouldn't matter anyways. Your house can burn to the ground if your say only a half mile from the firedepartment. I would shop around. Insure someplace that don't ask if you can.
 
I've had at least 6 home owners insurance carriers. At least half have asked how far my house was from the fire department or how far from a hydrant. At least two companies asked if the fire department was full time or volunteer. It all makes a difference in the premiums.
 
(quoted from post at 05:24:24 04/24/14)
I don't ever recall being asked how many miles away from the fire department I lived. That shouldn't matter anyways. Your house can burn to the ground if your say only a half mile from the fire department. I would shop around. Insure someplace that don't ask if you can.

Trust me, they don't have to ask, they already know, the wonders of GIS systems! It does matter, it's one factor in your Public Protection Class classification that determines the rate you are charged. But good advice, shop around, but make sure the company you pick has a good claim experience reputation. When you have a claim and they suck at adjusting and settling the loss, you'll know what I mean.
 

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