Is Foremost Any Good for Fire Dwelling (rental) Properties?

[jacobtn]

We own some rental properties, the last 2 we picked up we were unable to secure insurance with Nationwide because of the tornado damage in April to a couple houses, and a fire that we had to our primary residence. Our agent placed us with Foremost, which is higher than a kite rate wise but obviously we weren't going to be without coverage (even though we could because we didn't have loans against them).

Are they any good to deal with? I am health and life licensed only so have no experience with P&C. Nationwide has been awesome to work with on our claims, so I would prefer to have all our coverage with them (they still carry our home and other rentals/cars etc), but it will be several years I guess with no claims before that happens.

 

[CaptiveGuy]

A lot of independent agents use Foremost for their vacant homes and standalone rentals. I have never had a client file a claim with them though. As a client, you should expect to pay a little more than you did with Nationwide but they can write properties with up to 5 claims.

I would just be sure that your agent wrote a special form policy and not the default basic form in the Foremost system.

 

[jacobtn]

A lot of independent agents use Foremost for their vacant homes and standalone rentals. I have never had a client file a claim with them though. As a client, you should expect to pay a little more than you did with Nationwide but they can write properties with up to 5 claims.

I would just be sure that your agent wrote a special form policy and not the default basic form in the Foremost system.

Thanks! I appreciate your information. I will check that.

 

[Guest]

I hate foremost, prices are sky high and I think it is an inferior product...

ASI is pretty decent, American Summit, American Modern, Vacant express.com, Safeco on some situations...

There is ALOT more out there than foreskin, with better rates and better policies....

 

[tjeyoyo]

If you have a claim on a foremost policy, it will be handled by a Farmer's adjuster as they are part of the Farmer's family.

Is your Nationwide agent writing these policies for you? Do they have access to any carriers besides Nationwide and Foremost? The rates shouldn't be that bad, but an agent with more than 2 carriers could give you a better number of options.

If these are "preferred" properties, then you should have some options. If they are "standard" properties then foremost is probably a good place for them.

 

[djs]

I'm not sure if I understand why Nationwide wouldn't take the risks. Okay, I know very little about Nationwide since in my area they have a total of 3 policies I think, but this seems strange to me.

I'm outside my expertise (outside CA), but tornado damage should be a cat loss, I would think, so why do they care? Even if its not, it would be rated on the property so what is the issue?

I know that, as an agent, I look funny at people that have multiple claims in recent history. If its understandable, then no big deal, especially for things like tornado losses (or weather related losses in CA). I wrote a gals auto policies yesterday where her losses and MVR issues were enormous. Didn't matter, I rated her for it and got her the policy, told her to be more careful driving moving forward, as she complained about the $5000 a year rate.

Foremost will take almost anything if it has 4 sticks holding something of a roof up. Because of this, they are not great for otherwise decent risks but can be very good for non-standard home risks. Never inexpensive, but sometimes they will take stuff others won't. Sometimes they won't take stuff others will.

You're nationwide agent probably didn't have another carrier to go to for this.


Dan

 

[workingsmart]

I use Travelers for most of all my Fire Dwellings. They are easy to issue and the underwriting is not very tuff. Plus, the rates are generally some of the best that you will find.

 

[insurancemansam]

I have them and never use them. Rates are high. I use mainly use Safeco and Auto Owners.

 

[IEG12]

Any time an insurance company will insure a dwelling and most others won't, it either 1) probably isn't the greatest policy, or 2) is extremely expensive. Foremost is a good company for the fact that they will take just about anything. I'm not sure how good they are on claims, haven't had too much experience with them there. If you do get Foremost, make sure that your rental properties are insured with replacement cost. A lot of Foremost policies are ACV, which is probably something you don't want.

 

[Texasproducer]

Foremost seems to be the catch all for anything that can't be placed in another market. They are expensive but seem to be more credible than an E&S market.