Surplus Insurance

[Dark Abyss]

I’m having a hard time find someone offering surplus insurance for my home and most agents don’t know what this insurance is. I’ve converted a church into a single-family residence in Michigan (standard insurance doesn’t apply).

Does anyone have any suggestions? I found one after calling 30+ agencies a few years ago, but this year they required property coverage of 22 times of what I paid for the property (5 years ago)(Their estimated rebuild cost is 114 times of what was paid). Even my agent thought this was bonkers. He’s at his wits end and doesn’t know where to go.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated on how to find this type of insurance.

 

[somarco]

converted a church into a single-family residence

Alices restaurant . . . ?

Probably before your time.

Michigan Managing General Agency | Trucking Surplus Lines Broker - Sunforest Wholesale Trucking Insurance Group

Home: JM Wilson

Cameron M. Wilson Home - Cameron M. Wilson & Associates

 

[adjusterjack]

The cost to rebuild has nothing to do with what you paid for the place.

It has everything to do with today's construction costs to rebuild from the ground up.

A local building should be able to write you up a building replacement cost that you can submit to an insurance company.

 

[marindependent]

Im not sure I know what you are talking about. @adjusterjack is correct, rebuild amount has little to do with property purchase price. And rebuild costs are going up signficantly nationwide.

When you have a property that is converted from one main use to another, this can greatly complicate the rebuild costs because your "house" may have building features that you do not really care to rebuild nor want. 'Walls of Stone, Stained Glass Windows, Soaring Open Beam Celings.'

From the sounds of it, you have a unique house and I'm sorry to say but unique in the insurance world is seldom cheap to insure.

My best advice is to find a great local insurance independent agent/ broker and follow their lead with this. And as has been suggested go to a builder to get a rebuild calculation yourself.

 

[fed up]

So, insure it for what you paid and how much the improvements you made cost. And then complain if a total loss does not have sufficient coverage to rebuild the home. Many of the homes in Detroit can be had for pennies on the dollar and bringing them up to code may not break the bank. But a total loss will run hundreds of thousands of dollars

 

[Markthebroker]

I’m having a hard time find someone offering surplus insurance

I've been selling property and casualty for 10 years, and I don't know what surplus insurance is. Do you mean a surplus lines policy? I know what that is, and so do most experienced agents. That may or may not be what you need.

 

[somarco]

Unless things have changed in the last few years, @Markthebroker ESL (Excess & Surplus Lines) brokers write specialty lines of coverage that traditional insurance carriers won't touch. They will use non-admitted carriers and will often go through an underwriter that has a pen for a consortium like Lloyds or sometimes a reinsurance carrier.

At one time ESL brokers would write single even coverage on things like draining a basket from mid-court and you win $25k.

I believe one (or more) ESL brokers were involved in the Kansas City pedestrian skywalk acccident in the early 1980's. They crafted a retroactive liability policy for the hotel.

 

[Markthebroker]

Unless things have changed in the last few years, @Markthebroker ESL (Excess & Surplus Lines) brokers write specialty lines of coverage that traditional insurance carriers won't touch. They will use non-admitted carriers and will often go through an underwriter that has a pen for a consortium like Lloyds or sometimes a reinsurance carrier.

At one time ESL brokers would write single even coverage on things like draining a basket from mid-court and you win $25k.

I believe one (or more) ESL brokers were involved in the Kansas City pedestrian skywalk acccident in the early 1980's. They crafted a retroactive liability policy for the hotel.

Yes I know. I write surplus lines policies with surplus lines brokers all the time. But they're not called surplus insurance.

 

[marindependent]

I write surplus lines policies with surplus lines brokers all the time

Of course you do, you do afterall write property policies in California.