Montana home insurance. any insurance guys here

[300stw]

dealing with insurance on my place, 16 acres, house and shop,

insurance has went from 1200 a year 3 yrs ago, to 2800 this year, simething about new rules in montana, call my congressman if i dont like it.

no claims at all, no livestock, what gives,
anyone else running in to same deal

 

[BlakeA]

dealing with insurance on my place, 16 acres, house and shop,

insurance has went from 1200 a year 3 yrs ago, to 2800 this year, simething about new rules in montana, call my congressman if i dont like it.

no claims at all, no livestock, what gives,
anyone else running in to same deal

How much did the dwelling value and shop coverage increase from 3 years ago?

 

[MThuntr]

How much did the dwelling value and shop coverage increase from 3 years ago?

I thought about this too...if you changed coverage to cover to increased cost of replacement then I could see it going up but more than doubling seems crazy. I don't know about this new rule but I'd start shopping for a new company. It may have been some sort of new customer discount that expired.

 

[Pagosa]

We had a property loss through a tenant fire in 2021. We didn’t have replacement cost, but actual dwelling coverage or total cost. One thing I learned is to be sure and have enough to cover materials and rebuilding for whatever area you are constructing. Prices in NW Montana have gone from around $120 per square foot to well over $200/$300 per square foot, since about 2017/18. I would recommend also getting additional living expenses to cover your living expenses if you have to move out of your house. We use Allstate and they have been great to work with. Maybe shop around through some different companies. Best of luck. Preston

 

[BlakeA]

I thought about this too...if you changed coverage to cover to increased cost of replacement then I could see it going up but more than doubling seems crazy. I don't know about this new rule but I'd start shopping for a new company. It may have been some sort of new customer discount that expired.

Right. If the dwelling replacement coverage doubled let's say from $250k to $500k and the shop went from $50k to $100K+ plus being rural/protection class 8 or more I could see it doubling pretty easily even with no claims. $600k+ in building replacement plus personal property and loss of use and the big one property liability coverage for $2800 a year is not abnormal.

 

[rogerthat]

And then when you lose your property in a disaster, they can show you the little clause that provides no coverage for that specific event. “Oooooh yeah….your policy doesn’t cover that. Darn it! We will get that added for next time.”

 

[SAJ-99]

dealing with insurance on my place, 16 acres, house and shop,

insurance has went from 1200 a year 3 yrs ago, to 2800 this year, simething about new rules in montana, call my congressman if i dont like it.

no claims at all, no livestock, what gives,
anyone else running in to same deal

Call your insurance company back and tell them to explain it to you, or you will find another agent that will.

 

[BigHornRam]

If you live in the WUI (wildland urban interface) a lot of insurance companies are raising their rates due to wildfire losses, or canceling policies all together. I would shop around. $2,800 a year sounds high.

 

[Irishman]

The Insurance industry makes massive profits. So when their costs go up, you can bet that your cost will go up even more.

 

[300stw]

How much did the dwelling value and shop coverage increase from 3 years ago?

none. ,,,,tax base is same, no mortgage. didnt ask for more coverage

 

[SAJ-99]

The Insurance industry makes massive profits. So when their costs go up, you can bet that your cost will go up even more.

If they didn’t make a profit, there would be no insurance. Case in point…

More insurance companies pull out of Louisiana: ‘We are in a crisis’

In the last two years, more than 20 companies have gone under or withdrawn from the state, forcing hundreds of thousands of families to pay higher premiums or go without coverage.

nypost.com

none. ,,,,tax base is same, no mortgage. didnt ask for more coverage

Insurance companies don’t look at your taxable value. That comes from the county. It’s typically rebuild value. Even if you elect lower coverage, the cost of fixing/replacing everything has gone up considerably.

 

[Bulldog0156]

I've found that homeowner's insurance costs change a lot. My recommendation is to shop around, someone will want to insure you at a reasonable price. In the past two years, I've had two different quotes from Safeco on the same place: $2800 and $900. I wonder if it's a market saturation thing where they have quotas for an area?

 

[Nameless Range]

Some thing I think about that could affect your home insurance rates is your community’s ISO score.

How ISO Fire Ratings Impact Your Home Insurance | Bankrate

With such a high financial investment at stake, it is important to understand what risks your home may be exposed to, and how those risks may affect the cost or scope of your homeowners insurance policy.

www.bankrate.com

I doubt a change in your score would increase your homeowners insurance that much, but I don’t think most folks are aware that the preparedness and quality of your local fire department as well as water supply available to them influences a metric used in the calculation of homeowners insurance rates.

On the VFD I am on we spent a good 10 hours a year doing hose testing. It’s painstaking and it sucks. But, it lowers the ISO score of everyone in our fire district and thus their insurance rates are lowered as well. It would be interesting if your ISO score changed.

 

[Irishman]

If they didn’t make a profit, there would be no insurance. Case in point…

More insurance companies pull out of Louisiana: ‘We are in a crisis’

In the last two years, more than 20 companies have gone under or withdrawn from the state, forcing hundreds of thousands of families to pay higher premiums or go without coverage.

nypost.com

Insurance companies don’t look at your taxable value. That comes from the county. It’s typically rebuild value. Even if you elect lower coverage, the cost of fixing/replacing everything has gone up considerably.

So insurance companies are pulling out of regions that they don't make big profits in? Not exactly shocking. Some of the bigger home and auto insurance companies made profits in the $Billions in 2020 and 2021. They haven't reported 2022 profits yet.

 

[SAJ-99]

So insurance companies are pulling out of regions that they don't make big profits in? Not exactly shocking. Some of the bigger home and auto insurance companies made profits in the $Billions in 2020 and 2021. They haven't reported 2022 profits yet.

Agree. Not shocking. Every state has an insurance commission that caps rates. Insurance companies would charge way more in places like FL if they could. So every time a hurricane comes through they threaten to pull out if they don’t get a rate increase. SOP.

Not sure I follow. You don’t want them to make a profit? You could use a mutual company (State Farm is the largest). Occasionally you might get a rebate check, but usually any insurance co is squirreling away those profits to help offset losses in catastrophes. They are huge companies so saying they make billions isn’t shocking. Insurance is pretty much a commodity. You don’t like your rate, make a phone call and get insurance somewhere else. All the products are pretty much the same. But they need to make a profit to attract capital.

 

[Irishman]

Agree. Not shocking. Every state has an insurance commission that caps rates. Insurance companies would charge way more in places like FL if they could. So every time a hurricane comes through they threaten to pull out if they don’t get a rate increase. SOP.

Not sure I follow. You don’t want them to make a profit? You could use a mutual company (State Farm is the largest). Occasionally you might get a rebate check, but usually any insurance co is squirreling away those profits to help offset losses in catastrophes. They are huge companies so saying they make billions isn’t shocking. Insurance is pretty much a commodity. You don’t like your rate, make a phone call and get insurance somewhere else. All the products are pretty much the same. But they need to make a profit to attract capital.

Odd you would suggest that I don't want them to make a profit, just because I have an issue with them making $billions while raising premiums. It's not just the reported profit, it's CEO's getting close to $100 million in compensation, basically as their reward for raising premiums on people struggling to make house payments. When the people struggling to make house payments start to fail, we all suffer (well, not the people making billions, or hundreds of millions, the rest of us).

 

[SAJ-99]

Odd you would suggest that I don't want them to make a profit, just because I have an issue with them making $billions while raising premiums. It's not just the reported profit, its CEO's getting close to $100 million in compensation, basically as their reward for raising premiums on people struggling to make house payments. When the people struggling to make house payments start to fail, we all suffer (well, not the people making billions, or hundreds of millions, the rest of us).

Lots going on in that post. Some I agree with. All I can say is welcome to capitalism.

 

[brownbear932008]

Check your replacement cost on the previous years versus the current. Not in Montana but we are going through the same thing. Come to find out replacement cost have doubled per the insurance company which I can see with the crazy inflated prices on both material and labor cost now. We own a small cabin 1350 sq. ft. and they are now telling us total replacement cost has went to 444k which caused a large increase in premium cost.
Not really related but after speaking with a friend this week who is looking at building he was priced a simple 1400 ft stick built home nothing fancy at 400k by a contractor recently.