My husband and I are building a home in the Poconos and are acting as our own general contractors. Our existing provider of homeowners insurance went into receivership and we are having a difficult time finding a company to write us a policy because the house will take more than one year to complete and because we are acting as our own GC but are not employed in the building trades. The house is an unusual custom design with a high level of trim. We have also experienced delays because the Poconos are now the third fastest growing region in the country and many contractors are tied in with the large builders in the area.
Our brother-in-law, Andy Engel, who used to administer Breaktime suggested that this forum might be a great resource in finding out how other people in our situation have managed to find homeowners insurance while they worked on their multi-year residential projects. We’d appreciate any suggestions or advice Breaktime members can think of.
skeen
Replies
During construction, we got insurance through Zurich. Took us more than a year, but it was renewed.
Where in the Poconos? I went to HS there...
Find an insurance broker. They should get you a policy within a couple days.
Welcome to BT.
Allstate covered us for our several yr project (owner/non-pro builder). All they needed was a footing pour for HO insurance to kick in. We'd been turned down by many companies for our somewhat unusual house. No apparent heating system. The Allstate underwriter was picky, insisting on a visit, and approved. Turns out they think it's mostly a fire policy and our house wouldn't burn.
Good luck.
PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
Depends on where you are. Your best bet is to call an insurance broker (as was mentioned earlier).
We are in the process of doing the same thing as you & the only underwriter that would touch us is Lloyd's of London. Everyone else wanted us in the house w/i 9 months.
We are ~ half way through now (2 years of a 4 year project). We financed everything as we went for the first two years, but after the birth of our son, we decided we needed to speed things up. We looked around for financing (it was tough given that we started already), but our local bank - the only non mega bank in the area - said that since we were half done, they'd skip the construction part & go straight to the 30 year mortgage. Nice - we keep the extra in our savings account until we need to buy materials.
As far as insurance goes, we're stuck with Lloyd's until we get our CO ($1400 for six months) - at least as far as the assesor is concerned, we still have an undeveloped lot so I figure the low property tax offsets the high insurance.
Edited 8/15/2006 9:13 am ET by Soultrain
Give Eric Himler a call. He writes for Erie as well as others. I know at one time he was writing for Lloyd's as well. The office is in Nazareth but he lives in Tannersville. Please tell him that I recommended him whether or not he can help you.
Eric Himler
AA Lapp & Associates
16 South Broad St.
PO Box 171
Nazareth, PA 18064
Phone: 610-759-6858
Fax: 610-759-3188
Email: [email protected]
carpenter in transition
Although our owner/builder insurance was some time ago (7 yrs), our policy was with Eire.