Insurance in the Time of Arson
September 27, 2013 4:28 PM Subscribe
In the light of several recent arson cases in Somerville, MA, we would like to get additional home insurance for our condo unit. I'm not sure how to go about it.
Recently in Somerville, there have been 9 fires with at least 3 confirmed arson cases. Last night, another house went up in flames one street away from my place; for now it's being ruled as accident afaik. Either way, my gf and I are thinking of getting additional insurance. We own an apt in a 6-unit building. We have an overall policy with Vermont Mutual. I have lots of newbie questions.
What is the first step? I found this older AskMeFi post. It sounds like I should call an agent nearby and have an inspection done? Is that still true if we're interested in insuring solely the unit and not the whole building?
One neighbor in our building said he had good experiences dealing with Vermont Mutual. (Waiting to talk to him more.) If our overall building policy is with VM, is it a good/bad/unrelated thing to also go with them for our individual unit policy? Perhaps it reduces any sort of conflict if both policies are within the same company.
If you're in Somerville/Cambridge area, do you have suggestions on insurance agents/carriers for home insurance?
We'd obviously like to move fwd with this asap, but I'm also wondering if it's best to take our time? Any info would be much appreciated.
Thanks.
Recently in Somerville, there have been 9 fires with at least 3 confirmed arson cases. Last night, another house went up in flames one street away from my place; for now it's being ruled as accident afaik. Either way, my gf and I are thinking of getting additional insurance. We own an apt in a 6-unit building. We have an overall policy with Vermont Mutual. I have lots of newbie questions.
What is the first step? I found this older AskMeFi post. It sounds like I should call an agent nearby and have an inspection done? Is that still true if we're interested in insuring solely the unit and not the whole building?
One neighbor in our building said he had good experiences dealing with Vermont Mutual. (Waiting to talk to him more.) If our overall building policy is with VM, is it a good/bad/unrelated thing to also go with them for our individual unit policy? Perhaps it reduces any sort of conflict if both policies are within the same company.
If you're in Somerville/Cambridge area, do you have suggestions on insurance agents/carriers for home insurance?
We'd obviously like to move fwd with this asap, but I'm also wondering if it's best to take our time? Any info would be much appreciated.
Thanks.
I was told that it's a lot easier to have homeowner's with the same company as the master insurance for the building (also a small building in greater Boston, but not Somerville) because if you do make a claim, the companies can't fight over who's going to pay for it. When I last checked around a couple years ago, the rates were extremely similar between companies, so I went with the same as my building (Arbella, who I haven't had to deal with enough to have either positive nor negative impressions).
posted by nonane at 5:29 PM on September 27, 2013
posted by nonane at 5:29 PM on September 27, 2013
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posted by DarlingBri at 4:35 PM on September 27, 2013