HURRICANE INSURANCE?

Try www.viphonebook.com, there more then a few insurance companies.

Be careful when purchasing insurance that the carrier has 100% reinsurance backing so if there are many claims they will be able to pay. Guardian, which is sold through several agencies is good for property, but not so good for auto.

Lloyds of London underwrites property and casualty through several agencies.

I use Marshall Sterling as my agent and have been very satisfied with their service and pricing. They write my policy with Island Heritage was has a very strong Best rating.

AARP underwrites through a company in PR, but I didn't like their service, I could not find someone to speak with whose English was better than my Spanish. Their rate was also not competitive.

You need to find a knowledgeable agent to deal with. Many of the local agents are not particularly well trained. If you need specialized coverage find someone who is well trained. For instance many agents, if you tell them you live in a condo will sell you a standard HO-6 policy. This may or may not give you adequate coverage depending on what your association's coverage is. Some condo associations, if they have coverage, cover only the exterior walls, roof and windows. If a condos interior fixtures (cabinets, toilets, lights, appliances ) are damaged in a storm or earthquake it is the individual owner's loss. A standard HO-6 policy won't cover these items, basically it just covers your furniture and clothes.

Another risk of living in a condo is being personally responsible for losses that are under your complexes deductible or over its maximum coverage. These losses would be passed on to the owners in the form of an assessment. You can buy coverage to protect yourself from this exposure.

Jim

Interesting comment about the condo coverage, and the fact that your own condo might have coverage, but you might be responsible for damage to some else's condo and have to pay assessment. i live in a condo that is "so-called" self insured, but there is not an adequate reserve. I had been told that no insurance company writes a policy to cover this situation, so am interested in your remark, Jim, that you can get coverage for this. What company offers this?
Geoff

Check out what the condo association does insure because as Jim said, "some" only cover the outside walls & roof but thankfully, mine covered the interior fixtures (kitchen cabinets, damaged tile, lights, repainting, etc. Our insurance company was Theodore Tunick with Steve Martin. Of course, you would need contents insurance on your own for your personal belongings & furniture.

Some condo association policies cover interior and contents? Really? I'm surprised. I thought all condos considered anything interior (from the sheetrock /equivalent and in) the responsibility of the individual owner. With condo HOAs that have coverage for interior fixtures, what happens when an owner remodels and the value of the fixtures changes?

Ours did. As I said, not furniture or other contents but after Marilyn my kitchen was rebuilt but all the kitchens that had to be redone were done pretty much alike. X number of dollars was figured for each one. One owner really gutted his unit & redid it completely unlike the rest of us. He got a flat amount out of the settlement & he paid the difference. Our buildings are concrete block/concrete, with closet framed in wood.

The policy did not pay for my personal losses.

Edited to add that the insurance didn't cover washer/dryer, refrigerator or dishwasher. It did cover replacing bathroom vanities.

We too have used Marshall and Sterling on STX for our homeowners insurance, and still do for our auto insurance. However, when our homeowners policy came up for renewal the year before last and I got the quote from Marshall and Sterling, I contacted AARP for a quote also. The people I spoke with spoke English well, were courteous, and helpful. The quote I received was about 15% lower (or about a $1000 in my case) for the exact same policy with the exact same coverage and the exact same underwriter. In addition, the person who signed the AARP policy as the authorized representative of the underwriter was also a Marshall and Sterling employee. So, although when I call the AARP Insurance office in PR the person who answers does so on Spanish on occasion, as soon as I say something in English they swap to English as well. In my humble opinion, the savings through AARP are significant enough to compensate for a little bit of inconvenience.

Stay away from Mariam Mathes & ANY insurance company who uses Crawford V.I. for thier claim adjusters.
If you want to save time with them, burn your money, it`s much faster & you get the same result!
$ in= NOTHING out!
Spead the word, these guys $uck!