Discrimination...
 

When our oldest daughter transferred to an out of state college as a junior, we bought her a nice little studio condo in a very nice student housing complex to live in. Since she graduated, we have had the agents at the complex rent it out -- generally to graduate or medical students.

A few weeks ago, the company with whom we had it insured cancelled the insurance (there had been NO claims) because they "discovered" that no member of our family was living there.

In the past couple of weeks I have discovered that many insurance companies would not cover it because we rented to college students.

Finally got it squared away on the last day of the old policy. What a mess.

I know there are other kinds of discrimination against you "wild" kids, but this was a first for me.

I believed there is a seperate insurance for people who rent their homes. I can't remmember, but it's different then homeowner insurance since the condo is now a business. Don't quote on me on this though, GC lawyers should know.

You pay car insurance?

For under 25 you pay about 5 times what you would if over 25. Especially if male.

Insurance discriminates A LOT.

I thought it was supposed to be some kind of moral terpitude for an individual to judge someone based on anything but their personality and life's accomplishments.. Well I'll be 25 in June so I guess it's not my fight anymore :D

That's not fun, either, but that's due to the huge number of at fault accidents for young men.

In truth, I suspect that college students are a bigger risk in terms of housing, too -- although we've never had a claim. Our good luck may be due to the type of people who rent our unit, though.

It's just natural to be PO'd at the insurance industry.

With advance apologies to those of you who may be in the insurance industry:

Do you know the difference between an insusrance agent and a carp?

One is a lowlife, bottomfeeding, scum sucking semi-lifeform -- and the other is a fish.

Actuallly, my dad and his brother both worked for insurance companies for a while. They'll probably forgive me, though.

Sorry for two posts in a row.

Even if you have your rental property incorporated, some insusrance companies will still not write policies if you rent to students.

I went through that exercise just yesterday.

Wish I could give good advice, but since I can't, I'll just add my two cents about how much insurance companies suck. They really do. I'm currently looking for an insurance policy that I can afford without skipping too many meals, but it's tough! :p My boyfriend and I have tons of arguments about this--he's in law school and wants to defend insurance companies when he gets out--but no matter what he says he'll still never convince me that insurance companies "have" to be so anal because everyone takes advantage of them. They take advantage of us, more like.

I don't know the ins and outs of insuring property when renting to students, but I do know that my husband and I had to jump through extra hoops when we bought our income property because it wasn't owner occupied.

Back on topic though, our insurance company is driving up CRAZY right now because the duplex is situated on a 100 year flood zone. That's right, we have to buy special insurance because there is an infinitesimal chance that sometime in the next 100 years, the land will flood. In Arizona. Where you have approximately 360 days of sunshine per year. Where the only river nearby is dry and a few miles away. :rolleyes:

The insurance company keeps requesting pictures of the property. We've followed their instructions to the letter TWICE and the pictures are supposedly still not satisfactory. We are now thinking of calling in the photographers at "Vogue."

I feel your pain, DeltAlum.

That was the way this one started, and escalated from there.

By the way, we resolved the situation this morning. I found an agent and company who would write a policy for a reasonable price.

Of course, what made this more difficult was doing it long distance since my agent here in Colorado isn't licensed in Ohio.

For a while it looked like it was going to cost nearly a thousand dollars a year to insure that little studio apartment.

On the other topic, we moved into a duplex in a gated golf course community about a year ago, and had to change insurance companies because our old one won't write policies on "multi-family" dwellings. We had been with this company for years with no claims. They not only lost our home owners policies, but also all of our cars and some term life.

Well since we are talking about how insurance companies suck...I have one. In our old house when we bought we got insurance with a company through a broker. Our insurance payment was ties up into our loan payment and was to be paid out of escrow by the mortgage company. After one year was up I received a letter from the broker stating that our insurance had been cancelled due to Non-Payment. WHAT??? I made some calls and found that my mortgage company did make the payment. I called the broker and she called the insurance company only to find that they did receive the payment but it was late. I appears that they set a deadline of 1 month before the end of the policy to pay the next year or it is dropped. My mortgage company paid it so it arrived 1 week before the end of my policy. We then tried to have them rewrite a policy but they wouldn't because our house had been uninsured "any period of time" I was able to find other insurance but it cost be about $300 more a year. Needless to say with our new house I make the payments to the insurance company, Not the mortgage company.

Keeping on with the insurance theme -
When I found out that I had pre-cervical cancer a month before I graduated from college, I freaked out. My parent's were scrambling to figure out how I was going to be covered. Many said I wouldn't be able to find insurance with a pre-existing condition and then my dad found out I could.

But to make a story short, my father looked into one of those Cobra plans for me (a 24 year old female). It would cost me...$405 a MONTH! :eek: I pay $505 in rent - how could I afford to lose almost a thousand dollars a month to just rent and insurance?!

I just think it's the biggest rip off...and very much prejudice!

COBRA is good for people between jobs or jobs with benefits, but it is INCREDIBLY expensive.

It's important to keep that medical insurance active so you don't get caught in the pre-existing condition mess.

ETA the one thing it does do is force insurance companies to continue coverage -- otherwise who knows what they would do.

I fall into the "uninsurable" category because I have SCOLIOSIS. Yes. Curvature of the spine can make you ininsurable. I'll have to stay with a big group (FI's company plan) or work for a law firm large enough to provide health benefits.

I hate insurance companies, but you make pretty good money in insurance defense. It's dirty, but so much of law is, unfortunately.

Well crap, so do I. I can stay on the GPparents plan until I am 25 as long as I am a full-time student, which I intend to do. After that, I just won't ever get sick or hurt. :p

I feel the need to be maternal for a moment here:

As expensive as it may be, you need to, need to, need to carry health insurance... even if it's just major medical. I can tell you this from experience... I didn't have medical insurance for just a few months (because of the pre-existing conditions mess that yall are talking about), and of course in that time I became seriously ill and racked up thousands and thousands of dollars in medical bills. If I'd even just had major medical, it would have saved me and my family immensely.

Okay, lecture over.

and okay, I'm a total hippocrate because I don't carry car insurance!

Reason #5299161 I am staying a full-time student as long as I possibly can. Right now I'm insured until 2007. My graduate school's alumni association also provides low-cost insurance coverage for us if we're self-employed or work for a non-profit.

Ginger, doesn't your state require drivers to be insured, even if it's just for damage to the car?