Select an Insurance Specialist for your ROC

Boards of Directors of Resident Owned Manufactured Housing Communities are bound to perform many tasks, but the one task which they usually are the least prepared to perform is the responsibility of purchasing the proper types and amounts of property and liability insurance for their associations.  Most ROC  board members have limited experience in this area and are forced to rely on the advice of their insurance agent.  Sometimes relying on this advice is adequate, but unless that agent specializes in insuring these types of communities the scope of that advice may prove to be insufficient. This article will suggest a different approach to purchasing insurance coverages, an approach that is commonly used by large corporate insurance consumers but which applies to resident owned communities equally as well.

Should you get “Bids” on your ROC Insurance?

Traditionally it has been accepted practice for ROC associations to “get three bids” on everything, including insurance.  Sometimes this is even spelled out in the association’s bylaws or other documents. The facts are these:  in Florida today the “market” for insurance on manufactured housing communities is very limited.  In actuality there are only two or three insurance carriers that are aggressively insuring these types of communities (or for that matter, insuring them at all). The practice in the insurance industry is that carriers will only work with one agent at a time.  If agent A submits a community to a carrier and the carrier has already received a submission from agent B, then agent A will be “blocked” from getting a quotation from that carrier.  Many people are unaware of this situation.  At any rate, agent A will have spent a lot of time and effort with no result. In the end, the association will only get proposals from the first agent to submit their account to the carriers.  The association will then be “stuck” with that agent, even though the association may not feel he or she is best suited to handle their business. Read the rest of this entry »