Home Owner's insurance question

[dragonwalker]

I live in a 2B2B condo about 934 sq ft. in Southern California. Last year during my first year of ownership the home owner's insurance was $734. I got the renewal this year and it was $957. There were no changes and no insurance claims filed by me. I was not given any reason why. I've also had my auto policy with them for 5 years as well. It's Geico so their services should be inexpensive. I shopped around and other places seem to be more or would be more with the cost of my auto insurance higher.

Geico doesn't underwrite their own policies so they can search among their carriers for coverage. There are a few cheaper options as low as $550 for the same coverage however they require the tenant I have to be on a 6 month or greater lease term. My tenant now is month to month and neither he nor I want to change that.

I was thinking perhaps I could draw up a 6 month lease and have my tenant sign but make a separate addendum or maybe even add one stating that there would be no penalty if 1 month notice was given. Would that hold water should it come down to insurance ever needing to see the lease? What would the best way to go about this be ?

[Sibley]

You live in Southern California. I bet the reason your insurance went up is because they're increasing the premium to be in better line with the risk.

I can't comment specifically on your lease idea, but that seems pretty shady to me.

[bacchi]

Geico drastically increased my auto insurance. When I called to cancel, they offered to keep the coverage at the current (that was about to end) rate. Tempting but I hate when companies use that approach.

tl;dr Call and ask, just like you do for cable/internet.

[cool7hand]

I was thinking perhaps I could draw up a 6 month lease and have my tenant sign but make a separate addendum or maybe even add one stating that there would be no penalty if 1 month notice was given. Would that hold water should it come down to insurance ever needing to see the lease? What would the best way to go about this be ?

This is a great idea. Just make sure that you run a draft by the underwriter before you have it signed so that you don't have to start from scratch.

[zoro]

One tip for GEICO is if you have one share of Berkshire Hathaway - (a b class share will do) - you qualify for an automatic associates discount of 8% on all your insurance with them.

It’s worth having a few b clad shares of Berkshire just to get the annual report and the Buffett Leyte, but this is. An added bonus that most people don’t realize.

[dragonwalker]

Thank you Zoro, I called Geico and although they confirmed this is true I was already taking advantage of other applicable group discounts and this discount would not increase it further.