Liability only coverage for a home

[Dave Sparks]

Anyone know of a strategy to get Liability coverage only for a home without a mortgage.

I am asking for a close friend who had his insurance cost triple. There really is not any other insurance companies that will write a policy because of wildfires. He is willing to self insure and can afford it but Liability is an unknown.

Thanks!

[jbos333]

I was in a similar situation a couple years back. I had an older friend who had been injured and wasn't old enough to collect Social Security retirement benefits, but couldn't work and as a result had let his property taxes lapse. He told me about this after the county had foreclosed and planned to auction the place off in about 2 weeks. I "redeemed" the property by paying the 3 yrs back taxes and penalties, and it is now in my name.
He hadn't had any kind of insurance on the place in a long time, but I couldn't afford not to have at least some liability coverage. I talked to an independent insurance broker from the area who insures farms, etc. I could not get liability only on this property because it has a dwelling, but the dwelling would never pass a "conventional" insurance inspection.
I was able to insure the dwelling for a "catastrophic" event such as a total loss due to fire-something like that would pay $50k- far less than it would cost to rebuild a house that size, but with this coverage I was able to have liability coverage along with it that has limits high enough to work with an umbrella policy I have.
So maybe going a similar route would work for your situation. I believe the premium is around $300/yr.

[rick91351]

Dave my first post on this forum was about.  My insurance agent as well as my attorney cautioned I needed liability on the old family homestead.   So I told my insurance agent great find me some......

He called hanging his head could not find anybody to underwrite 640 acres of bare ground.  So we just dropped it.....  Then I ran into an old friend that really was my agents boss at the time.  I happened to think about it and he had us insured in no time.  It was through Farmer Alliance.  When our agent quit and my friend was still in the business I turned everything over to him.   Auto Owners was more than willing to underwrite it all.  Then we started on the house Auto Owners would not underwrite the construction and liability.  So  he tossed it back to Farmers Alliance and they are back in place as the liability carrier. 

So you might try there.  There are a couple more that were written about on the forum.....  Thing is they are out there, you just have to make some calls and see some agents.  Appears to me the agents anymore are not willing or their companies are so tied into a basic formula.  Anything out of the ordinary just is to hard for them to find anything in their companies inventories.  Tis a pyramid scheme.         

[Dave Sparks]

Thanks for the tips guy's. I will get back here if I get some luck. The other thing that I thought of was when I built my house I had travel trailer insurance with Formost. I was able to get liability and lot's of it to be used while I was building my house. Maybe my friend should buy a travel trailer?
I like the two ideas you guy's have posted so far as the travel trailer thing might not pay-off if needed in a law suit.

Update
It looks like Farmers Alliance is only in these states and are monday thru friday on the telephone

CO, ID, KS, MT, ND, NE, OK, SD

The catastrophe insurance had a FAQ here  https://www.trustedchoice.com/catastrophe-insurance/coverage-faq/

I think I found it for him and it may help others in fire areas. This info is CA specific but many states have a form of assigned risk for a home owner. It is called the California Fair Plan and other states have similar names. DIC is Difference in conditions and is a good search word.
A "wrap" insurance is a type that can get you specific coverage and not coverage that you will self insure. This will save alot of money in cost and allow you to use an umbrella policy for your auto policy as additional liability for your home. The Wrap insurance policy for a home in CA gives you the required 300K of liability and an auto umbrella can get you a 1,000K or more starting at less than $200.
http://einhorninsurance.com/california-insurance/brush-insurance-california-fair-plan/

If you are searching or talking to insurance people, this whole subject is called the non-standard market. Your typical home insurance people do not help much with this as they want you to just keep paying. I got a quote of $500 for 300K of liability & medical only. The Farmers agent here is not helping my friend.  I assume Farmers is losing alot of Rural customers when they raise the cost of insuring a 200K home from 1.2K per year to 2.8 K per year., with no end in sight ! Insurance rates do go in cycles and may get better they say.....

Einhorn insurance in San Diego was able to write a 300K Liability and medical for a home for $362 per year. I would recommend them for the non standard  insurance market coverage. They are an independent and can help with just about any risk you may want to reduce. Their wildfire web pages were very informative.