Owner's Insurance

[Red Charlotte]

When I lived in my condo, I had owner's insurance. Does anyone have this for living aboard? If so, any recommendations for good companies?

I'm going to call Farmers, who I had my previous owner's insurance through, but thought I would check.

Many thanks!

[Harriet]

Your boat insurance should cover most of the same line items as your condo insurnce did - liability, medical, etc. If you are going to live aboard at a dock, your insurance should reflect that.

[Auspicious]

I also have renters insurance that covers my belongings in storage.

[coot]

My insurance broker is International Marine Insurance Services (IMIS, www.imiscorp.net). I have a live-aboard insurance policy that resembles a cross between boat insurance and homeowner's insurance. I think they also had another option, but I don't remember exactly.

I have never had to make a claim, but I have never had any problems with routine stuff.

[Red Charlotte]

Originally Posted by Harriet

Your boat insurance should cover most of the same line items as your condo insurnce did - liability, medical, etc. If you are going to live aboard at a dock, your insurance should reflect that.

I know that my boat insurance covers that stuff, I was just wondering if it covers stuff like contents in the boat, laptops, etc. I'll have to break out the old policy and give it a read!

[TabbyCat]

You asked about homeowners type insurance while on your boat. Homeowners policies are actually "Package Policies", so they cover all sorts of liabilities & occurrences beyond just damage to the house itself. These "personal liabilities" are NOT typically covered in a marine insurance policy. An example would be running into someone with your grocery cart while in the store. Your homeowners would cover you for that. Items stolen from your car are also typically covered under a homeowners. If your house burns down, the cost of a hotel room while your house is being rebuilt is yet another example.

I know of only two Marine Insurance policies that provide this kind of "homeowner" coverage for a boat owner: Markel Jackline and Zurich Quartermaster. They only offer this type of coverage to individuals who have sold their land-based home and live aboard, as you would not want to have overlapping coverage. A lot of people used the living expense reimbursement in the Jackline Policy when hurricane Ivan hit Grenada and damaged many boats, making them uninhabitable.

Fair Winds,
Susan
International Marine Insurance Services
susan@IMIScorp.net

[Red Charlotte]

Wow Susan. What an informative post. I was kinda tickled to see a real insurance person responding. Your words echo what my insurance guy told me yesterday. He also mentioned the quatermaster policy. He said if I didn't want to pursue that route, I could keep our current boat policy, and then find a separate policy to just cover contents, does that sound accurate?

Many thanks,
Charlotte

[TabbyCat]

So it sounds like what you are looking for is just coverage for your personal belongings, not necessarily the other types of homeowners coverage that I mentioned? (reimbursement for a place to live if your boat become uninhabitable due to a covered loss, liability for being sued for something that happens off the boat, etc).

If all you want to do is to cover personal belongings, your current boat policy should have some amount listed for personal effects that are ON THE BOAT. Personal effects are things like clothing, books, music, etc- things that are not used to navigate the boat. If you're storing stuff OFF THE BOAT, that would typically not be covered by a marine insurance policy other than Zurich Quartermaster or a Markel Jackline policy. If that's the case, then you might want to get a "floater policy" for your personal effects through your home/auto insurance agent, as that will be the least expensive option. But if you want the other coverages associated with the Quartermaster or Jackline, then it would make sense to get it all in one policy.

Where are you headed? The Quartermaster will only cover you for the US coastline & Mexico.

~ Susan

[Red Charlotte]

Hi Susan,

I see what you're saying, and you're right. I really need to get out our policy and read it again. Since the move though, everything is packed away somewhere.

We won't leave for cruising for another 5 years, which is why I thought of getting 'renters/owners' insurance, if you know what I mean. But if this is our only residence, then a quatermaster type of policy is probably what we should be looking at.

Thank you again!

Ps - our cruising is going to be around-the-world, so we know we probably won't have a policy to cover that!

[TabbyCat]

If you would like to see a sample of the Zurich Quartermaster policy, send me an off-line message with your e-mail address, and I'll send it to you.

Why wouldn't you get insurance for worldwide cruising? We have many clients who do, although since they usually take more than 12 months to go around the world, they usually opt for a navigation territory that fits their 12 month itinerary rather than pay for the "worldwide" option.

RE: 5 years - We had a 5-year plan that turned into a 2 year plan after a year of living in the marina. Hope yours does too!

Susan
International Marine Insurance Services