Is Tiny Home Insurance Different?
Q: What makes tiny home insurance different than other home insurance?
A: Would you worry about a standard home being wheeled away in theft? Could a friend with a truck crash it on the highway moving it to another location? These are the things traditional home insurance doesn’t consider. We are the first in the nation to offer dwelling coverage rather than as an RV policy. We do not need any R.V.I.A or N.O.A.H certificate as we are the carrier.
These dwelling policies are written in-house. The pricing is about 1 to 2 % of the value of the tiny home across the country so there’s no need to worry about variable pricing as you traverse the states. Also, we don’t just cover the structure. We can cover replacement costs, personal items within the home, and other structures outside.
You can purchase unlimited trip endorsements but typically these homes aren’t traveling from coast to coast like you see on TV. Also, many of the folks that go tiny end up selling or renting out their tiny homes. We insure tiny homes on Airbnb and places like WeeCasa too. Moreover, our partner Property Protect offers on-demand coverage when you rent out your tiny home.
Here’s an article from Insurance Journal looking to our CEO Martin Burlingame as an expert in Tiny Home insurance: LINK
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Quote of the day:
“Where thou art, that is home” ― Emily Dickinson
Excerpt from Insurance Journal Article :
Most insurance agents do not understand the tiny home market, which is a matter that concerns Martin Burlingame, CEO of Commercial Insurance Group, based in Colorado Springs.
“The problem is that most insurance agents do not understand the differences on all these things (in tiny homes) and the tiny home movement, if it’s really a movement,” said Burlingame. “It’s a disaster for insurance because you have agents doing all kinds of crazy things.”
The biggest problem when it comes to insurance is whether the tiny home is a permanent residence or a rental property. Many tiny home enthusiasts have taken to the Airbnb-style home venture, Burlingame said.
The tiny home market is broken down into a few segments for insurance coverage purposes. First is a builder-built tiny home that’s mobile. Then there’s builder-built homes that are non-mobile. Lastly, are the DIY, or self-built tiny homes.
Burlingame’s managing general agency, through its tinyhome.insure website, offers an exclusive tiny home insurance program developed specifically for tiny homes. Premiums can range anywhere between $600 and $1,200 annually depending on the tiny home size and value, how it was built and where it is located.
“One problem is a lot these (tiny home) builders are building non-RVIA certified tiny homes,” said Burlingame. So, Burlingame’s firm created the program to treat the home as a dwelling. It includes a trip endorsement that allows the owner to relocate the home and it provides auto comprehensive and collision liability when the home is moved. The program is underwritten by United National Insurance Co., an American Reliable division.
Burlingame said the United National Insurance Co. program shies away from self-built tiny homes “from the ground up” but the underwriters will write shells that have been customized.
For tiny homes that do not fit into the United National program, Burlingame offers coverage through an inland marine company. With this program, he can write tiny homes that are self-built or non-self-built but can’t offer liability. “It’s written as an inland marine,” he said. He said the insured can always buy a general liability policy as well but the problem there is that general liability policies are area specific.
Burlingame said [some carriers] will write tiny homes, but those markets tend to classify them as travel trailers.
Tiny Home Future
Right now, Burlingame works with about six or seven independent agents who specialize in tiny homes nationwide but still gets the sporadic one off account.
After two years, Burlingame’s tiny home insurance program has racked up about $5,000 in claims but only brought in around $400,000 to $500,000 in premium. “It’s not grown as fast as we want or as fast as the carrier wants it to,” he admits.
But he’s not deterred yet.
How the industry evolves over the next few years will be interesting to watch, he said. The evolution reminds him of another emerging market and product evolution: the legal marijuana industry.
“Being in Colorado, we dealt with marijuana coming in. It was a completely new product that nobody understood what to do with it,” he said. “The tiny home market is like that but the difference is a marijuana policy is $70,000 for a grow operation, while a tiny home policy is $650. That’s the problem.”
Even so he says it’s amazing to watch a completely new insurance product evolve with a much different and, in Burlingame’s view, a better risk clientele.
To read more from March 6, 2017 article in Insurance Journal click here: “Tiny Homes: How agents, insurers are helping to lay a foundation for a growing insurance market”