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So - i realize this is me being a bit insensitive to the people who suffered quite a bit in this hurricane, but hear me out:
this past year, both my auto and home insurance rates were increased, and when I contacted insurers, they explained it was across the board due to the costs of Irene. I expect the same to happen next time I renew which leads me to ask:
For all the people in a town like Hoboken who didn't move their cars to higher ground and now their cars are totaled - how is it fair to the rest of us to have to pay higher insurance premiums because they failed to avoid something that was fairly easy to avoid? Basement apartments in Hoboken were mandatory evacuations - hoboken floods when it rains on a normal heavy rain, let alone a hurricane with 11 ft storm surge predictions.
The smart people I know moved their cars to higher levels of garages in hoboken and jersey city.
Sorry for being insensitive. I just can't believe after last year's rate hikes that we're going to be going up again!
Guess it's no different than all the other risks we share as part of insurance in this state.
How come I pay higher health insurance rates because someone else doesn't take care of themselves (or in the future when you can just wait to get sick and then sign up for "insurance"). There will always be takers, just seems like there are more and more eery year
fair point. i guess it's just where you draw the line. i just hate how NJ has this no fault law. in PA, if i get in an accident and file a claim, my own insurance goes up. not everyone's. i get the positives and negatives of both sides. i'm just venting a bit because, although this was a horrible tragedy, the total damages could have been reduced if people took some simple precautions. i'm just thinking in Hoboken, the quantity of $30,000+ cars that have been totaled simply because people didn't think to put their cars 11 feet above the ground as a precaution.
sucks - and i fully expect some people to rail into me for saying it, because it's mildly insensitive. anyways. bye for now.
brady, I know you don't need a lecture on shared risk pools and why it works that way. I do get the frustration though. My home and auto premiums went up last year because of Irene and I'm sure they will again next year because of Sandy, in both cases I had zero damage. Heck, I haven't filed a claim in 8 years and the last one was covered under comprehensive which was all on me.
We could easily expand this argument to housing as well. Why should my home owners premiums be increasing because of people who have houses with old large trees that they don't take care of and then end up filing claims when the trees come down on the house in a storm? Why should I have to subsidize flood insurance for people so that they can live on barrier islands or in low lying areas that carry a high risk of damage?
I do think your complaint is a little less banal then that though. I am certain that there were some people who were more then happy to leave their $500 car payment sitting in a low lying area. There were a couple of examples of this in Philly where people were leaving cars in a part of Manayunk where it ALWAYS floods. Anyone who lived there certainly knew better, but yet, there was a newer BMW sitting under 5 feet of water during the storm. Hey, it was better then having it repo'd. Unfortunately though since there was so much damage and so widespread it would be really hard to go back and try to find people and prosecute them for purposefully leaving their cars in places they knew would flood.
Yeah. I know. To your other points though - a tree is a tree. Sometimes they fall. I'm ok with it, to a point. But yeah, maybe it would be a good idea if we all assess the state of the trees in our towns. I can even stomach the people who live in low lying areas, but heard an interesting theory about how the government should buy them out, pay to relocate them, and it would save us money in the long term by avoiding these issues.
Good point on the people with the high car payments.
i guess it's just frustrating because, it's something that should have been so easily avoidable. having a huge oak tree cut down could run someone quite a lot of money. Driving a car up into union city or weehawken - not so much.
It's tough to see this stuff happening all around. I moved my cars to higher ground - all of a block away. They would have been destroyed otherwise. How do you not move your car? I don't understand it. Someone I know who lives in a flood prone area said "it's just too bad that we didn't think to take things upstairs" to the 2nd level of their house. What exactly were you thinking of in all the days leading up to the storm? When your neighborhood is referred to as 'the wet side' of the highway you know you might get water. Get your valuable off the floor!
allminsurance is based on pool risk that is determined by even the accident rate in your area. They payout to some more tha they recive and they do not aoyout to others. there are even Reinsurers that they use to limit their total risk such as in such storms on real estate.Bascially they are buyig insure for a disater amount of cliams form jsut such a storm as this. All insruance is based o spreadig the risk over numbers.Often your in a poo; by where you live and even the risk of accident.Livig i a hurricane areas I will guaranteee you that the risk just went up wit two storm in tweo eyars that caused so mcuh dange to area.In some areas is possibler like here for most companies to not offer wind/storm insurnace on homes for homes in that area. Flood insurance can skyrocket with risk. from the storms.
Here's another one. Part of my home was flooded minimumly and i've had flood insurance for over 10 years for about two grand a year. Equals about 20 grand. My damage is most likely less than that. My friend who is a cheapskate didn't buy flood insurance and FEMA cut him a check larger than the 20 grand already. Me I have to wait until the beginning of December just to for an ins. rep just to show up. FEMA denied my app. because I have flood ins. So I have to lay out the bucks myself and wait and see what is covered. I'm happy to have a home though and just tossed this out.
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