Recommended house insurance company?

[Dean1953]

I'm not getting my hopes too high but a real estate company has told me that an American couple moving here wants to rent my house.  Assuming that the negotiations go smoothly, at some point, I need to insure the house, preferably for full replacement value.  It is a 2 story teak house, with 4 bedrooms and 3 baths.  I spent 4.2 million baht building it in 2002 and would assume that both the price of teak and labor has gone up in the last 15 years.  Would an insurance company appraise the house or should I hire one?  Are there any recommendations out there of an insurance company that you have been happy with and came through when catrastropy strikes?  Any information would be appreciated.

[rawhod]

I have 3 million baht full replacement house insurance for 7K baht through AA Insurance Brokers, however, that excludes   wooden houses...

[abrahamzvi]

Although I have not had a serious claim, I have been insured for our houses and contents, with the MSIG for over ten years and I am very pleased with them and feel safe that if a catastrophe strikes, they will compensate me in a fair manner

[DGS1244]

Use a good broker and insure with a foreign company such as AIG at least then you know you will have cover.

[elektrified]

I've heard it is close to impossible to insure wooden houses. But of course I don't know that for a fact.

[brommers]

I have house and contents insured through AXA and it is not expensive compared to a simikar property I have in another non Asian country. Of course flood insurance is excluded now, and yes I have heard that insuring a wooden house is well high impossible because of the fire risk and the pest damage threat.

[Antonymous]

It is certainly possible to insure wooden houses in Thailand. I did.

 

Most insurers have a 'Fire' policy that includes other eventualities like storm damage and earthquake and the value of both construction and contents is included. This is usually adequate.

 

If you also wish to insure expensive or special contents in addition to the above, all insurers will quote for you, but it will be expensive.

 

The best advice I can give is that you must get quotes from several different companies. The second advice is that you do NOT need to do this through a broker. Brokers 'should' compare different underwriters for you and choose the most appropriate but my experience with brokers here is that they will prefer one underwriter and choose the best policy offered only by that one underwriter, which is quite different and not what you want.

 

First prepare the details of the property. They want to know the full address of course plus the dimensions, number of floors and materials used in construction for starters (such as what type of wood....are there bricks between outer and inner walls...what is the roof structure and roofing material).

 

Then calculate the replacement value of the property (how much it will cost to rebuild it) and the replacement value of your contents.

 

Approach as many insurers as you can with all the info above and compare their answers.

 

Wood building will not be insured at the same rate as bricks and mortar houses. It will definitely cost you more.

 

One bonus to look out for is insurers who offer a discount for multiple years. this makes a huge difference. So, if you are prepared to pay for multiple years in advance you may get 50% or so discount. One insurer that I recommend for all of the above in Bangkok Insurance. They have many offices and you can simply walk in and discuss it with them. As I said and wish to emphasise, you do not need to go through a broker.

 

 

[colinneil]

Our home is insured with MSIG and i would recommend them to anybody.

After  we got it insured with them, 5 days later had a serious storm.

Roof damaged, made a claim, paid in full within 2 weeks.

Nobody visited to check, accepted my word and my photos, without question.

[Pilotman]

1 hour ago, rawhod said:

I have 3 million baht full replacement house insurance for 7K baht through AA Insurance Brokers, however, that excludes   wooden houses...

same for me.  AA seem very efficient.  of course,  one only really knows when you have to make a large claim,  but fingers crossed that will not be needed.  

 

[portroyal]

Bangkok Insurance: insures wooden houses and doesn't exclude flood

most important point: avoid the brokers

[topt]

49 minutes ago, portroyal said:

most important point: avoid the brokers

Why?

 

[Antonymous]

14 hours ago, topt said:

Why?

 

I don't know what portroyal had in mind.

 

As I said in post 7 you don't NEED to use a broker and in my experience a very much better deal could be found easily by a little shopping around directly to the insurance companies. This is because the typical broker will be beholden to one underwriter only and won't tell you that. They will promote only 'their' insurer.

 

One way to test this, if you are still in doubt, is to go to a broker with a list of top insurance companies operating in Thailand. Tell them your requirements and ask them to compare the policies of each on your list and recommend the best. This surely is what you expect an INDEPENDENT broker to do. If their insurer is not on your list they'll give you a blank stare or show you the door.

 

When I got my house insurance sorted I went to the most prominent broker here on TV and they recommended the one insurer that they always do. I carefully studied the policy and found it to be wanting in several important aspects and I quickly found a better deal elsewhere.

[Dean1953]

As you can tell, the first floor is brick, the ceiling for the first floor is wood, and the second floor is wood.   The only type of wood used is teak.   On both the first and second floors, the back of the house is concrete, which would be the kitchen and bathroom on the first floor and two bathrooms and outdoor patio on the second floor.  I'll get several quotes, and include Bangkok insurance as one of them.

Edited July 18, 2017 by Dean1953

[topt]

3 hours ago, Antonymous said:

I don't know what portroyal had in mind.

Which is why I asked - I had already read your post no 7 so was aware of your reasoning.

 

I don't necessarily disagree with some of what you say but one benefit of eventually going through a broker (even if you do the leg work yourself) is that they can or should support you when needing to claim. This was proven to me with a car insurance issue 2 years ago - with the prominent broker I think you are mentioning. This can be even more important if you don't have "access" to a trusted Thai speaker. Just an additional factor to consider.

[Greenside]

I'd call khun Ake at 

 

Tidtarin Insurance Consultant
67/3 Sripoom Rd.,T.Sripoom, A.Muang, Chaing Mai 50200
053 357949, 053 418181, 081 9605254, 081 8815480 Fax.053 357950

Map: http://goo.gl/maps/w0f2O

 

They are a small family run insurance broker with an office near Chang Pueak Gate.  Khun Ake speaks perfect English, answers emails promptly and returns phone calls reliably all of which are pretty uncommon features in Thailand.  I would be confident of his support if it came to sorting out a serious claim and he took the trouble to come and visit our property before we took out our first policy.  We have property and vehicles insured with him and they are always on time with reminders and will take care of your car tax without charge if you can't make it to the licensing office.

 

Incidentally, he'll quote from a variety of companies or a specific one if you ask.  I don't see any price benefits of going direct (tried it in the past) and in case of a claim disagreement I know I'd rather have someone who places significant amounts of business with my insurer on my side then fight the system on my own.

 

 

Edited July 18, 2017 by Greenside