Cover Getting Scarce, N.Y. Agents Warn

New York builders are hard pressed to secure liability insurance coverage, and they aren't the only buyers being left in the lurch as carriers pull out of more and more markets, while those who stick around are sharply raising rates, according to a survey of independent agents in the state.

The online poll by the Syracuse-based Independent Insurance Agents Association of New York found that beyond builders, it is getting harder to find insurance for other personal and commercial lines, while prices continue to escalate.

Their data was collected in an online survey that asked agents to rate the availability of coverage in a number of property-casualty insurance lines.

The survey, the association said, reinforces its opinion that there is “a severe crisis in the liability insurance market serving New Yorks building contractors.”

According to the results, 83 percent of the responding agents said that insurance for construction risks was “much less available,” while more than 86 percent said that the cost for insurance for contractors is “expensive” compared to two years ago.

Ninety-two percent of the respondents said that at least one of the multiple companies they represent refuses to write new construction accounts.

“The crisis in the contractors insurance market in New York is compounded by a strict liability standard in the states labor law, which cant be found anywhere else in the United States,” said John R. Costello, IIAANY chairman, in a statement.

He added that agents from around the state were meeting with their state legislative representatives in an effort to reform the situation.

The survey, conducted from Oct. 14-28, consisted of 61 questions on a host of insurance topics. The survey received 182 member responses from around the state. IIAANY noted that some agents did not respond to every question because they did not write those lines or did not have the time to complete the survey.

Other lines that agents said have become less available were personal auto, with more than 88 percent stating it was either much less or somewhat less available, commercial property (more than 92 percent), and commercial general liability (94 percent).

The survey also indicated that more carriers are canceling contracts and not writing lines of business.

In the past 12 months, 91 percent of respondents said some carriers have stopped writing one or more forms of coverage. Forty-one percent said that one or two carriers they used stopped writing coverage, and 38 percent put the figure between three and four.

Personal auto led the way with 69 percent of the members saying carriers stopped writing the line, followed by workers compensation at 57 percent, and commercial general liability at 53 percent.

Generally, the majority of respondents said rates were increasing anywhere from 11-to-25 percent in most lines.

A full survey summary and the complete report are available at the associations Web site at www.iiaany.org.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, December 16, 2002. Copyright 2002 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.

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Cover Getting Scarce, N.Y. Agents Warn

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