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To: Dale Baker who wrote (45793)	4/26/2006 2:28:27 AM
From: Dale Baker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 118717

QBE to renew fewer policies Coverage for condo and homeowners associations continues to shrink as major insurer becomes highly selective on renewals. BY BEATRICE E. GARCIA bgarcia@MiamiHerald.com Finding insurance for condo and homeowners associations is now a tougher task as the last major insurer willing to write policies to cover hurricane coverage becomes highly selective on renewals. QBE Insurance, one of the U.S. units of QBE Insurance Group Ltd., Australia's largest international general insurance and reinsurance group, is limiting its coverage to mainly newer buildings as well as ones with hurricane protection such as shutters and those meeting current building codes, according to agents and condominium association officials in South Florida. Some say QBE could be renewing as few as one in four policies. These policies cover building structures. The retrenchment comes at a difficult time for this market. QBE, which announced last month it was raising rates 38 percent, is now the second-biggest insurer of associations in South Florida, where it has 1,162 out of its 1,807 policies statewide, according to the Office of Insurance Regulation. Southern Family, hamstrung by huge losses from the storms of the past two years, has stopped writing new business and isn't renewing any of the more than 15,587 condo association policies on its books. Southern Family is one of the three insurance units of Poe Financial Group. Without QBE and Southern Family, Citizens Property Insurance, the state-run insurer, is the last resort for condo and homeowners associations. Citizens has 14,268 condo associations' policies on its books, covering the building and grounds, representing nearly $26.4 billion in exposure for the insurer. Mel Shapanka, senior vice president of Acordia, a Coconut Grove agency that writes for QBE, said QBE is also demanding that associations increase the amount of insurance they buy to ensure there would be sufficient coverage for rebuilding after a major storm. QBE didn't return phone calls seeking comment. The Seacrest Towers Condominium Association in Pompano Beach may be one of the lucky ones right now. Its QBE policy renews in November. So far, the condo building, which sits east of the Florida Intercoastal, was inspected by the insurer and given a list of upgrades and repairs needed to bring the property up to the current building code, says Joseph Buerk, the association's president. The word from the insurer: Comply with this list of requirements or face the possibility of no renewal. ''We're bending over and doing whatever [the company] wants us to do,'' said Buerk. ''We don't want to go with Citizens,'' he added, noting the association has already increased its budget for a hefty insurance rate increase. Phil Lyons, a principal with InSource, an insurance agency in Dadeland, says its agents have been told upgraded properties are the ones most likely to be renewed by QBE. Condo associations in Dade and Broward covered by QBE are bracing for non-renewal. Dulce Suarez-Resnick, a Miami agent, said some condo associations can still get property/casualty, liability and directors and officers coverage from QBE, but not hurricane insurance. For that, there's only Citizens. There are some surplus carriers covering these buildings. But these insurers, or their policies or rates, aren't regulated by the state's Office of Insurance Regulations. Rates and policy coverages are usually negotiated between policyholders and the companies.