A memo from the Incline Pines HOA Board of Directors
June 3, 2025
Dear Incline Pines homeowner(s),
This is a follow-up to our April 28 letter alerting you to the changes requiring each individual owner to secure a standard homeowners insurance policy for coverage beginning no later than June 29.
We’re pleased to report that a number of our neighbors have already secured policies through Allstate, USAA and State Farm that will end up costing not much more than their existing HO6 “condo” policies with coverage far superior than the HOA’s current master policy.
We’ve also discovered that underwriting criteria can vary widely– even with the same carrier in the same community. It seems State Farm, especially, is sensitive to the proximity of trees around a home. But we’re aware of at least one owner who was approved by State Farm despite their home not entirely meeting State Farm’s published defensible space criteria.
The Board understands the HOA’s responsibility to take reasonable steps to make a home insurable– but at the same time the Board has chosen not to preemptively remove trees just because of a carrier’s published requirements.
We do this not just because of the enormous expense involved– but also in an effort to maintain as much as possible the natural beauty of Incline PINES.
For that reason, we urge homeowners to explore all insurance options to find the least restrictive policy requirements. If it becomes absolutely necessary to remove a tree or trees close to your home, please provide a letter to the HOA from the carrier demanding the remediation.
Also, please note that any corrections in your limited common element required by an insurance carrier (firewood, storage containers, hot tubs, landscaping, etc.) are the responsibility of the owner. CC&R 1.33 “Limited Common Elements” shall mean those portions of the Common Elements over which exclusive easements are reserved for the benefit of one or more but fewer than all of the Owners.
Sincerely,
The Incline Pines HOA Board of Directors
Previous post: Homeowners share tips about securing a policy
My American Family policy was cancelled last year after covering us for twenty years. I moved all properties over to State Farm at that time which covered our lake house interior until notice was given that our Master policy was going away at which point I applied for a Homeowner’s policy. After waiting for a response for several weeks, I re-contacted them and was told that I was rejected for too much debris and too many trees, but there had not been any inspection done. Ultimately, I found a policy with Allstate who did require that I transfer my primary residence to them in order to cover my Incline Pines property. Their homeowner’s policy for IP was $1600/yr with $1.3M structure limits but with a built in 140% extended coverage which brought it up to around $2M of Replacement Value coverage and $900K personal property. I had been paying $1K more for just my interior with SF and with far less coverage limits. I found that I also saved significant $$ on our primary residence, rental properties and $2K per year on autos (the latter were covered by AAA), and so we moved everything under Allstate.
They required a self-directed survey of the properties using your smartphone and taking interior videos and photos combined with exterior photos from different perspectives which probably took me about an hour to do right. I had prepped my property by clearing a 15′ defensible space around the perimeter and taking photos from thoughtful perspectives in order to minimize trees and manzanitas that might be around.
I have found the process to be tolerable given the current environment where it seems that I have spent more time on insurance issues in the past two years than I had during the previous thirty years combined.
If you need a solid agent who’s dad was the first Allstate agent in Northern Nevada, then give Matt Callahan’s agency a call at 775-826-3270; he’s located at 6880 S. McCarran Blvd., Suite 13, Reno 89509. His email is mattcallahan@allstate.com. Matt’s a good person, very experienced and knowledgeable and with friendly staff and other agents who can step in to help if needed.
For sake of completeness, State Farm did tell me that my property was in review again, and that they could now conditionally cover the Incline home pending an on-site inspection, but that was only disclosed to me after I contacted them to notify them that all policies had already been moved over to Allstate.
Perry
Unit 21
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