The Worcester County Commissioners will join a growing list of local leaders seeking state assistance on behalf of homeowners struggling to secure insurance for their manufactured homes.
Manufactured homes in White Horse Park are pictured.
File photo
Bethany Hooper, Associate Editor
It appears the Worcester County Commissioners will join a growing list of local leaders seeking state assistance on behalf of homeowners struggling to secure insurance for their manufactured homes.
At the end of a recent commissioners meeting, Commissioner Joe Mitrecic pointed to a recent news article in the OC Today-Dispatch highlighting the lack of available homeowners insurance for older mobile homes in the area. With insurance companies choosing not to offer, or even continue, policies on manufactured homes older than 20 years, he asked officials to reach out to state representatives.
“I think it’s something we need to be aware of,” he said. “I don’t know if we can talk to the state about it, but I think something’s going to have to be done at the state level as far as some sort of high-risk insurance for these dwellings in the future.”
In recent weeks, area residents and real estate agents have shared stories of their ongoing struggles to find insurance carriers that will provide policies on older manufactured homes. For some owners, this change has resulted in the loss of a home sale, as the buyer could not find a homeowners insurance policy required by the mortgage company. For others, it has resulted in dropped insurance coverage. Officials say this has impacted homeowners not only in Ocean City’s Montego Bay community, but also in Worcester County’s two campground subdivisions – White Horse Park and Assateague Pointe.
“To the best of my knowledge, there’s no insurance carriers at the moment that will hand out homeowners insurance policies for single-wide, double-wide or buildovers, which is a single-wide that’s been added onto,” Montego Bay Realty’s Mike Grimes said earlier this month. “So, because of this current situation, anybody buying those types of homes have to buy in cash because lenders require a homeowners insurance policy.”
The Ocean City Mayor and Council have also directed staff to explore options for mobile home owners and to relay their concerns to the state legislature. Mitrecic similarly urged county officials to take some action.
“I don’t know if any of you have read it in the paper about insurance companies pulling out of Ocean City,” he said. “Right now, they’re pulling out of mobile homes that are older than 20 years old. They’re not re-upping their insurance. And in some cases, people trying to buy one are not able to get insurance, so they can’t get mortgages to purchase these mobile homes. So some of these people are stuck with them, and can’t sell them and can’t insure them.”
Mitrecic also shared his own recent struggles in securing homeowners insurance. He questioned if the state would consider some sort of state-funded insurance program for homeowners struggling to find policies for their mobile homes.
“I know after 28 years with State Farm and never having a claim, they sent me a letter that they were not insuring people in homes in my zip code anymore. So I had to go out and find insurance in a very short amount of time. I had a month, basically,” he said. “So I know what these people are going through, and if they are not able to find insurance anywhere else, it’s going to be tough.”
Mitrecic pointed to the homeowners who would be affected, including the White Horse Park and Assateague Pointe residents who attended last week’s meeting for a separate matter.
“We need to work on that with our senators, and I’m sure our senator is well aware of it and our delegates are well aware of it,” he said. “We’re going to have to keep it on our radar because it’s not only going to affect the people in Ocean City but it’s going to affect the people speaking here today in White Horse Park and Assateague Pointe eventually.”