Fort Huachuca -- Beginning Jan. 6, 268 residents or 25 percent of the residents living in housing on Fort Huachuca received notification that they will no longer be provided a renter's insurance policy on their household goods in their homes on Fort Huachuca.
According to Joe Gandara, community director of Michaels Military Housing, the reason for the change was the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act. Gandara said it was "basically the Department of Defense saying what they will pay for and not going to pay for. They decided to take renters insurance out of the three parts of Basic Allowance for Housing. The three parts are rent, reasonable utilities and renters insurance. Renters insurance was taken out." Gandara explained that "the sequestration required the Defense Department to figure out how they were going to make cuts in their appropriations. So they decided to take renters insurance, which is roughly 1 percent of the BAH, out of BAH so that now renters insurance is no longer covered.
Mountain Vista Communities leases changed Jan. 1, 2015, so renters insurance was no longer included. Everyone who signed a lease before Dec. 31, 2014, was grandfathered and renters insurance was still carried for them. However, as time has gone on, as more people moved away, that population was getting smaller and smaller.
"We carried that policy for two years longer than the Army recommended and was paying for." Gandara added. "We felt that it was important to carry that policy for our residents that were grandfathered. As of Jan. 6, 2017, we will no longer be carrying that policy."
Mountain Vista Communities does not require renters insurance, but they highly encourage it.
"One of the reasons we are telling residents and highly encouraging them to get renters insurance, is so it will cover those things lost in their house if they have a catastrophic event," Gandara said. "In January 2016 we had a fire in one of our properties, and the net loss for the property was almost $80,000 however the resident lost more than $40,000 in property. And thankfully he was one of our residents who was grandfathered so we covered him for $20,000 of loss, but he was still short half of it. He had a $20,000 loss."
Elizabeth Horn, marketing coordinator for Mountain Vista Communities, seconded Gandara's concerns.
"I feel our residents need to seek renters insurance through several different companies to find out what policy best suits their needs. We recently had a fire and the damages were over $40,000 but the resident was only reimbursed for $20,000 for renters insurance which was not nearly enough to cover the loss he suffered. There are several companies, Progressive, Liberty Mutual and USAA. (One of the) benefits with USAA is that they cover military equipment with no deductible. I can speak from personal experience during a permanent change of station from Hawaii to Huachuca, our car was broken into and our renters insurance did cover most of our loss."
There are many insurance providers that offer affordable renters insurance, and even offer discounts and incentives to service members and their Families. If a resident decides not to purchase renters insurance, they will be held liable for any and all costs associated with replacing or repairing damages to personal property due to theft, natural disaster, weather, fire, etc.
For more information, refer to the Mountain Vista Communities website at www.mountainvistacommunities.com, or call 520-515-9000.
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