Short term renters insurance in USA

Jonas,
Avemco will return half of the annual premium to you if you fly then cancel the policy within the first 6 months.
This will cut down the overall cost a bit.

Jonas,
Call Matt Jones at Avemco or email him… [email protected]
He should be able to confirm the 50%return of premium.

I was unable to to get renters insurance as a non-resident alien in 2010. I approached the insurance company stand (Aviemco?) at the Mountain State Fly-in, and was given reasons why they would not cover anyone without a US residence. I was able to get a deal with the FBO – but ?. I may have taken a risk.
PS Using someone else’s address would void the cover.

This subject is rather peculiar. I’ve discovered that one of them will offer cover to an ex-pat if you make a case to them individually. They will write the policy up with your true address but they won’t mail the documents to a foreign address which makes you wonder. Strangely, a hotel address is perfectly OK.

There does seem to be a practice of buying renter’s insurance based on fake addresses and in my experience some brokers actively encourage this. There might also have been payouts on this basis.

In practice, all you are buying is the FBO’s excess (deductible), (say $5000) and perhaps only then if you are held liable. I have no idea if they would pay out on the full value of a loss if the FBO had not insured, but somehow I doubt that. The important thing is to get your FBO to explain exactly what cover he does have in place. In my experience, some of them are quite reluctant to do that!

I think it’s far more important to have proper car insurance in the US due to the risk of litigation and medical costs. The risk of injuring someone else with an aeroplane is quite small, wheras traffic accidents involving foreigners are distressingly common.

In practice, all you are buying is the FBO’s excess (deductible), (say $5000)

The reputable FBO I last rented from had an excess about the same as my Group in Scotland has – so I accepted that condition. By ex-pat do you mean a US citizen, living elsewhere but returning for a short spell, or an alien with US residency? Both are different from short-stay aliens.

I think it’s far more important to have proper car insurance in the US due to the risk of litigation and medical costs.

That’s what I thought, but when I lived there the insurance broker told me I was OK with the Texas minimum liability insurance (which is something ludicrously low – 15K/45K/15K – one of the 15Ks was personal injury, if I remember correctly – which in the US system would buy you about a dozen stitches and that’s it). Being 23 at the time and with no assets and no money, the broker told me that there’s no point me getting more insurance since I had no assets to go after anyway, since I rented my home rather than owned it, so no one would bother suing me anyway. Lawyers working on contingency or for insurance companies only sue if they can be reasonably confident that there’s pockets deep enough to pay out. So if you’re in the US short term and you buy a car/get car insurance there, before just taking the default insurance amounts, if you have assets (which I imagine most on EuroGA will have!) make sure that the limits of your liability insurance are something you’re comfortable with because in most states, the minimum liability insurance you need is two or three orders of magnitude lower than the minimum 3rd party insurance needed in a European country and unless you specify you’ll tend to get the default cover.

One curious thing that I’ve noted: in the US the actual risk of being sued if (for instance) you’re an airport owner is much higher than it is in the UK. However, the fear of being sued in the UK is far far higher to such a ridiculous extent that you have to wear yellow jackets airside and you have to sign waivers if you want to use an airfield outside its normal opening hours which is just unheard of in the US.

So if you’re in the US short term and you buy a car/get car insurance there, before just taking the default insurance amounts, if you have assets (which I imagine most on EuroGA will have!) make sure that the limits of your liability insurance are something you’re comfortable with because in most states, the minimum liability insurance you need is two or three orders of magnitude lower than the minimum 3rd party insurance needed in a European country and unless you specify you’ll tend to get the default cover.

Nobody is going to sue with the hope of going after foreign assets unless the scale of the accident involves you piloting a 747.

Lower risk aversion in the US results from more problems being resolved through direct negotiation without as many intimidating government, commercial or social quagmires. That’s a good thing because on the rare occasions when you actually do get into one of those quagmires in the US, its typically a serious pain in the butt.