The National Housing Trust (NHT), through its blanket comprehensive insurance policy, is providing affordable coverage for homeowners, including those who suffered damage to their property during Hurricane Melissa.

 A master policy covering all mortgaged properties, the blanket policy protects against perils like fire, flood, hurricane, theft and impact damage, making it cheaper than individual policies.

All eligible NHT mortgagors are automatically enrolled and pay the premium via their mortgage payments. 

Speaking at a recent JIS Think Tank, Corporate Risk and Insurance Manager, Stefan Clarke, said that the blanket insurance significantly reduces costs for the agency’s more than 120,000 mortgagers.

“To put it clearly, once someone becomes a part of the scheme, we then ensure that the portfolio is properly assessed, and it’s not assessed on an individual basis but in terms of the entire make-up of the portfolio,” he explained.

“If all these mortgagers had to seek their own independent insurance policies, you will see that the insurer would have to make the proper provisions to deal with 120,000 persons and it would be a costly venture,” he pointed out.

Clarke said that enrolment in the policy is automatic for mortgagers, noting that the NHT offers coverage at rates way below market prices.

“It means that once you would have come in, signed a mortgage deed, become a mortgagor, it is done automatically by us. This approach allows us to streamline how we provide insurance to our mortgagors and also reduces the rates. In some instances, our rates remain at 50 per cent to 60 per cent below market rates and it is because of how we manage the insurance portfolio,” he said.