Homeowners Insurance..... Cancelled Because of Wood Usage

I expect you'll find somebody to cover you. My homeowners insurace didn't change rates when I added the wood stove. I have Allstate.

When I did my install, notified the insurance company, they sent someone to the house to do an inspection, voila, case closed.

Our State Farm agent was out today to check out the new install and take some pictures. He had a measuring tape in his hand, but never used it. He said it looked great, and I had obviously exceeded clearances by a lot. He also said most places he goes with a stove smell smoky inside. Hmmmm.
I think it's an extra five bucks per year on my policy.

That electric splitter really split that chunk!?

Go back to Allstate?

What's with the whole bunch of blocks with red Xs?

pen said:

If they are that skitzy, I wouldn't want them as my insurance company. Drop them sooner if you can.

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I agree. They'll probably try to screw you on a claim, then drop you after that. Been there with bargain ins. companies.

We have Allstate for renter's ins. for awhile and they don't care about the stove or how much I burn in it. Never even sent an inspector (is that a common thing)?

Lost my truck in a fire and they gave me a real fair settlement. No mention of any change in premium so far. We're gonna go with them for homeowner's on the new place.

Well you just got a lesson in the quicksands laughingly called insurance. There are a few more you would do well to avoid.
#1 Insurance is a scam. It is a device to seperate people from real money in exchange for a worthless piece of paper. The "industry" if such a scam is worthy of the word, is self regulated and employes an army of people whos full time job it is to deny your claim. They are paid with your money
#2 Underwriters make the rules. There are no appeals, no process for disputes and all decisions are final.
#3 The purpose of all "clauses" os to eliminate risk from the policies based on statistics garnered by very well paid MBA's that carefully tweak the limits for such irrelevant things like how much wood you burn in a given period of time to put the statistical liklyhood of a claim in the <5% category.
#4 The lies they tell you to sell this "product" (if invisible promises that evaporate when you need to call on them can be called a product) and the marketing nonsense they spend hundreds of millions (of your money) per year, are all totally "legal" and designed to mislead, misrepresent and distract you from the realities of all this
#5 You will be REQUIRED to purchase this artificial product by any lender becasue in the event of a real catastrophe, the insurance industry will claim they cannot pay, a disaster will be declared and your tax money will be used to pay some pittance for your destroyed property
#6 Insurance "accounting" would be called cooking the books in any other line of business. The money they take in premiums is taxable as profit over and above their operating costs, so instead of paying hundreds of millions of dollars in taxs like you or I, they lobbied to be allowed to put most of this profit into a "reserve" This is just a giant fund that is supposed to be there in case of disasters right? wrong. This is an investment pool and guess what, all the profits made by that re-investment are tax freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. yup
#7 Your zip code has absolutly nothing to do with figuring out which areas are higher risk. It is used to determine what you can likely pay. Premiums are adjusted based on ability to pay NOT claims.
#8 The guys selling this bogus snake oil can promise you the moon, blatently lie and vanish into thin air. All perfectly legal because we can all rest easy that there is a commisioner that will guarantee all insurers.
#9 Since we al have to play this game, you will eventually learn that is is rigged in every way it posibly can be to guarantee a river of free money for old rope and the only way to deal with it is get bare bones, lie and take responsability for your stuff and act accordingly.

Snake Farm is not a bad choice. I use them for auto. I have paid less than $1000 for the last ten years of auto insurance. I could have driven that vehicle off a cliff twice over and still come out ahead. For all the "what if you run over 20 school kids" fear mongers, do you really think your insurance is going to stand behind you in anythign other than a fender bender hahahahaha.. oh and there is a $25k limit to all auto claims.

These people dont care about you, your house, your baby or your life. They just want to con you out of your money and have legalized the extortion. I suggest you begin to act accordingly.

Since the 1st house I have owned to now I have been with Farm Bureau. I have never filed a claim on anything but short of that their customer service has always been top notch. + they support all the local FFA programs and local schools and are active in Ag related issues. Have never paid over $600 a year and have always had some type of wood burning device in my home.

I don't understand why it's acceptable to burn 2 cords but not OK to burn 3?? Your insurance company sounds pretty lame to me.. When I replaced my hearth and stove I emailed the insurance company the stove install inspection report and they filed it.. No calls, no questions and no increases in rates. A few years ago they did send someone to take pics etc. when I switched to the new insurance company and all that came out of it was, it would be a good idea to have a fire extinguisher in the kitchen near the stove. I replied that I was thinking about doing just that and bought 2 Kidde fire extinguishers.. I already had working CO detectors on each level and wired smokes so was all set there.. For many years I was forced to buy a high priced with basic coverage insurance because nobody wanted to insure a log home.. Thankfully my agent found a company that would insure me and I saved a load of money and have decent coverage now..

Ray

In Newfoundland, where my wife and I have a vacation home, insurance companies would never sell a single homeowners policy if they didn't insure homes with wood stoves. Virtually everyone uses wood as their primary source of heat. That said, our local agent came out, took about 50 measurements, compared them to those in my owner's manual, and sent all that information back to the home office. I was good to go with no increase in my rates. Good luck with your insurance companies.

ChipTam

I have filed many claims with State Farm. They have been great.

(2003) Tree fell on house and truck.... around $20,000 (Hurricane)

(2008) Tree fell on newly built garage polebarn (neighbor's tree) $19,000 and change. (Severe wind storm)

(2011) Tree struck by lightning $800

(2011) Branch punctured hole in roof... water damage ($2000) (Hurricane)

Let's just say I'm a little ahead of the game.

In my former home, the ins. co. just wanted the fire marshall to inspect, in my current home, the building inspector.

In my former home, wood was listed as the primary source of heat. In my current home, gas is listed as primary. I burn on average 3 - 4 cord. If there was a claim, the ins. co. would not be able to determine exactly how much wood I burn since I pay cash on the dash. They could however ask for my gas bills.

When my father's house burned to the ground from a chimney fire, Allstate contested. He had electric listed as primary and wood as supplemental. Allstate reviewed his electric bill to try to determine whether wood was primary.

woodmiser said:

I have filed many claims with State Farm. They have been great.

(2003) Tree fell on house and truck.... around $20,000 (Hurricane)

(2008) Tree fell on newly built garage polebarn (neighbor's tree) $19,000 and change. (Severe wind storm)

(2011) Tree struck by lightning $800

(2011) Branch punctured hole in roof... water damage ($2000) (Hurricane)

Let's just say I'm a little ahead of the game.

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:bug: damn miser, sounds like you need to move or cut down the rest of the trees.... better luck in the upcomming year.

cass

woodmiser said:

I have filed many claims with State Farm. They have been great.

(2003) Tree fell on house and truck.... around $20,000 (Hurricane)

(2008) Tree fell on newly built garage polebarn (neighbor's tree) $19,000 and change. (Severe wind storm)

(2011) Tree struck by lightning $800

(2011) Branch punctured hole in roof... water damage ($2000) (Hurricane)

Let's just say I'm a little ahead of the game.

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Yeah! Thanks to the rest of us! :cheese:
Not sure where you live, but everytime I "question" my insurance co. (Allstate) why my rates went up, I hear "well, theres been alot of hurricanes (tornados, ice storms you name it) in Florida (Texas, colorado, wherever). I say, " But I don't live anywhere close to these places!" Tough luck I guess. I hate insurance companies as much as Utility companies.

In Michigan I told AAA and they said it is viewed as a furnace and as long as the county inspects it then AAA won't need to. It didn't even raise my insurance rates!

Pete

tcassavaugh said:

woodmiser said:

I have filed many claims with State Farm. They have been great.

(2003) Tree fell on house and truck.... around $20,000 (Hurricane)

(2008) Tree fell on newly built garage polebarn (neighbor's tree) $19,000 and change. (Severe wind storm)

(2011) Tree struck by lightning $800

(2011) Branch punctured hole in roof... water damage ($2000) (Hurricane)

Let's just say I'm a little ahead of the game.

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:bug: damn miser, sounds like you need to move or cut down the rest of the trees.... better luck in the upcomming year.

cass

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Ja, the risk is in letting them stand, not in burning them.

I am with a regional insurer here in the NE: MMG. The rate is great, a good 1/3 less than the others I got at that time and the coverage is even slightly better. I did not have a claim though so I cannot tell how things will be then. When I installed my insert I only had to fill out a 2 page survey with a little drawing that shows the clearances and attach the bill of the installer. No inspection, no rate increase. All the paperwork goes through a local insurance agency that has been a pleasure to work with. So far, I am really happy!