mel jacobson on sat 1 may 04
Since this is a subject that's going to continue to be a problem, I thought
I'd share my recent foray into having to find homeowners/studio insurance.
The deal is now, if you operate any kind of a business that earns any money
and creates a hazard, at least to the insurance company, you are
automatically assigned to a risk insurance. Period.
The company that had insured my home and studio was swallowed in one of
those corporate mergers a couple of years ago. The next company had a small
provision for my studio in the policy but not as complete as I would have
liked. This past fall my local agent decided to discontinue using that
company and told me he'd find me new insurance not to worry. He got me a
lovely policy with The Grange and when I realized that the policy had been
written without studio coverage, he tried to add that. The response to that
request for studio coverage was a letter from The Grange with 15 days from
the date of the letter that my homeowners was cancelled as I was running a
business on my property. Well, yes, I've made my pottery here for over 10
years. This started the phone calls to every insurance agent in the
telephone book. It consumed my life for a week, especially as the most
likely policy was going to cost triple what it had been and the coverage
was going to be less, for my house and the studio. I belong to a local
co-op and my shift partner insisted that I call her State Farm agent, never
mind that another State Farm agent had already turned me down. In the end,
with the bank breathing down my neck threatening to find hazardous
insurance for me, State Farm came through. My house is insured as it always
was. The studio has much less coverage but it was the best I could do.
If you are planning to move I'd suggest you call you insurance agent first
and confirm that you can get your insurance. I was told if it's a hobby and
you don't sell anything then it's no problem getting insured. The agent
said if you don't change anything neither will the insurance company, but
if you move you'll likely not get new insurance. What an ordeal!
Sara O'Neill
Geometrix Clay Designs
Durham, North Carolina
clay.music@verizon.net
From:
Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S.A.
web site: my.pclink.com/~melpots
or try: http://www.pclink.com/melpots
new/ http://www.rid-a-tick.com
wayneinkeywest on sat 1 may 04
A thought here.
Since I run my business out of my home
(all those in similar circumstance raise your hands)
I found similar difficulties in obtaining insurance.
Being a "gubment contractor" also means higher
liability limits, more risk of loss (who knows,
I gave up years ago trying to figure THAT out).
Point is, I could not get ONE policy to cover both
apples AND oranges (home and business)
I now have TWO separate policies. One company
insures the business for loss, and liability, and risk
(and loss of income, very important); the other company
insures the home for the same thing. The business
policy also covers the vehicles, since they are business
vehicles...well, mostly :>)
Never did get around to telling them that they were both
insuring the same property...but hey, they can always
check (yeah, right). The same agent wrote both policies.
He knows what the deal is, and didn't seem to think it
is a problem.
I did a comparison to check rates on one policy versus two,
and found that I'm paying a total of about $200 per year
LESS by having the two policies, than by having one large
(combo home/business) policy. Is it illegal? No.
Is it unethical? (Is your insurance company denying you a
claim after they've taken all your money all those years
being "ethical"?) Get real.
The idea you need to operate under is protection of YOUR
property, and YOUR livelihood. The insurance company
doesn't give a good GD what YOU lose, as long as THEIR risk is
covered.
Will they pay off on a claim? If the company knows what it is that
they are insuring, and you have been up front with the agent and
had it written into the policy (policies), then yes, they will.
Including that fire-breather you keep shoving pots into.
Home, business, auto, pet medical, doesn't matter.
Apples and oranges people. Together they make great
sangria or fruit salad, but it's not the way to buy insurance.
One size does NOT fit all.
Wayne Seidl
Key West, Florida, USA
North America, Terra
Latitude 81.8, Longitude 24.4
Elevation 3.1 feet (1m)
snip
> If you are planning to move I'd suggest you call you insurance
agent first
> and confirm that you can get your insurance. I was told if it's a
hobby and
> you don't sell anything then it's no problem getting insured. The
agent
> said if you don't change anything neither will the insurance
company, but
> if you move you'll likely not get new insurance. What an ordeal!
> Sara O'Neill
> Geometrix Clay Designs
> Durham, North Carolina
> clay.music@verizon.net
>
>
> From:
> Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S.A.
> web site: my.pclink.com/~melpots
> or try: http://www.pclink.com/melpots
> new/ http://www.rid-a-tick.com
>
>
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>
Steve Mills on sun 2 may 04
Judging from the messages I get (not just from reading Clayart),
Insurance Companies have long ago given up providing a service for their
clients and balancing the good risks against the bad, and are now purely
concerned with acquiring as much income as possible with as little risk
of paying out as they can.
The house we live in (C.1934), we initially occupied as tenants, before
we had the chance to buy it. At the beginning of our tenancy there was a
problem associated with a large flowering Cherry Tree 8 feet from the
wall which was abstracting a lot of ground water and causing some
movement. As a condition of purchase the tree came down, and the house
was substantially under-pinned, work supervised by a Structural Engineer
and an Architect. As a result for the last 20 plus years nothing moved
and all was peaceful. Once the work was done, we got good insurance with
a small loading for the underpinning and that was that.
Subsequently the company that insured us was swallowed by another
(sounds familiar?). We continued to pay the premiums until this year
when it came to light on renewal that the new company was unaware of the
conditions of our policy which had satisfied the previous insurers. As
of that moment I had no structural insurance; they don't insure
underpinned buildings, period. Neither, it appears, does anyone else!
At the moment the only window of hope that I have is the possibility
that I might get something in the lines of an individual policy with
Lloyds underwriters, but first I have to have a full structural survey.
Not cheap. I'm not worried about that; in the (relatively) small
hurricane that created havoc across the south of England a few years
back there was a lot of damage all around us.......we didn't even lose a
tile!
As you can see my opinion of the insurance industry has hit an all time
low!
Steve
Bath
UK
In message , wayneinkeywest writes
>A thought here.
>Since I run my business out of my home
>(all those in similar circumstance raise your hands)
>I found similar difficulties in obtaining insurance.
>Being a "gubment contractor" also means higher
>liability limits, more risk of loss (who knows,
>I gave up years ago trying to figure THAT out).
>Point is, I could not get ONE policy to cover both
>apples AND oranges (home and business)
>
--
Steve Mills
Bath
UK
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