BEWARE - HOMEOWNERS INS WILL DROP YOU NOW IF YOU HAVE A HOBBY FARM!

[pips&peeps]

Thanks Steve, I'll call Farm Bureau today. I called Grange, but not them.

 

[patandchickens]

I don't know about the US -- I always rented when I lived there -- but in Canada you pretty much have to use different insurers (and often different brokers) when you have a hobby farm. Insurance certainly *is* available, just not thru the same folks that used to sell you 'normal' homeowners.

I would warn anyone considering not declaring things to their insurance carrier that if they find out you have 'em, they can cancel you flat, which WILL make it awfully hard (potentially impossible) to get coverage from anyone else.

Usually I mention this in conjunction with people proposing to board horses on their property without informing their insurer, but really it applies to a lot of situations.

Just sayin',

Pat

 

[Run-A-Muck Ranch]

our insurance company hasn't said anything to us yet.
They knew this was a farm from the get go.
As for the trampoline--we had to move ours. From one side of the yard to the other. The original location was to close to the road...Living in the country you never know who might be going by, see the trampoline, and decide to jump on it. Or at least that's what the insurance rep said. So we moved it to the other side of the yard closer to the pool. And it was fine. Nothing was ever said because of the pool or dogs. Let alone the animals.
The only thing with the 'animals' is that if they cause vehicle damage our home owners insurance won't pay for it, we would need to get 'farm' insurance then. But we could put that under our vehicle insurance. (our home owners and vehicle insurance are from the same company). But other than that, we were told it's fine.
We have a military insurance, they only came out here one time. When we originally changed from renter to homeowner. Other than that no one has ever been out here. And that was 7 years ago. They know the amount of land we have (40+ acres), the animals we have (or intend to get), what we do with the animals (sell or process), and all the other junk, besides the normal insurance stuff they need to know...

 

[sundance]

I would get dropped if they knew I had a pitt, the agent only asked me when I bought it if i had dogs and I said yes, He just failed to ask what breed. She probably would have been accepted anyway if I said chicken pitt,esp since she thinks she is a yorkie like J.R. my roo runs her in the house every time he see her.You almost roll with laughter to see this big roo chasing a 70 lb pitt down the drive.

marrie

 

[rebecca100]

Oh my gosh! Well when I get my house built, I guess I will be totally uninsurable! We have all kinds of livestock, 3 horses, a pitt, an American bulldog, and we have always burned wood! I almost had my vehicle ins. dropped last month when I accidentally mentioned the truck was a flatbed. I had to swear and promise that we didn't use it commercially and beg her not to drop it! She still wasn't sure, but did let it slide with the warning that if we were caught using it for more than store trips that the ins. would not cover it, and that they definately would not cover the bed, in any case. (full coverage)

 

[farmergal]

Farm Bureau Insurance HAS to insure you, it's required by the government to do so. It's one of those weird semi-private semi-public things, like the infamous Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
So yeah, I'd try with them...

 

[mjdtexan]

Hmm, I never thunk about that. I have really really really good insurance. I have to really really really pay for it to though. Came in handy for Hurricane Ike though. I'm sitting on two homes on 5 acres. Would hate to loose it. This is Texas though and we live out in the county (just barely) so it seems to me it would be eggspected for us to have livestock. Heck, I'm surrounded by all of my neighbors livestock.

Let us know who you wind up with. Thats interesting.
Sorry to hear that too, insurance is a huge investment.

 

[Sylvie]

We've had the same insurer for 30 years. They can't "just drop you" with a long history of coverage. It's when you shop around a lot that you run into trouble. I'm certain that's how they profit.
Ours is not as cheap a deal as we could get by shopping but all things considered we have the better deal.

 

[pinkchick]

I built a small pond in my front yard to catch run off from my neighbor's driveway, which previously was directed straight to my front door (my previous neighbor did not like the people we bought our house from, so he diverted his run off to the front door) anyway, needless to say the front of our house was flooded every time it rained, imagine the amount of rain, I live in Washington state.
This pond that holds probably 500 gallons of water at its highest and only 18 inches deep so I didn't have to fence it for insurance purposes, it has 2 overflows that diverts water into my year round creek, and into my lawn. The front of my house hasn't been flooded out in almost 3 years.
Insurance person came out to update this past summer and dropped our flood insurance because he said the pond could flood.
I do remember my goal was to stop it from flooding my house *scratches head* who knew that they would have an issue with my lawn.

This past fall the county decided to stop providing fire protection or services 1/10 of a mile down the road, for all of us that live past this imaginary line they consider "NO MAN'S LAND". They even posted a sign that states this on the imaginary line! Wait til my homeowner's insurance catches wind of that.

 

[beak]

We have Colorado Farm Bureau. Never had a problem. We got rid of our pellet stove and I finally got around to letting our agent know. It lowered our premium a whopping 9.00 a year. We have 4 horses and 17 chickens right now. They have never had an issue with livestock.

Don't hide anything that they can find out about. If your selling eggs and have a sign then ask the agent if that's ok and get it in writing. Policies are a contract between you and the insurance company. If you don't stay within contract they can drop you or refuse coverage. Chances are they will refuse coverage if your wood stove catches the house on fire and you were not paying a premium for a policy based on a wood stove in your house.

If you have a serious problem with an insurance claim and feel you are being cheated, call the state insurance commission and lodge a complaint. All insurance commission complaints have to be followed up by the regional supervisor for the complaint in question then they have to submit a report back to the commission. The insurance companies take those complaints very seriously