Farm Insurance

[Leay]

We're in the process of fixing up a farmhouse that was built in 1912. We have to pretty much re-do the whole house. We finally managed to find an insurance company that would insure it and the renewal doesn't come up until January. We are paying more on insurance on this place than I do on mine which is a 14 YO house on 14 acres. Anyway, the agent called yesterday to ask if we have the new roof on yet. He was pretty upset when I told him that we didn't. I tried to tell him that we have been gutting the inside and rewiring, insulating, drywalling, etc and have sided it and are in the process of building the new wrap-around porch. The roofing will have to wait till we're done with the porch so we can do it all at once. For some reason, the roof has always been a problem with the agent and his under-writer. It looks rough, I admit, as it has the original shingles but it has NEVER leaked. I asked him if he thought we would be wallpapering the inside walls if there was a leaking problem???? He's seen the inside so I don't understand what the big push is with this roof! I'm afraid that he's going to cancel our insurance so we are going to be roofing in the next couple of weeks.
Has anyone else had problems getting or keeping insurance on an old house that you're fixing up? It seems kind of crazy to me that there is so much concern about this because we don't even live there. When we leave after working on the house, we even shut the electricity off to it.
Just another thing to worry about :no:
Leay

Oh, I should add that I even asked him if we could do something like signing off on any claims if the roofed leaked and he told me NO!

[agmantoo]

Ask the agent if you go for the maximum deduction before the insurance kicks in if that will have an impact on the roof. If that does not work then get catastrophic loss insurance and avoid a home owners policy for now. I think the insurance company views that you may try to use the policy as a maintenance contract, many people do that!

[Leay]

Thanks for the reply, Agmantoo.
I'm not very up on insurance policies but our agent knew that we weren't living there and just fixing it up. I'll have to check, but I think that we have just the basic insurance needed to keep the bank happy. I'm making notes from your reply and I will call our agent Monday with questions.
Thank You!
Leay

[agmantoo]

I cannot get an insurance company to carry an empty home for any length of time. I have to reassure that I am trying to locate a tenant or after a few months I have to pay an additional premium for the unoccupied home. It becomes a pain.

[Siryet]

Getting or keeping insurance on an unoccupied house is a real pain cause insurance companies figure arson will be used to either fix up or rebuild it.

When I used to have rental properties the agent would always take a photo of the roof when I would add a new property to be insured. This roof condition was always a Big Deal with him also. Farmers Insurance company.

Now we are in the country and the insurance company here only wanted to know how big our barns were and what other outbuildings we had.

[insanity]

Just thought id say.When your policy is up.Be sure and shop around.We just resigned with a better company (State Farm) and with way better coverage.And the best part, it was 80 dollars cheaper a month.Yes 80 dollars a month cheaper! The reasons mostly was because we already had insurance while getting quotes this time.

[silosounds]

We, too, are remodeling an old farmhouse and could not get insurance. Our answer was to get a builder's risk policy. We used an insurance agent to find a company that had this type of policy. The downside was that they would only hold our policy for six months at a time, however, it has taken us four years (so far) to remodel and there has been no problem finding other carriers.

Our house had no roof, floors, etc. that sat empty six years before we reclaimed our farm. The policy insured for replacement value of finished home in case of catastrophe, fire, etc. This was in addition to our regular farm insurance policy; so it was an extra premium. We paid apprx. $80 per month for the builder's risk.

[Leay]

Thanks to everyone for their replies! I'm taking notes and am going to be butting heads with our agent tomorrow. I'm really interested in the builders policy. Maybe that's what we need. I would have thought that he would have given us that option but maybe there isn't as much money in it for his company? Anyway, I always know if I ask a question on Homesteading, that I will get thoughtful replies from people who have been there.
Thanks everyone!
Leay