What should I tell the insurance company?

I here ya! I was installing vinyl siding on my grandmothers house when the inspector from the insurance company came by.Said the vinyl scrap pile needed cleaned up and the porch needed a hand rail around it.
Called them up and told them id clean up the scraps when i was threw and until then they could bite me!
I new full well what he meant by putting the hand rail around the porch.But Ive never seen one that would stay mounted in concrete.And since no one had fallen off of it in 40 years i didn't see it as being a concern.Still to humor them a bit i screwed a railing to the side of the house.Theres no way one could get close enough to the edge to fall off while holding the railing.
Its only three blocks high.Which requires a hand rail now according to codes.

now is where I Input my rant and everyone jumps my a** as usual.. Oh well I'll say it anyway

I feel the same as you do. As far as I'm concerned insurance is nothing but a scam.. I don't carry life, or health.. Only carry home because its required by the bank (not enough equity to drop it yet) and on the vehicles because some idiot law..


Drop it and put that money to use somewhere else besides the lining of some insurance co owners pockets.

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"Let the beauty we love, be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground." Rumi

WeHoDave,

Don't worry you are not being targeted. It's a new thing in Western MA with the ins. co inspecting the condition of the house. I don't know how they pick to check on, but my girlfriend was inspected. That had some patchwork tiles on the roof to fix the leak. Who cares if the tiles didn't match? Well the ins. co. cared and said if they didn't change the repair, they would not cover any claims pertaining to the roof and/or leakage. I should be closing on a house this week, so lets see what the ins. co. says...

If its only a couple of items, especially if it could protect you, then I would fix it. It may be cheaper fixing the chimney, then having it fall apart.

Good Luck. Diane

First off, I know how you feel--we are in the same boat with our house, as far as the ins. co. wanting us to make repairs....they are concerned that our roof is too old, so they won't give us "real" insurance until we replace the roof. And since in the last two years we have had to replace the septic, the well, the furnace, the water softener, and the stove, well, we just haven't put the roof, which doesn't leak at all, on the top of our list....I do understand that "real" insurance is quite a bit cheaper, though, so someday I'd like to get it
Anyhow....we have a high-efficiency furnace, and instead of smoke going out the chimney, it actually vents through a pvc pipe that sticks through the wall.
Our chimney is falling down too. It looks like a giant Jenga game, missing one here, missing one there, etc....but nobody, not even the ins cos. have griped about the chimney condition because we don't use the chimney. So my question is, could you put in a high-efficiency furnace, making sure ahead of time that it vents through a pipe, not the chimney, and then gently dismantle the chimney or report to the ins co that you are no longer using the chimney?
Just a thought that came to mind.....sure would be cheaper than building a new house.....

__________________
And how am I to face the odds
Of man's bedevilment and God's?
I, a stranger and afraid
In a world I never made.
--A. E. Housman

I really dont mind house insurance. Im getting a couple hundred thousand dollars of converage for a few hundred dollars per year. I dont like being told what to do with my house, but the price is pretty reasonable for the coverage.

What grinds my gears to no end is car insurance rates, but that's another thread

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I've never carried collision on my vehicles and have come out ahead, paying for damages out of my premium savings.

I don't carry insurance on my farms house for reasons others have mentioned - loss of freedom, unsilent partners (insurance people) making decisions for me, and the real or potential difficulties of getting claims paid (talk to the Katrina folks in southern MS about getting paid).

I own my house and pay considerably more than that to insure it, but that is because the cost of everything in California is so darned expensive it would take me 200 years to accumulate enough to replace my place if it burned down, given what I pay per year for insurance and the cost of building anything here.

I dunno if you wanna keep the insurance on your place or not--it sounds like it is really decrepit. But I'd take their advice to heart--maybe drop the insurance, repair the fireplace, and use the money you saved on insurance to pay off the fireplace repair. You want to be safe.

caballo, on the other hand a good insurance company can be a help. I had my roof replaced, called them to ask whether that would affect my rates, they told me some things to look for in a good contractor. If you have an insured loss and the company you hire to fix it dorks around with you, a good insurance company can help you fight that contractor.

However my experience may be distorted since I have the good fortune of being eligible for USAA insurance, due to military ties, and they tend to treat their customers very well.

They cover my car--I had to argue with them about the market value of it when it was totalled (they upped their offer), but other than that they have gone to bat for me a few times and have given me advice about some situations that was helpful.

Have you ever tried to talk to your insurance company before doing a home repair or upgrade (eg: adding a spa or pool or whatnot) to ask them about the implications or if they have any caveats they know of? You might find the response surprisingly helpful.