No Homeowners Ins

Twice now I considered dropping our insurance (Aroun $600 a year) after we no longer had a mortgage. First time We had dropped it and then picked it back up. A month later 3 trees crashed into our house. Pay out covered everything we had ever paid to insurance for the several years of paying in. A few years later we thought about it again and then our outdoor wood furnace caught fire... and again it covered everything we had paid in and some extra. I am not ever taking insurance off my house! No way no how... There is no way i could have gotten my wood stove back up and running last year without insurance cutting us a check

__________________

Like I said no Fan and if we did not have the requirement , be flying with out it.

My home is paid for, but the very idea of not having homeowners insurance seems reckless to me. IMO it's all about managing risk, mitigating damage and reducing the chance of life altering circumstances.

For most folks, paying for a home takes anywhere from ten to thirty years. If that home is wiped out, you not only lose that which you took all that time to build equity in, you also lose that which you could have had in the time you're taking to replace it.

Everyone has to decide what's best for them, and for what makes it so they can sleep nights. But for me, I want my place insured for replacement value, and I want separate personal liability insurance that pays in the amount of my net worth. We worked too hard, and too long, to lose it to one of the myriad things that can go wrong.

__________________
‎"The trouble with quotes over the Internet is that you never know if they are genuine." - Abraham Lincoln

First off, we don't live in town and don't live in a traditional stick built home. We tend to take care of ourselves.

I'll be living in my real log home that we built with our hands. a number of acres acres 45 miles out of town. Unexpected visitors get approached with a gun, turned around and sent packing. Law enforcement doesn't even get a free pass. Real log homes are more fire resistant than you might think with metal roofs. Not having access under the house or under the porch keeps the fire danger low. Not having trees close enough that can crash the house is another issue. Keeping dry vegetation from around the house helps. Leaving the water on to the W&D between uses is another issue. We are debt free and do not have HI. For us, the real expense is/was the electric service (not the inside wiring), the septic system and the equipment we've accumulated. All debt free and unknown to anyone. If the place burned down, it'd be fairly cheap to rebuild. The logs only cost $10,000 with todays prices.

Live away from others, don't have large investments lawyers can find and you are less likely to get sued. HI is another way for lawyers to find out how much you have. While we have more than a couple of acres, it's valued modestly.

Not a fan of Insurance companies or banks. But that's just a personal problem I have. If I die, my wife will sell off all the extras we have and with what we've hidden away and move to a far less rural place and have more than enough to survive the rest of her life, debt free.

We are retired and live like church mice as far as anyone else is concerned.

But I'd never suggest anyone else go without insurance. Each to their own.

If this is true, then maybe your house was also not built to code. If your insurance company knows this (or finds out), they could refuse to insure it, regardless of the heat. This is one of the situations that people will run into by disregarding the codes. Yes, you may save a buck and get yourself into a dwelling, but...........If this is your case, then you should self insure and put that into the overall budget.

geo

We don't have any code enforcement or requirement out here.

I'll add that its dependent largely on your comfort with risk, how much you have to lose, and your time of life. Your decision today may be different than that same decision 10 or 20 or 30 years down the road when you have accumulated more and better things and have less energy and desire to start from scratch. I also notice you're located in central Ill. Tornados might concern me more than fire.

Actually, I'm in northern IL ... but Ill-Annoy just the same ...

__________________

----------------------
http://homesteadingfamilies.proboards.com/

This will give the underwriters the perfect reason to NOT pay off in case of a fire. Not a very wise plan in my opinion.

__________________
"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

Around here, I hear that if you claim to use baseboards or another electric heat source but actually use wood, if your house burns down they will check your power bill. They know how much baseboards cost to run.
You gotta be careful, insurance companies are in the business of making money...

And I can't imagine sleeping too well being under insured.

I won't do this. Too many homes out here have burned during this drought.

__________________
2Ti 1:7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
Luceo non uro

A propane 0-clearance fireplace costs less than baseboard heaters and the wiring. Looks better too.

Insurance can also cover tractors, chain saws, wood splitters, farm truck, backhoe, cat, trailers, shop equipment etc. Our main fear is forest fires and loosing those things even if the house doesn't burn. We have insurance.

My personal opinion is that if you built your house without permits and inspections, getting them to pay a claim might be hard. They can blame your house for contributing or causing the damage. We got permits.

Has anyone gotten a claim paid on a house built with no permits or inspections?