wood stoves, other alternate sources of heat, and your insurance

[fgross335_2210]

Hmmmmm....I have a regular wood-burning fireplace in my primary residence and a woodstove with single-wall pipe in my cabin and my insurance company (Liberty Mutual) has never asked questions about either one, and I do know I included them when I met with my local agent so no secrets. I agree with the other comments, find a good local agent to work with....

 

[schmism]

when shopping for new insurance on the farmhouse we are in. they asked about fireplaces or wood burning stoves in the house. I said no not in the house, but i have one in the garage.... There was a pause, and then, a comment like "any in just the house" i said no, and they moved on.

no issues.

 

[pat32rf]

Years ago we lived in a 125yr old Victorian house in town. One day we had an insurance inspection as our local agent had changed us to a new company. We then got a nasty letter listing about 20 items.(most of which were bogus) Called my agent who said they would look after it.... A month later we got our cancellation notice. A week after that the bank wanted its mortgage money back.
For the next four years we could not get insurance OR ANY COMPANY TO EVEN DISCUSS IT. Our house address was blacklisted in the central computer and it didn't matter what company we called. Finally we listed the house for sale and our agent got his insurance company to come to our aid. We are talking about a home that sold in two days for over $300,000 fifteen years ago. We had even contacted the Canadian governing body. They declared that it was not within the scope of their mandate to get involved.

 

[pjb09]

12 years ago we installed an outside wood boiler, situated more than 100 ft from our house with buried water lines to the house. Everything was fine until 5 years later when we received a questionair from air agent. We filled it out and sent it back. A month later we got a registered letter stating our insurance was cancelled and a cheque for the balance of our policy. Called our agent. Sorry, nothing they can do. We were blacklisted. We were given no warning, no opportunity to modify anything and nobody would even talk to us. A friend of ours who is an agent found us an insurer who specialized in wood heat and ours insurance cost actually went down. Everything has been fine since.

 

[grsthegreat]

Our agent came to look at house and fireplace years ago. Never was any issue. Our insurance rates have always been fairly low.

 

[doxford jim]

I too have had a visit from the insurance company inpsector.

Out of the blue came a letter from the Insurance agency telling me I had to have the home inspected due to it's age and rebuilding cost estimates. The home was built in the mid 1960's and is wood frame on concrete foundation.

The inspection was done early December 2012 and I have heard nothing since - hhhhhm!
I do have a 48'x80' metal clad/built workshop that has an old wood furnace connected to an old oil furnace (air ducting only). I told them it wasn't used and that the old oil tank was empty. I also have a standby backup 12kW generator in a wooden shed some 50ft from the house.

As far as I could tell, there are no difficiences and all is up to code - the inspector seemed happy enough.

So, after reading the above posts I am wondering what I am in for regarding conditions etc and coverage. Time will tell I guess, but I sure wish they would hurry up and let me know what they have decided !

Jim

 

[Wagtail]

Wood Heaters are standard here in rural (and even small town) Tasmania + Southern rural Australia where we're upside down to those of you in the Nothern Hemisphere = The South is cold & the North is warm/hot. We don't built with basements and, honestly, it dosen't get that cold here (unless you've got a wife from Queensland, then you're burning a small forest... and she's STILL wearing a sweater:confused2. To top that, Tassie is practically ruled by the (bloody) Greens Party but even they realise that wood heating is the way of life

Insurance wise, as long as you can produce an annual Chimney Sweep certificate, you're good to go. If you don't have it swept once a year you're a twit anyway.

 

[Tollster]

Around heat, wood and coal remain king, and many of the volunteer fire companies will do a home inspection of wood burners for a small donation, its then documented in the event your insurance requires it or to have on hand should the need arise, there are also requirements in my home policy that must be met that are clearly defined.