Home Owners and Barn Insurance - Value to Insure?

[GPintheMitten]

Kootch88 was able to help me by doing a calculation on the cost to rebuild the horse stall barn. Thanks kootch88!

I like my agent. He's always been square with me. I don't think he does much farm related insurance and was relying on the underwriter who apparently did not have a barn calculator system like kootch88 has.

I was able to get a cost on the arena from the seller who built it 2 years ago.

We are going to wait on the horse boarding liability insurance because we aren't going to board until the new hay crop comes in next season.

 

[kootch88]

Jerry, how was my calculator compared to the figures you got from the previous owner? remember to subtract out site work, which given the size of these structures could have been substantial depending on the terrain.

 

[GPintheMitten]

Jerry, how was my calculator compared to the figures you got from the previous owner? remember to subtract out site work, which given the size of these structures could have been substantial depending on the terrain.

John,

Those are 2 different structures.

He built the 50x80 indoor arena for about $50,000.

The horse stall barn with the loft and leanto shop that you did a calc on was built back in 1986 by a previous owner.

 

[kootch88]

Okay, thanks. I like to check my calculators on differnt structures so I have a better handle on estimated vs. real costs. I try to check about once or twice a year just to be accurate. It is easy to do on homes, but harder with barns and post and beam structures because of the lack of volume through my agency.

 

[Ken45101]

Homeowner policies, which is what the OP needs at this point until he actually decides if he will or will not run an actual farm function the same way as far as rates.

Do not make an assumption that a homeowner's policy is all you need. After 30 years with them (and no claims), State Farm suddenly dropped us here on the farm "because we have horses" (direct quote from their cancellation letter). Strange action for a company that has "Farm" in their name ;-)

Ken

 

[kootch88]

I'd love to see that letter, that is who i am an agent for and have never had any problem insuring farms with horses. Did you speak with the agent for some kind of explanation? Clarification, as a business we do not in Maine, but for homeowners no problem at all.

 

[Ken45101]

I'd love to see that letter, that is who i am an agent for and have never had any problem insuring farms with horses. Did you speak with the agent for some kind of explanation? Clarification, as a business we do not in Maine, but for homeowners no problem at all.

Oh gosh, it's been 6 or 8 years, I don't know where that letter is any more. I did speak with the agent at the time and she told me that they would not accept more than 3 horses. I'll do some digging but I doubt that I can find it any more.

What's even more surprising about it is that Ohio is a state with a pretty good equine liability law (e.g. immunity from liability as long as you have the legal reference posted.)

Ken

 

[pineridge03]

You may want to check with your agent to make sure the buildings qualify for coverage under a homeowner policy. Most of the policies we deal with in PA have wording that excludes coverage for a building designed and/or used for business or farming. The other question you may want to ask is if the barn & ring are going to be covered on a replacement cost basis or actual cash value. You might be in for a big surprise if you have total loss on a $50,000 building and after the adjusting you find out they are going to depreciate your building 25% or even worse not provide any coverage.

 

[aczlan]

Oh gosh, it's been 6 or 8 years, I don't know where that letter is any more. I did speak with the agent at the time and she told me that they would not accept more than 3 horses. I'll do some digging but I doubt that I can find it any more.
What's even more surprising about it is that Ohio is a state with a pretty good equine liability law (e.g. immunity from liability as long as you have the legal reference posted.)

Interesting, Allstate is the only ones we found who would cover friends who got hurt while riding our two horses...

Aaron Z

 

[kootch88]

Wow, each region has it's own rules and guidelines, as an agent I would have been all over that with the underwriting department unless you had a history of losses. I can't defend everything we do and I have battles with underwriting and claims whenever they have stupid rules, and that sounds like one of them for certain.