Looking for ideas on securing your rural property

[stumpfield]

The storage container is a good idea but how do we secure it so they can't haul the whole container away?
We have a neighbor about a mile away had his $2000 10'x12' storage shed stolen. They took the whole thing including the foundation.

 

[forgeblast]

one way to help after the fact may be to put one of the stealth cams, the kind deer hunters use. You could mount one high in a tree, and if it has a flashless mode, that would work pretty good.
A neighbor of mine was broken into, so we all watch each othres properties now. But I am looking into wireless digital cameras. These can be stored on a computer anc backed up on cd's. the nice thing about these is some programs will let you view you cams over the internet.
later
forgeblast

 

[Highbeam]

When I had my container delivered, I asked the guy about picking it up if I ever wanted to get rid of it. He says sure, I use the same rollback and winch it up. So yes, the whole thing can go away but you have to realize that if someone wants your stuff that bad that they'll get it nomatter what you do. The best you can hope for is to prevent them from ever knowing you have stuff there or to make it so hard to steal that they give up. If they want it bad enough, they'll get it.

This last weekend I see that someone went to my property, used a pipe cutter to cleany cut my pipe gate enough to slip the lock chain through and then proceeded to steal lumber from an old building. They drove their truck right to the building and did the work by hand. They then left and replaced the gate so it looked undisturbed. Quite a lot of nerve considering that there is only one road in and they would be stuck there.

 

[Phils]

When I'm asked whether a claim will cause problems, I explain that 1) factor in the deductible and also 2) the premium increase for the next three years (exceptions to a premium penalty: wind/hail damage and "community-wide disaster" like big fires). THEN if it still makes financial sense, file the claim.

Agents in CA [at least] are in a difficult position: BY LAW we HAVE to report any claim that we are aware of. Even if it's a call of "... is THIS covered?...". IN THE BEST INTEREST OF OUR CLIENTS (something else we are "bound" by) some explanation and counseling on claims is in order.

So what do we do? Can't tell you.

Phil

 

[George2615]

Phil,
I don't personally know the party whose equipment was stolen but My friend who informed me of the loss knows him well and verified his story. I was told he did not have the coverage you mention. I will have my friend mention this to him and have him read the fine print of his policy. Of course I'm assuming he only had a basic policy.
I have a full coverage deluxe policy for my own place but dont recall reading about my property at other locations. I'll have to re read my own and get additional coverage if its not listed. Thanks for the info.

George

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Phil, do I understand you correctly? If I ask my agent a question about something that might raise my rates, my rates will go up just because I asked about something? And if disasters are exempt from rate increases, what happened with me? I don't understand. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif Please try to clarify.

Thanks Brian

 

[dmccarty]

George,

You really do have to read and understand you policy. The policy I had at one point did cover personal property at locations other than my house. BUT my tractor was not inclouded in that coverage. If I had left a chainsaw at the property and it was stolen that would have been covered. But not the John Deere.

Depends on what is in that policy. And I had to make numerous phone calls about the tractor coverage. I now have a rider on the tractor to provide coverage. The policies at two different companies would NOT cover the tractor even when it was located at my house.

Later,
Dan

 

[Highbeam]

Always ask your questions anonymously for the above mentioned reasons.

 

[Phils]

Brian,

If you mentioned that "something" happened and "is this covered as a claim?" then the agent is required by California law to report it as a claim.

I've had people apply for insurance on a new home purchase and state "no claims in the last 3 years" only to find out that when they called their agent and said that their dog nipped at someone but they didn't think there'd be anything further from it, but wanting to know "am I covered if there is?", it then showed up as a claim for them. Fortunately, my company doesn't surcharge for a claim if there was $0 paid.

How a company treats claims and under what rules is pretty much company-specific. What happened? You can PM me if it's of no interest to the group.

Phil

 

[MikeD74T]

My vacation home & barn are 150 miles from my primary residence. My neighbor's Harley Davidson is in my barn. He & his friends keep a close watch on my stuff.