insurance for wood stoves?

[firefighterjake]

My parent's experience: Their outdoor wood boiler caught the wooden structure my father built around it (one of many mistakes) and the resulting fire spread to his house which was located very close to their house (another mistake) . . . the insurance company ended up paying the claim, but they dragged their feet for several months and in the end did not honor the full dollar replacement value as they stated they had not mentioned that they had switched from using their oil furnace to an OWB as their main source of heat . . . or that they had added a room and put a pool in it.

My own experience: I contacted my insurance company before I got my woodstove . . . no raise in rates . . . but they did require a professional installation and I had to have the fire chief inspect the installation. Not a big deal.

 

[robk]

I called our insurance company to let them know we installed ours. They said thanks for letting them know, they'll write it down. No price changes.

 

[fire_man]

Its true that a CLUE report contains claims from the prior owner of the house. It may cause some stumbling blocks when buying the house and setting up the policy in the beggining. They may want a more intrusive inspection or have you promise to get things fixed or inspected. Its really uncommon for another person's claims to impact how much you pay. The claims follow the person, not the house in pricing decisions. Companies usually have to disclose claims that have a negative impact if they got that from a third party like a CLUE report to the customer. If you find you are paying for the sins of the prior owner - shop around.

This contradicts what happened to Poindexter in Post #19 above. I would call it more than a "stumbling block" when an insurance company tells someone they will not insure the house due to past claims history on it. We don't have all the facts in his case, but just knowing the house he was about to purchase was uninsurable by one carrier makes me wonder about claims on a house not impacting the next guy. And how would you know if your new house's policy price was impacted by the previous guy unless you really dug into it?

NoGoodAtScreenNames, I appreciate your insight and well written post, but perhaps not all insurance companies behave the same .

 

[NoGoodAtScreenNames]

This contradicts what happened to Poindexter in Post #19 above. I would call it more than a "stumbling block" when an insurance company tells someone they will not insure the house due to past claims history on it.:.

Yeah I'll admit I probably should have said pain in the arse instead of a stumbling block. Companies can decide to write or not write a policy with a lot of leeway and it could depend on what a particular underwriter thinks. If you find a bad apple, that's where you get some know it all who says "18 inches required unless you have a heat shield".

It's different with pricing where there's not a lot of room for subjective judgment. Companies have to get approval of the rates by regulators and get put through the ringer when they get audited by and can get fined. I can't imagine a regulator approving a plan that allowed prior owner losses since there's no way for the customer to show the info on the CLUE report was wrong - the reports are pretty good but not always perfect. That's why companies are required to disclose they got some detrimental info from a third party.

It's come up a few times that every company is different. To the OPs point, there are bad apples out there, so don't give them an excuse to deny your claim. Don't pick your company solely on price. Find the ones that aren't filled with bad apples and a-holes.

 

[mattmania]

Okay, so I called my insurance company, and basically am in the same situation as RobK...my company supports stoves and there will be no increase.
So that works out perfectly.

Thing is, I live in a fairly rural area and a ton of people are using woodstoves these days. So no biggie I guess for the insurance company...

 

[jb6l6gc]

I have two woodburners, only thing they required was that they're W.E.T.T. certified. Slight increase in my premiums.