Insurance

[thepheniox]

Just got notice from the insurance company. I need to have my fifteen foot steel chimney swept by a WETT certified chimney sweep every year. I feel like the dog on tv jumping through the hoops. I clean it twice a year. Once around now after having the fall fires and once it the fall before I light it. Not good enough for them. Oh well just one more thing I have to pay for.

 

[unclemoustache]

Get a different insurance company.

 

[JRepairsK70e]

what are they asking as proof ?? send em a box of soot ... see all clean.. mfkrs

 

[mizzou]

You'll want the proof if you ever have a fire.

 

[Circle B MN]

What's it cost to have a chimney swept these days..? I have always done my own, but every year the 24' straight pipe out in the shop seems that much higher off the ground. Getting off the ladder onto the steel roof is no problem, but getting back on can test your nerves...:tongue2:

 

[thepheniox]

Not sure how much. I'm calling around tomorrow. I can clean it and they can look at it sign a paper and be on their way. Not sure if they will do it like that but I'll see if it will save me anything.

 

[cantoo]

Which insurance company? I got mine certified when I installed it, pay $50( I think) a year extra. Never said anything about yearly inspections, cleaning or anything. PS Only inspection was some guy coming and reading the measurements off the plate on the back and checking that it had those clearances. He never went near the chimney other than looking at it from the ground and he never even looked at attic clearances which to me would be the most important ones. You can see a fire at the stove but you'll never see the one in the attic until it's too late.

 

[Circle B MN]

Not sure how much. I'm calling around tomorrow. I can clean it and they can look at it sign a paper and be on their way. Not sure if they will do it like that but I'll see if it will save me anything.

I would think if the chimney sweep is coming out, he's going to want to get piad if he sweeps it or not. Might as well let him do it while he's there. Let us know what you find for pricing.

 

[dhopkins55]

Agree with try to find another insurance company. When I told my insurance company (USAA) about my wood/coal burner, they simply said "enjoy." As long as I had documentation it was installed by a licensed heating/cooling contractor, they had no problem and didn't make documented sweeping an issue. Now, I have it swept and checked yearly on my own, but I wasn't told I HAVE to do so.

 

[blackdogon57]

what company is it ??

 

[blackdogon57]

I paid $100 to have mine done when the first year I had a wood stove. I watched the guy do it, realized how simple it is, and went out and bought a brush kit for around 40 bucks.

 

[JRepairsK70e]

What's it cost to have a chimney swept these days..? I have always done my own, but every year the 24' straight pipe out in the shop seems that much higher off the ground. Getting off the ladder onto the steel roof is no problem, but getting back on can test your nerves...:tongue2:

heck with home owners ins ,make sure your health ins is paid up , ladders are evil

 

[hoosier daddy]

CYA...local

I had conversation with previous agent that I needed to install "fireproof wall covering" because the furnace was in garage attached to house. I explained that the garage wall was 2 layers of 5/8 per local building code to give me a firerated wall...but if that wasnt good enough I'd be gald to apply what ever they recomended to the wall prior to installation of wood burning furnace because while they stand to loose the money to replace my house I stand to loose my family...I am more interested in my safety than they were...The agent could not tell me what type of wall covering they wanted but said that he'd have trouble writing the policy until I complied with their conditions...which they could not define...

I called another company (State Farm), the agent came out inspected the furnace, measured the clearances, inspected the wall construction and wrote the policy. In my opinion there are guys that sell insurance and guys that understand loss prevention and sell policies that cover that loss. Find a new agent.

Bottom line is cover your own arse...if they recomend professionally sweeping the pipe once a year call it a cost of having insurance that will pay incase of a fire...my opinion...I would.

HD

 

[Como]

State Farm etc use agents, independents, they do not write the policy, they may have binding authority within limited scope.

Then there are brokers who represent several companies, hopefully quite a few.

But it is no different from anything else, if Ford can not do what you want, look at GM or Toyota etc etc.

As far as knowledge is concerned no different to anything else, you might go into Home Depot and speak to someone in the Electrical isle who has been a qualified electrician for 30 years or somebody wet behind the ears.

 

[EXCALIBER]

Simple don't put insurance on the house. Save the excessive money you would have paid out to them in an account, and most anything that happens to the house you can just pay out of that account. I really do not like how everybody anymore has insurance on every dam thing they do. Just think 50 years ago hardly anyone had insurance and for the most part no one had any problems without it. Hell now we have House insurance, car insurance, boat insurance, atv insurance, job insurance, health insurance, you name it insurance. Soon we will have insurance on our insurance, just in case, insurance for walking the dog, grilling outside, hell taking a crap insurance.The idea of insurance was fine but like anything the people got greedy and now you pay out the ass for a piece of mind. Then when something does happen your at the mercy of the company to decide what to pay you. I think as a society we need to stop being cookie cutters and start thinking with our own minds, not what the neighbor does, or what it says on tv. You guys are feeding the insurance monster and the only way to stop the monster is to stop feeding it. Take back some control and realize you have options. Ok rant over

 

[upsnake]

Simple don't put insurance on the house. Save the excessive money you would have paid out to them in an account, and most anything that happens to the house you can just pay out of that account. ...

It would take over a 130 years of my insurance premiums to replace my house if it was to burn, or destroyed by a tornado, etc.
While yes the changes of a complete destruction of a house is rare, I don't want to have a mortgage that I am paying on for another 25 years for a house that does not exist. Haha.


But I do agree that people tend to go crazy with purchasing insurance. We have major medical, knock of wood but at this stage both healthy so way pay for a Cadillac insurance plan for health, but at the same time we do have the insurance to cap our liability if something was to happen.

 

[mtfallsmikey]

Simple don't put insurance on the house. Save the excessive money you would have paid out to them in an account, and most anything that happens to the house you can just pay out of that account. I really do not like how everybody anymore has insurance on every dam thing they do. Just think 50 years ago hardly anyone had insurance and for the most part no one had any problems without it. Hell now we have House insurance, car insurance, boat insurance, atv insurance, job insurance, health insurance, you name it insurance. Soon we will have insurance on our insurance, just in case, insurance for walking the dog, grilling outside, hell taking a crap insurance.The idea of insurance was fine but like anything the people got greedy and now you pay out the ass for a piece of mind. Then when something does happen your at the mercy of the company to decide what to pay you. I think as a society we need to stop being cookie cutters and start thinking with our own minds, not what the neighbor does, or what it says on tv. You guys are feeding the insurance monster and the only way to stop the monster is to stop feeding it. Take back some control and realize you have options. Ok rant over

Great rant, shame it will never come true, as it was back in the old days...I carried insurance out the yang when I had my mech. contracting biz. I was doing gas/oil installs, electical work, plumbing, but paying the premiums forliability insurance in that case was a lot cheaper that getting sued and bankrupted.

 

[Den69RS96]

If you have a mortgage, the lender will most likely required the homeowner to have home owners insurance. The amount depends on the amount it would take to rebuild the house and how much was borrowed so he may not have an option for no insurance.

I personally don't think its a bad investment. What if your were away from the house for a week in the winter and you lost power in Jan and the temps dropped into the single digits and your pipes froze. Or an electrical circuit was overloaded and started a fire. Personally, I don't have enough in my bank account to pay back my mortgage and build a new house on top of that. I know they place conditions on what is and isn't covered etc and some of it is complete bs, but its one of those necessary evils we have to live with.

 

[avalancher]

Simple don't put insurance on the house. Save the excessive money you would have paid out to them in an account, and most anything that happens to the house you can just pay out of that account. I really do not like how everybody anymore has insurance on every dam thing they do. Just think 50 years ago hardly anyone had insurance and for the most part no one had any problems without it. Hell now we have House insurance, car insurance, boat insurance, atv insurance, job insurance, health insurance, you name it insurance. Soon we will have insurance on our insurance, just in case, insurance for walking the dog, grilling outside, hell taking a crap insurance.The idea of insurance was fine but like anything the people got greedy and now you pay out the ass for a piece of mind. Then when something does happen your at the mercy of the company to decide what to pay you. I think as a society we need to stop being cookie cutters and start thinking with our own minds, not what the neighbor does, or what it says on tv. You guys are feeding the insurance monster and the only way to stop the monster is to stop feeding it. Take back some control and realize you have options. Ok rant over

that is some of the worst advise I have ever heard. Anyone, and I mean anyone, would be foolish not to have insurance on their home,car, and anything else they have that is valuable.

This summer the ice maker on our brand new fridge broke during the night, flooding our newly remodeled kitchen.To date our insurance company has paid out over $12,000 for the repairs. We pay a mere $850 a year for insurance. Now compare that to what you would end up paying for your house burning down!
Everything we own is insured, and insured well. We carry insurance on my tools, shop, ATV's, computers, and even my wife's camera equipment. Considering the fact that she has almost $11K worth of gear, and we pay $71 a year for complete coverage,that is a bargain!
When I think about it, there is not a single piece of equipment, tool, or luxury item on our place that is not covered for any kind of loss on our place. And the grand total for all this insurance? A mere $1700 a year, not including the business liability insurance.

We always figure if we cant afford the insurance to cover the loss, we will wait until we can before we buy it. Hell, even the dang dog is covered! And dont get me started about health insurance, I would hate to write out the check for the last time when one of us landed in the hospital!

 

[olyman]

Get a different insurance company.

AGREED!!! Im sure of course, a CERTIFIED chiney sweep, could do a sooooo much better job than himself....NOT!!!!!!!!