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Update your insurance

S

SANDFORD

Guest
Hello All.. Jan 17 at 4.30 am a huge fire broke out in my workshop. I lost 40 years of possesions including my current ride which was a 2009 K1300 gt. all my restored BSA motorcycles for a total of 9 bikes my boat ,hovercraft, a totally self sufficient garage with every conceivable tool. several snowmobiles the list goes on and on. Estimates of well over 300,000 damages. Everything is still under the rubble . Should have an excavator in this week fine print in my insurance willing. The fire being forge hot left nothing but aluminum puddles and twisted steel , no salvage. My point here is not for pity but rather to inform you of the need to keep your policy up to date and reviewed by your lawyer. I unfortunately will take a huge financial hit as most of the above will see no coverage. Being retired for 12 years I cant get it back. If I can save one of you members the anquish I am now experiencing than I concider myself a good MOA member. Please get out your insurance policy asap. Sandford
 
I am also sorry to hear of this. From you post it sounds like you anticipate trouble with an insurance company. However this pans out it sounds like our members could learn from the experience.
I'm going to move this to the Motorrad section so a larger audience can follow along. Good luck. Gary
 
Really sorry to hear of your misfortune. I've only had one insurance claim in 40 yrs of houses, motorcycles, boats, and vehicles. I really hope #2 never happens, and try to be as prepared as possible. Your comments are a definate reminder to check my policies. Wishing you the best to cut your losses.
 
Very sorry to hear this

Sanford - it's very hard to even imagine what this feels like, I hope you'll recover as much as possible... if not financially at least emotionally.

Trying very hard not to be nosy, but could you give us a general sense of what happened?

At $150/hour and up, it could cost you more than the policy itself to get a lawyer to review an explain it to you. And it's pretty clear that the insurance companies don't go overboard in explaining a policy using plain language.

The homeowners policy we have with Allstate is so weasel-worded that it's nearly impossible to understand what is and isn't covered. I do know that our house in the mountains is covered in the case of a flood, but heaven help me if rain washing down from the mountains erodes our hillside, or if there is an earthquake.

Sure hope it works out for you as well as possible.

Ian
 
LOL & hope you can regain you hobby soon. Reminds me of my folks having a kitchen fire when I was a kid & I remember their their concern when the Ins. Co. started to depreciate there pots & pans,etc.. Seriously, they got so little from that stuff that it took a hard toll on their pocketbook to come up with cooking items-which obviously were purchased mostly new as replacements. Hopefully you had actual cash value on contents. Reminds me that while my shop is covered as a farm building that I need to review contents coverage.
 
Stanford, very sorry to hear of your loss. Your post has me thinking that I could be a little under-covered, especially if I were to loose both the home and separate garage, since the contents coverage is the same. I assume your garage contents are covered up to the amount of your homeowners contents coverage? I need to check but I think mine is 50%. So if a home is insured for $250,000, the contents of both the home and or a separate garage would be covered up to $125,000. Hopefully you have some photo's to help you recall what all you had.
 
It's real good "insurance" as well to continually monitor the condition of the building's electrical system and storage strategies for flammables.
 
Sorry to hear of your fire and loss. Thanks for being a great member and bringing the insurance updated to our attention.

Jason
 
Good advice. My homeowner's insurance guy kept bugging me to go in for a review on my properties. I consider the man a friend, and a guy I can trust, so I went in. It was worthwhile. Changes happen to property and to possessions. Sometimes it may not even cost anything to adjust your coverage.

I know at one point, I think all the stuff in my garage was insured for $20K. So, throw in a newer car, 3 or 4 motorcycles, woodworking tools, some mechnic tools...doesn't take long to exceed $20K.

Sorry for your loss, Sandford, hope this works out as well as it can.
 
Sorry about your loss. Something like that always seems so remote. You think it will never happen to you or anyone you know.
 
Sorry for your life altering event.The hardest for me after my girlfriend losing her house and garage was everytime you went to do something I'd go to get a tool and realize itwasn't in my world anymore.
 
LOL & hope you can regain you hobby soon. Reminds me of my folks having a kitchen fire when I was a kid & I remember their their concern when the Ins. Co. started to depreciate there pots & pans,etc.. Seriously, they got so little from that stuff that it took a hard toll on their pocketbook to come up with cooking items-which obviously were purchased mostly new as replacements. Hopefully you had actual cash value on contents. Reminds me that while my shop is covered as a farm building that I need to review contents coverage.

I think you mean to say " Hopefully you had REPLACEMENT COST coverage on contents". Actual cost value means depreciated value.

I suggest to every one to fine an insurance agent that you trust to be there when you need them.
 
Be Prepared

I handled insurance claims for 31+ years. In addition to having adequate coverage, you need assistance in knowing what you had that was lost in the fire and evidence that it was there. I used to suggest that people go through their house and record each room or area with a video tape and keep it in another location. With digital cameras, it is now much easier. You should go through your house and take many photos of the contents, opening closets, drawers and any other places that you have contents. Take hundreds of pictures and save the card or better still, transfer them to a CD or DVD and store them elsewhere (safe deposit box, friend or relative's house, detached garage, camper, etc). You will be amazed at how much stuff you have that you will forget about if you don't have pictures for reference. You can also use the photos as proof of ownership to the insurance company.

People get upset at insurance companies when they are questioned about undocumented contents and they think their honesty is in question. That can happen but the insurance company is reviewed by the state insurance department and they can be fined and otherwise punished if there is inadequate documentation for a loss that has been paid. The secret to a fair and quick settlement is good documentation.
 
Insurance

Good tip re. photos . Amazed at how little coverage there is on auto parts or rv parts in general, ultralight aircraft motors,small trolling motors snowmobile parts. No known rider for most of this.
 
Definitely a tough break. Was it possible to identify the cause of the fire? Maybe we could learn something from it.
 
My house and back shed got hit by lightning and caught fire last year. My wifw and I had a very good experience with Farm Bureau, however I will reiterate that you make sure you have "replacement value" as opposed to "market value", we did, thank god. It was something we paid very little extra for and did not really even know, but boy did it make all the difference. Also, I did take a hit on a bunch of marine stuff I had in the shed from my sailboat, they said there was a 2500 dollar limit on marine items including outboard motors. They said all that stuff should have been on the boats separate policy. I work in the marine industry and had all sorts of stuff I had collected over the years from all sorts of boats and it was not covered. They also said any vehicles I had in the shed were not covered as they should have had a separate policy.

Sanford, I feel for you man, been there. All I can say is take the time to really come up with an careful inventory for everything, and I mean everything you can remember. It helped me to watch and help pull all the melted and ruined stuff out, you would be amazed at how looking at a twisted piece of metal reminds you of what it was. I had a 20 page inventory that I than had to reseach replacement cost and submit. It took a long time but worked out. The other thing was for our structure repairs I had my contractor working directly with the claims adjuster, I would have been totally taken advantage of had I not done this. Good luck! its not all bad in the end. Again I feel fortunate I had a good, somewhat small town insurance agency that really helped within the parameters of my policy.
 
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