Dave - AB7E wrote:
>
> I like to homebrew my projects to save money as well, but the thing
> that nobody seems to consider is that a non-engineered tower
> installation (either a standard installation that doesn't adhere to
> the tower manufacturer's specs or a non-standard installation that
> wasn't blessed by an engineer) becomes a potential liability issue.
> I'd bet that most home insurance carriers would balk at paying off a
> liability claim if someone was injured as the result of the failure
> of a non-compliant installation.
>
There's been a lot of discussion on this list over the years about what
companies will and will not pay for.
I'm not so sure they wouldn't pay. Lots of people do lots of things that
violate the manufacturer's recommendations and get hurt, and insurance
pays up. Isuspect that there's some sort of "reasonable care" standard.
It's probably all finely calibrated.. the insurance company doesn't want
to pay out more than they have to, so they'll look for reasons to not
pay, but on the other hand, they have to trade that against a potential
lawsuit for "bad faith", and juries LOVE to hammer the evil insurance
company that didn't pay up.
And there's no question that I (as a licensed engineer) would be held to
a different standard than, say, my sister (who is a financial type who
majored in Diplomacy). Sort of the "you should have known better"
philosophy in action.
A bit of googling turns up the following summary of exclusions for the
standard HO-3. If you were truly negligent in putting up your antenna,
yep, it might be excluded, but I think negligence might be a fairly tall
bar in this case. You're certainly not in the intentional loss category.
Now, the "bad workmanship" might mean that they're not going to pay
for your property damage from your shoddy installation collapsing, but
they'd probably still cover liability exposure.
The standard HO-3 policy contains these exclusions:
* home insurance exclusions Ordinance or law, such as demolition or
construction required to bring your house up to code
* Earth movement, such as earthquakes, shockwaves, sinkholes,
landslides and mudflows
* Water damage, such as floods, sewer back-ups and water that seeps
through the foundation
* Power failure
* Neglect, meaning you failed to take reasonable means to save your
property during or after a loss
* War, including undeclared war and civil war
* Nuclear hazard
* Intentional loss, meaning something you did on purpose with the
intent to cause a loss
* Governmental action, such as the destruction, confiscation or
seizure of covered property by any governmental or public authority
* Loss to property, resulting from faulty zoning, bad repair or
workmanship, faulty construction materials and defective maintenance
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