[TowerTalk] Insurance for Tower

[Roger (K8RI) on TT]

On 11/27/2013 8:08 AM, Patrick Greenlee wrote:
> Roger, Living in a rural area and having barns and out buildings on 
> property that used to be involved in agriculture is still not a farm 
> in the eyes of the insurance folks.  If you are involved in 
> agricultural production, even just leasing pasture for someone else to 
> graze their stock or bale hay you are a farm and you can't be covered 
> by homeowner insurance.  This is according to State Farm. It sucks, so 
> says my agent and I agree.
>

We "used to be" a farm with cattle and crops, but that was over 30 years 
ago.  The last of his years my dad leased the farm.  I now own and lease 
it out to the same farmers.  Insurance is still minimal. Before that, 
when it was an active farm, insurance was still minimal, but the 
insurance companies were not trying to get back huge losses from the 
weather. Yes there were occasional tornadoes and hurricanes that cost a 
lot, but the big ones were a rarity.  The cost of weather alone has 
increased many fold as has liability. Still today's weather is far more 
violent and costly than we had back then as a whole, except winter.  I 
have photos of the snow drifted to the eves on a two story barn, and 
photos of the roads reduced to one lane canyons.

Losses have been so great that there are areas where it's difficult to 
get any kind of insurance.  Hurricanes are no longer a sometimes thing 
although we just went through a very quiet season for the US. Yet the 
monster storms (Tornado and hurricanes) do exist.  The one that hit the 
Phillipines was the equivalent of an EF 4 to 5 Tornado winds 50 to a 
hundred miles across with lesser winds much farther out.  Among the top 
4 for size and strength.

BTW, here at the house where I currently live, Permits are not needed 
for ham towers, but entire counties of farm land are now zoned in 
Michigan.  So if you are a ham you need to pick the spot for that 
country mansion carefully.  One entire township, North of me has a 30' 
limit on any structures, but one ham did manage to get a variance and 
made DXCC honor roll.

73

Roger (K8RI)

> There are various rates depending on the structure(s) in question.  A 
> 4 sided bld with concrete floor is lowest structure rate.  Next is 4 
> sided bld of standard construction with dirt floor.  The highest rate 
> is for pole barns and the like (includes towers.)  If you get your 
> agent to overlook your agricultural production activities, go with 
> homeowner policy, and then say a bull runs over a trespassing kid.  
> Well you have no liability coverage.  Better to take the risk of the 
> tower out of pocket.
>
> I suggested that my tower had a concrete floor and was not built like 
> a pole barn and the agent reminded me that pictures of the structure 
> were required.
>
> It is not often that I envy folks living in a hive and constrained by 
> so many rules but this is one instance, exorbitant rates to insure a 
> tower and or antenna.  Oh well, I'll just take a two mile hike around 
> the periphery of the ranch to check the fences and note the nearest 
> neighbor at 1/4 mile outside the fence, recall that I don't need a 
> permit for anything I do or build except a septic system and somehow 
> the perspective will come into better focus.
>
> Patrick AF5CK
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Roger (K8RI) on TT
> Sent: Tuesday, November 26, 2013 8:57 PM
> To: towertalk at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Insurance for Tower
>
> On 11/26/2013 9:43 PM, Drax Felton wrote:
>> I once asked my agent about this too and told it would be covered but 
>> then the policy was promptly and involuntarily cancelled because of it.
>>
>> Incognito is now my philosophy.
>
> In Michigan, AFAIK most home owners policies cover that, up to 10% As I
> had the 100', 45G with the array on top, I had a rider added, no problem.
> Even on a farm, here we had home owners.
>
> 73,
>
> Roger (K8RI)
>
>>
>>> On Nov 26, 2013, at 3:09 PM, Wayne Willenberg <wewill747 at gmail.com> 
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Now that I have my tower nearly completed, I asked my homeowner's 
>>> insurance
>>> agent if I could obtain coverage in case it is damaged.  The simple 
>>> answer
>>> was "no".
>>>
>>> Is my insurance carrier being unreasonable or is it generally true you
>>> can't get insurance coverage for a tower that is not attached to a 
>>> house?
>>>
>>> Thanks for your help.
>>>
>>> Wayne, KK6BT
>>> _______________________________________________
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> TowerTalk mailing list
>>> TowerTalk at contesting.com
>>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> TowerTalk mailing list
>> TowerTalk at contesting.com
>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> TowerTalk mailing list
> TowerTalk at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> TowerTalk mailing list
> TowerTalk at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk