[TowerTalk] Insurance for Tower

[Kimo Chun]

I don't recall the details of what part of my homeowners policy covered my
tower failure around 2000, but they covered all material and estimated labor
costs to rebuild. They also used the part about "damage to the property of
others" to pay my neigbors for the holes my antenna booms made in their
roof. Luckily, my repair with my carpenter brother-in-law only took a couple
hundred in materials (I had to buy a whole roll of paper) which my neighbor
gave back to me and they kept the $300 balance of the check they got.
Perhaps a larger coverage than $500 might be in order....

My tower was in a separate poured base with nothing "attached" to the house.
In my case I also have an "unattached" garage. I don't think that provided
anything to aid my situation but obviously there either is specific language
to cover such things or they are covered generally in some policies. Consult
your agent. In my experience my independent agents were more than happy to
explain "insurance company point of view about coverage". Giving them
scenarios can allow them to investigate "similar experience" within their
represented companies where coverage may be different.

The ex-ham insurance adjuster (no kidding) also said that if it happened
again, they'd pay again. Simple. The one thing, that perhaps goes without
saying, is that my installation was as approved in a stamped plan by local
engineers (as is required here) and I had the building permit in hand. Never
give an insurance company a reason to deny coverage. I've been through that,
too.

73,
Kimo Chun, KH7U


Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2013 14:12:26 -0500 (EST)
From: K7LXC at aol.com
To: towertalk at contesting.com, nv8a at charter.net
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Insurance for Tower
Message-ID: <7eef0.38136a0a.3fc79e1a at aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

>  A few years ago somebody posted on this reflector that  coverage for 
> a
tower depended on the tower being "attached to" the house:  the "attachment"
could be somewhat nominal but had to be more than the electrical wiring. My
insurance agent concurred with that opinion, but in fact I have never
implemented such an "attachment." I had thought of installing a couple of
braces from the raising fixture on my HDX-555 to the adjacent chimney
brickwork, but US Tower recommended against  it.
 
    It only has to be "attached" - it doesn't have to  be anything
structural. One crank-up owner attached a piece of plumber tape -  the inch
or so wide flat metal with holes in it - to the tower with a hose clamp  and
the other end got nailed to the house. Voila - attached! It was approved by
the building department. 
 
Cheers,
Steve    K7LXC
TOWER TECH 
 
PS - My experience has been that the insurance company considers towers,
etc. either as an accessory structure or as personal property. There is a
chapter on insurance in my UP THE TOWER book and Ray, ND8L, an insurance
agent  recently had an article on insurance in QST. Very good info in both
sources.