[TowerTalk] Insurance for my tower??

[jimlux]

On 4/4/18 7:05 AM, Dick Blumenstein wrote:
> 
> The tornado that came through did a number on our roof shingles (one 
> side only) and another structure. The insurance company didn't ask how 
> old the roof was, nor what they thought it was worth.  We got quotes for 
> a new replacement roof and went from there. Unfortunately, the tower 
> would not be handled that way under our current home owner's insurance 
> policy. Once you go down the path of Actual Cash Value, you will 
> probably have a long and expensive path to putting up, if at all, a 
> replacement tower.
> 
> Dick, K0CAT
> 

I'd imagine that a 20 year old tower has an ACV of zero, at least in any 
sort of commercial context. Typically, they'd look to finding some 
standard depreciation or replacement schedule, and short of entire 
buildings, most stuff is depreciated over a shorter time frame, so its 
book value is zero.

Or, they'd look at the used market.. that's not well developed - it's 
not like cars where there's multiple people collecting data on millions 
of transactions. Even if you look at auction prices for tower trailers, 
for instance, they go for scrap metal prices. How does $150/ton sound?

How many times do you see posts or requests from some SK's family - free 
tower if you take it away?


I guess the take home lesson is always "insure for replacement cost, 
including labor" - and that's going to cost something. And periodically 
update the replacement cost estimate and make sure you're not running up 
against some other policy limit, especially if what you have now isn't 
currently available as a duplicate.  They're not going to pay an artisan 
craftsman to duplicate that tower you got from a guy at a hamfest 
personally assembled by Hiram Percy Maxim from spare silencer tubing... 
no matter how much historical interest there is.

(this is a lesson learned in California every year when fire and flood 
seasons come..)