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Old 02-11-2019, 04:43 PM   #1
Mini-Skoolie
 
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Wood Stove and Insurance

We just finished our conversion and applied to get our insurance through Good Sam. The dude we were emailing asked us for pictures, which we sent. He then asked what the tall metal pipe is going through the roof.

It's the chimney for our wood stove... is that going to be a problem? Any reason we won't get coverage for having that? We can't find anyone mentioning that they had a problem with that, but now we're worried we won't be able to get covered if we have a wood stove.

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Old 02-11-2019, 05:54 PM   #2
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I've got no personal experience with this, but I've heard that it's something insurance companies don't want to deal with. Ditto for roof decks. LOTS of buses have both woodstoves and roof decks though. Please keep this post updated, as I'm trying to figure out if I need to remove our stove when we take pictures.
Good luck, hope it works out for ya.
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Old 02-11-2019, 06:00 PM   #3
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for a liability policy, none of that should matter.

liability only pays for damage you do to someone else.
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Old 02-11-2019, 06:03 PM   #4
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Quote:
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for a liability policy, none of that should matter.

liability only pays for damage you do to someone else.
Some of us cover the expense we've put in these to want to fully insure them. My question is, if I don't put the chimney in before insuring and my policy doesn't specifically exempt wood stoves, will I be covered in the event of fire?
I agree, for liability only, t shouldn't matter to the insurance companies, ut we don't make their rules.
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Old 02-11-2019, 06:13 PM   #5
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oh i agree.

i have full coverage thru state farm, but whether or not that pays in the end is something i never want to find out. state farm insured it as a wanderlodge of the same year.
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Old 02-11-2019, 06:56 PM   #6
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If you're going to keep it, be honest with them.

Even if that's not the cause of a problem e.g. starting a catastrophic forest fire, anything less than full disclosure can give them an excuse to deny paying out, and then you've just been wasting premium payments.

Yes a stove may make getting insurance much harder.

Or even impossible without changing home state.
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Old 02-12-2019, 12:41 PM   #7
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Update:

We can't get insured.


I guess we'll have to start trying with another company. Any recommendations? We might have to remove the wood stove in order to insure it...

Ugh. Wish someone had mentioned this ahead of time...

EDIT: Also, just for your info - we were only asking for liability coverage. As cheap as we could get. They still won't cover it. No clue why.
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Old 02-12-2019, 02:19 PM   #8
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Such obstacles are normal, searching across multiple companies to be expected.

https://www.google.com/search?q=site...s%2F+insurance

Why would you expect a given company to be OK with something so unusual?

Even switching states is simply inconvenient.

Find an experienced and sympathetic agent.
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Old 02-12-2019, 02:24 PM   #9
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So sorry to hear about the insurance issue...
Good Sam or the general seem to be the most common.
Can you post the pictures you sent along to the insurance agent? That way we can maybe pick out why they denied you... is it possible to temporarily uninstall the stove and stove pipe for the sake of a few photos?

Is the stove securely fastened? Are you using a heat shield too? Just trying to think of reasons they denied you... best of luck.
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Old 02-12-2019, 02:56 PM   #10
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My insurance agent warned me that if I have a wood stove in my bus it would cause problems with underwriting.
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Old 02-12-2019, 03:55 PM   #11
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Originally Posted by Rochey6957 View Post
So sorry to hear about the insurance issue...
Good Sam or the general seem to be the most common.
Can you post the pictures you sent along to the insurance agent? That way we can maybe pick out why they denied you... is it possible to temporarily uninstall the stove and stove pipe for the sake of a few photos?

Is the stove securely fastened? Are you using a heat shield too? Just trying to think of reasons they denied you... best of luck.
I don't have the pics. I'll see if I can get them from my wife and post them here. The stove is securely fastened. The chimney is double-walled, correct distance from combustibles, and fastened down. Heat shield is installed all around it.

Not easy to uninstall for the photos. It's fastened down real good and caked in the high temp red gasket stuff (forget what it's called). Really wish we had known this sooner. We just put in in two weeks ago.
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Old 02-12-2019, 04:01 PM   #12
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Originally Posted by Beeb View Post
Not easy to uninstall for the photos. It's fastened down real good and caked in the high temp red gasket stuff (forget what it's called). Really wish we had known this sooner. We just put in in two weeks ago.
Eh, can remove the chimney and disguise it as a table or cabinet in any way?
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Old 02-12-2019, 04:07 PM   #13
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Eh, can remove the chimney and disguise it as a table or cabinet in any way?
The chimney is the hard part to remove... If it comes down to it, I probably could... but I'd rather not. It would cost me a decent bit of time and money.
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Old 02-12-2019, 04:53 PM   #14
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I assume people saying "leave it out of the photos" are implying "do not disclose that you have a wood stove"?

Do y'all think the below is unnecessarily cautious?

Quote:
Originally Posted by john61ct View Post
If you're going to keep it, be honest with them.

Even if that's not the cause of a problem e.g. starting a catastrophic forest fire, anything less than full disclosure can give them an excuse to deny paying out, and then you've just been wasting premium payments.
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Old 02-12-2019, 05:39 PM   #15
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One other question as we start calling around to other insurance agencies...

We re-titled the bus to be a MH today. Should we wait any particular period of time before calling agencies to make sure it's in the "system" as a motorhome, or can we start calling around tomorrow?
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Old 02-12-2019, 05:55 PM   #16
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No waiting should be required.

If you start a new thread with your state in the title you might get reco's for a good agent with knowledge of the niche.
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Old 02-13-2019, 01:51 PM   #17
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Quote below taken from this other thread that I started

Quote:
Originally Posted by john61ct View Post
From a past thread
> Kelly Newsome, all state agent for 18 + years. Her number is 352-326-9300. Email:*kellynewsome1@allstate.com.*
We called Kelly today and got our coverage! No pics required. Just a nice easy phone call. And we're paying half what Good Sam was going to charge us.
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Old 02-13-2019, 02:25 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Beeb View Post
Quote below taken from this other thread that I started







We called Kelly today and got our coverage! No pics required. Just a nice easy phone call. And we're paying half what Good Sam was going to charge us.


Is this only for Florida?
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Old 02-13-2019, 03:41 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Beeb View Post
Quote below taken from this other thread that I started



We called Kelly today and got our coverage! No pics required. Just a nice easy phone call. And we're paying half what Good Sam was going to charge us.
Congrats! For (my) peace of mind, did you disclose the wood stove?
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Old 02-13-2019, 03:52 PM   #20
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No pics at all. She knows it's a bus conversion, she knows it wasn't done professionally, and we answered every question perfectly honestly. That being said, we didn't go out of our way to supply information if we weren't asked directly. I don't know if a wood stove would have been a problem or not if it had come up. But it didn't come up.

Seems to me that if we ever needed insurance to cover something (hoping we won't), then we have a pretty good case to say that we made no attempt to hide any information, and we were never asked about a wood stove (or any heating source for that matter), we weren't asked to provide pictures, and we weren't told that it had to meet any particular standards.
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