Technical Home owner’s insurance and old cars

I have a question for you guys. I just changed my insurance car/home and they sent a guy to my house to take pictures. My agent calls today and says that I have to remove or put inside the “junk cars” I have in my back yard. The cars (3) are complete. I don’t understand why. She says they can cancel the insurance. She is supposed to give me more info tomorrow. I do have a 59 IH truck at the front gate that is ok since it is yard art. Not sure what the difference is. I have 2 acres and the property is fenced on all sides. We live off county roads, not city limits. Anyone else have this problem? Suggestions? Figured one of you might have had this issue. I don’t want to get rid of anything right now.

Delete if this not HAMB friendly.

CN

 

Their policy, their rules. They likely see the "junk" cars as an excessive liability, and their business model is to minimize their liability. Start shopping for another company if you aren't willing to move them.

 

Find a different insurance agent.

 

X2

 

X3

 

Like mentioned above.

Remember it's all about the money. How much they get from you, not the other way around.

 

You know how Warren Buffet got so rich? Owning insurance companies.

 

X4

 

X5

 

X6 definitely!

 

A few years ago I purchased home owners insurance and was soon cancelled because of the “junk “ cars in my yard. Funny thing is that the same insurance company was insuring the same cars under my “antique “ auto policy. They didn’t mind taking my money for the cars, but apparently didn’t want the “liability “ under my homeowners policy. I found a different insurance agency for my home. So yes X 6

 

Easy fix, move your vehicles temporarily then they reappear say in 90 days or so after the photo inspection that all insurance companies do for new business. Things they hate are outside vehicle storage, trees over hanging roofs, shrubs- vegetation up against the house. My experience is once you start with a homeowners ins co , don't change companies. Keep your deductible as high as you can say $5000. And never submit a nuisance claim for anything less than 10k play it safe just pay em.

 

Are the vehicles insured under the Home insurance?

Do they block any egress for a fire truck to get to the house/shop/etc?

Heck, I got a notice of cancellation several years back because a dwarf orange tree was “getting close” to my eaves. After I trimmed it down and sent pics, they came to verify. Then I had to cut the hedges away from the front of the house as they the also “getting to close to the structure “

I really get it, they want to limit any possible liability that is in the policy.

 

I don’t have insurance on any of them. They are future projects. One will run with a new fuel pump. I was going to pull the drivetrain out of it and part the rest, but have changed plans. Going to fix it and sell soon. They don’t block anything. They are complete and don’t look bad at all.

I am going to call a few companies today and see what they offer. I am going to ask them upfront about my cars sitting here to see what they say.

Thanks fellas for the input.

CN

 

I owned my own insurance agency for almost 25yrs, selling it 3yrs. ago. Every company will have different guidelines,
but as a general rule, over the last 10yrs. all companies have gotten much stricter on new business. Generally, they look at non-moving vehicles, stacks of lumber, tires, cords of wood, propane tanks, etc. as a liability issue. You have to remember that insurance companies look at everything as "it could happen". Things like a trampoline is deemed
an attractive nuisance, meaning that if someone sees it in your backyard, even if you have a fence, the urge to try
it out is just too great, therefore in the courts, your insurance will have to pay the claim.

Most companies do an initial inspection, so whatever is added after that stays under the radar and would be covered
if there was a claim. Some companies now do home inspections every 3yrs to insure that the risk still meets
their guidelines. I am not aware of any companies that no longer conduct at least an initial inspection, but you
could call around an inquire about "outside storage" vehicles that you have on your property and if that would
pose an issue. Hope this helps.

 

Funny thing is they did not go behind my shop building. There is a heavily parted out mountaineer that I have picked pieces off of over the years. Mainly for the 302 that was in it. Just today I pulled the grease caps off to go on my shoebox disc brake conversion. Fit perfectly. I have used tons of parts off of it. That one I guess will head to the scrap yard soon. The property behind me is a huge cattle field that I never see any people. There is no house on it.

CN

 

This whole discussion is timely as I am currently working with my homeowners and auto insurance company to try to get my rates better (mainly on the house). Good to know some of this in case they decide they need to come assess the property or something... Guessing between the parts cars, some bushes that are probably "too close", and some "livestock" that they know nothing about, I may need to make sure no one comes to see anything...

 

Most agents will receive a notice of impending inspections, and what we always did was inform the homeowner
of it, while doing a "mini-review" of any issues, off the record. We always worked for the policyholder, staying legal within our company's guidelines of course, but did offer suggestions of "what I'd do if it was mine" to help them
pass the inspection. On autos, if they are on a driveway they are not an issue, go figure. No wonder customers
are confused! SOMETIMES, the underwriters will use common sense, but not often.

 

I had a similar occurrence several years ago. I was told that my one "outside" car would be the reason for either cancellation or surcharge due to the possibility of liability.

My response was that they got a shit load of money from me for coverage on my house (and in ground pool), 3 daily drivers, 3 running and insured hobby cars, 3 trailers, and an umbrella policy none of which had claims for 30 years and they were not going to get any more. As it turned out the underwriter "decided" that the liability was not that great after all.

 

x2

 

You got some great answers.
I have a question for you.
Where'd you get that great Avatar ?

 

I have had this avatar for a long time. I really don’t remember where it came from. I do remember it was a pain to get it to work as an avatar. I am currently in the process of just cleaning up the yard. Going to haul off my scrap car next week. Surprised they didn’t say anything about the 2 burn barrels I have in the backyard. Whenever my agent calls I am going to see if I can just put the cars on the concrete driveway instead of the dirt that they are on now. Maybe clean them up a bit.

Thanks again
CN

 

Go buy some 2x4's and plywood and build boxes over the cars. Call them "sheds" for storage.

 

When I built my garage my better half's insurance co drove by and threatened to cancel her insurance because her old shed had a saggy roof. It was about 1 foot from the foundation hole. She called them up and told them we were building a garage and the shed was coming down. I decided I wanted to keep the sheds contents out of the garage
so I fixed the roof and moved the shed over a little. They did not cancel her.

 

I have a similar situation and have been with my insurance office for right at 30 years now. I am actually on my 3rd agent in that office after two have retired and I seem to have more tenure with the office than anyone working there now. Amazing how hard they are trying to help me out right now after I reminded them I have been a pretty long customer...longer than any of them even knew.

 

X6

I will relate an insurance agent story w a good ending. I was 17 with my newly bought ‘66 GTO in 1983. Mom tells me their insurance company won’t cover me so I pick up the yellow pages (lol) and start making calls. Finally find a guy that wants to talk but really would like to meet my folks and see the car. Uh...ok. He shows up and turns out he bought a new ‘64 GTO and wished he’d kept it of course. I take him for a spin around the block (with no insurance or plates!). He talks w mom and dad, I sign the papers and he was my insurance agent for the next 30 years until he retired. I’m still with them. House, cars, etc. Regards, Randy


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

They will find something to whine about if it doesn't fit their idea of ideal.

They fussed about my sailboat sitting on the trailer in the yard when they inspected the place for home owners insurance. That was a woman looking at photos of the place sitting in an office a thousand miles away. Boat had a current license, trailer had current tabs, boat had far more insurance on it than my cars do including a half million dollar liability policy.

The woman's explanation was that children might climb on it and get hurt. Mind you I live in the middle of a 70 acre alfalfa field, the closest house is my mother's 3oo yards away. The closest children live in the house a bit over 300 yards the other way and across the highway. They would get their butt busted by their mom if they even thought about wandering across the road.
My truck cabs and parts were all back in the machine shed at that time so maybe because they were under a roof they didn't count.

I had a buddy who hid some project and parts cars from prying eyes by stacking his hay around them a few years ago. What looked like a huge hay stack was just a hay wall around the cars stacked up high enough so you couldn't see over it driving by on the road.

 

@CyaNide 's avatar is a drawing by the legendary Ed - Big Daddy -- Roth.

 

How about in blue? Lots of images online just search for Big Daddy Roth Race?

 

Insurance companies are a bunch of legalized gamblers. You're gambling you'll need their products, they're gambling they can get your money and keep it. And they want the deck tilted to their favor...

We had a hell of a time finding a homeowners company just because we use propane space heaters and window AC units instead of having a central HVAC system. I had some stuff behind the house, out of sight of the road, that they wanted moved, I told them I didn't have time to move it right now. They said it was a liability issue, I told them to screw themselves. They said they couldn't insure us with it there, I told them there were a lot of companies advertising in the phone book {yes, we still have one!}. They gave in and wrote the policy....