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Re: [TowerTalk] Insurance for Tower

To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Insurance for Tower
From: "Roger (K8RI) on TT" <K8RI-on-TowerTalk@tm.net>
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2013 16:46:23 -0500
List-post: <towertalk@contesting.com">mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
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@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@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
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