Home Owners' Insurance and Bees

reinbeau · February 25, 2007, 08:29:04 PM

I've received a letter from my agent telling me they're going to do a site inspection - after 29 years in this house! Now I'm a bit afraid of them finding the bees and cancelling my insurance. Any advice would be appreciated.

Ruben · February 25, 2007, 10:13:25 PM

I've never heard of anyone being cancelled because of having bees. If the bees were to get in your house and damage it they will not pay for it anyway(they all have honeybee damage clauses). So it would come down to liability if somebody comes onto your property and is stung. So it may not be a bad idea to put up caution signs around the hives until the inspector are gone, to show you are taking precautions I think you will be fine either way though. Just my thoughts.

Understudy · February 25, 2007, 10:28:50 PM

How many hives do you have?
How big is your yard?
What is your land zoned as? (Residential, Agricultural, Multi, Commerical, etc.)

Sincerely,
Brendhan

reinbeau · February 25, 2007, 10:57:22 PM

We have over half an acre, there's no problem with zoning, and we've got only two hives.

Understudy · February 25, 2007, 11:33:10 PM

If you have no problem with zoning than the worst you should have to deal with is possibly a slight increase in your homeowners insurance.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

BEE C · February 26, 2007, 05:46:01 AM

We just went for farm status and did some calling around to renew our insurance a while back. Wow was I surprised. I was basically cut off a few times when I mentioned we have bees, and told that many companies won't even cover home insurance with bees on the property, and we are on seven acres. What a headache. As far as i can tell they really don't like it if 1) you sell honey 2) anyone will be coming onto the property around bees 3)or ANY processing will be taking place in the home. And we don't even have africanized bees here!

imabkpr · February 26, 2007, 05:51:54 AM

It depends on your insurance company, a friend of mine was told by his insurance company {nationwide] that he had 60 days to get rid of his bees.
He told me that it was easier to get rid of nationwide. He changed companies. And in the process saved money. Charlie

Michael Bush · February 26, 2007, 07:22:29 AM

Try a search on "insurance" on this forum and on beesource. There have been mentions of insurance companies that are "bee friendly". If my memory serves me, it seems like Farm Bureau is one of them.

reinbeau · February 26, 2007, 08:15:55 AM

One of the problems here is I'm in Massachusetts, one of the most screwed up states for insurance. :::sigh:::: hopefully if they get ugly I can get it somewhere else.

Update: I just talked to my agent and he says Commerce is going through all of their 'books of business' especially for homes that are insured at 100% replacement value (mine is). They're checking to see that the property is in good shape and that the true 100% costs are reflected in the policy. He said he didn't think there'd be a problem as long as we're not selling honey from the premises, which we aren't. I did ask him to check around in case we ever do decide to sell, he said he would.

Ruben · February 26, 2007, 09:48:40 PM

>{nationwide] that he had 60 days to get rid of his bees.
He told me that it was easier to get rid of nationwide.

I would have loved to have seen that agents face when he said that!

TwT · February 27, 2007, 10:47:11 PM

Quote from: Ruben on February 26, 2007, 09:48:40 PM
>{nationwide] that he had 60 days to get rid of his bees.
He told me that it was easier to get rid of nationwide.

I would have loved to have seen that agents face when he said that!

Bahahahahahahaha!!!!!!! I like that one........ :-D :-D :-D

jerryc · March 01, 2007, 03:40:13 AM

Do they check against the state Registered Apiary list? From what I understand talking to a guy from my state to keep one or more hives requires registration, on-site inspection, approval, Logs, etc. I could be wrong, I'm new and I just talked to them today (Washington)

reinbeau · March 01, 2007, 09:04:35 AM

We're supposed to register our hives, too, but the problem is we don't have a state apiarist here in MA (!!) I asked a few people at our bee club meeting last night, no one had heard of any problems, so hopefully I don't have anything to worry about insurance-wise.

Cindi · March 01, 2007, 09:47:42 AM

Quote from: BEE C on February 26, 2007, 05:46:01 AM
We just went for farm status and did some calling around to renew our insurance a while back. Wow was I surprised. I was basically cut off a few times when I mentioned we have bees, and told that many companies won't even cover home insurance with bees on the property, and we are on seven acres. What a headache. As far as i can tell they really don't like it if 1) you sell honey 2) anyone will be coming onto the property around bees 3)or ANY processing will be taking place in the home. And we don't even have africanized bees here!

Right Steve, I meant to talk more to you about the farm status. We have farm status, for the past 16 years actually. I remember you said that you got denied status, I want to know why. PM me about it.

Johnston Meir insurance (in Mission) I think has insurance for bee people. Ian from Haney Builders mentioned it at the bee meeting on Monday. Go and talk to him, he will give you the contact name. Best of days. Cindi

CraigW · March 01, 2007, 07:08:08 PM

I am not sure about bee, but my homeowners was canceled because I have chickens, can you imagine that. They consider that a farm. Just another way to make money.

Jerrymac · March 01, 2007, 07:10:02 PM

What? You can't insure a farm?

Zoot · March 02, 2007, 01:49:49 AM

We own a farm in MD. Horses, chickens, sheep, bees, woodworking shop, blacksmith shop. I have been with USAA for as long as I've owned this place (21 years) and they have never given me any grief. We just upgraded coverage recently due to a large renovation and they came out, looked everything over.

CraigW · March 02, 2007, 12:37:18 PM

Yea, I had to get insurance with Travelers they do not mind if you have Ag animals. Geico was going to charge me more because of the chickens. I don't understand this.

Zoot · March 02, 2007, 01:37:40 PM

I know this is pretty elementary but always remember one thing about home owner's ins: it's one thing to get "coverage", often quite another thing to get paid when your house, barn, shop burns down. Lots of companies will happily insure you and then cite obscure clauses to evade payment, even so called reputable companies. I researched our ins. for close to a year and found that, while initially bothersome, companies that require on site inspections, EXTREMELY detailed lists of items, etc, are invariably the best to deal with. You will generally get what you pay for.

CraigW · March 02, 2007, 02:53:45 PM

your right. State Farm is one of those companies. They pulled out of the State of Alabama because of the claims from the last hurricane. They had all types of lawsuits against them because they refused to pay on the basis of flood damage, a court made them pay due to wind damage. All State is another one a court here in Texas made them pay customers who were out of a home due to the hurricane. It takes a lawyer to go through your home policy to make sure your not being duped, almost any ways.