geico doesn't insure homes with solar panels!

Re: geico doesn't insure homes with solar panels!

I ran over a green lizard this morning. He was still flopping around so I backed up and ran over him again.

Re: geico doesn't insure homes with solar panels!

SolarLurker wrote: »

GEICO homeowners insurance is actually underwritten by travelers, I have Home Insurance with GEICO (travelers) and they insured both my commercial solar system and residential. My yearly premium increased seven dollars. I have found GEICO's costs reasonable and have been happy with their service.

Individual results may vary. and Insurance companies are structured differently in each state. .

Not all GEICO homeowners is underwritten by Travlers. GEICO utilizes several carriers from a pool.

Re: geico doesn't insure homes with solar panels!

I have Geico for my pickup truck, and I suppose because of that I am frequently lobbied to add homeowner's insurance. I finally gave them the info and their result was that they could not quote me insurance for my house because....wait for it.....I do not have central heating. I asked the nice woman on the phone what exactly would pass the test for "central heating," and she could not expand on it at all. She explained that they--Geico--did not make the rules but were really just sort of brokers for other co's selling homeowner's. ["Broker" is my term as I don't recall her exact words describing things.]

I asked whether having something like elec. baseboard heating in each room would qualify [I don't have that and do not want it, just picking her brain out of curiosity] and she said, no. It has to be a central system.

Weird.

Re: geico doesn't insure homes with solar panels!

FWIW - I wouldn't own a Shelter insurance policy if they paid me each year, they dropped my auto.... be cause I vacation in Florida.

Yes really! They say they don't insure autos in Florida, I explained that I was on an extended vacation, 6 weeks and would return the end of January, they cancelled me, and having not enough info to buy insurance in Missouri, while in Florida, I had to return.... the day after Christmas.

Only thing worse than Shelter would be insurance regulators in Missouri, that's over 5 years ago and they still have not responded.

Speaking of insurance, I went without a car for 8 months, getting ready for a bicycle trip back to Florida.(I had a truck that was vandalized while I was replacing the head and decided just to do with out until I came back) So when I buy insurance since I didn't have insurance(or a vehicle) they throw me into the uninsured motorist group and I pay the highest rate possible for 6 months. Insurance is really gotten to be a big game.

Re: geico doesn't insure homes with solar panels!

PS - If it isn't clear from my rambling, lengthy somewhat off topic post, my points is that I wonder how common it is for insurance companies to even collect (ask) about solar equipment and how long it will be before many of them do.

Re: geico doesn't insure homes with solar panels!

Here's a couple of TL;DR insurance stories for the terminally bored:

When I bought my house out here, it was a bit rough around the edges - fair for a 60 year old building. But nothing too bad as a fixer-upper. So I did some shopping around and got my home owners' insurance from Farmers. After a month or two, they sent some slack jawed mouth breather over to look at the property. At which point I got a call from an agent asking questions like "when do you plan to fill the pot hole in your driveway" and "what are you going to do about the crack in the [masonry] wall"? To which I responded: "I dunno, the house has been there for 60 years, I don't see any reason to rush anything, and what crack in what wall?" And they said, "you know, the crack, in the wall." Apparently their on-the-scene genius was not terribly specific, so their agent couldn't be specific, but they expected me to be specific. Subsequently, they regretted to inform me that they could no longer insure me because I was not psychic. And my response was "... you, I can get insurance from somewhere else". Which I did, from Allstate, minutes later, who haven't peppered me with stupid, pointless questions. And they cost about the same. The pot hole got patched with 5k psi concrete when it became an annoyance, and I am doing major retaining wall construction to reduce ground movement over the next 60 years. And the "not stupid" insurance company makes easy money.

Something similar happened with my old house that I put on the market at just the wrong time, and sat empty for a few years. My other insurance company, USAA, called me and said "You know, your house is empty" and I said "Yeah, there's a lot less to insure." And they said "Yeah, you're going to have to get 'Fire Insurance' - it covers a lot less, but costs twice as much." Behind that demand was the threat that my mortgage bank, also USAA, requires insurance, so they thought they had me over a barrel. You know those houses with nobody in them, so there are no slip and fall accidents, no kitchen fires, hell, there's no personal property to bother to replace, that's the kind of property that needs extra expensive, lower coverage insurance. So I told USAA "... you!", I paid off the mortgage in cash and I dropped their insurance. Swift move, geniuses, now you lost two accounts with your MBA-driven "the customer is always ready for plucking" greed. The house has since been sold, much more quickly and easily because there was no annoying mortgage bank involved, and now the insurance is someone else's problem.

What I get out of these interactions with insurance companies is that some of them think they own you, and can tell you what to do - like they're doing you a favor. Decisions are made by faceless people who could not care less, and handed down to drones who are incapable of independent thought. They are greedy and inflexible, looking for the 8th decile or lower, and trying to maximize their financial leverage over you. I wonder if a job requirement is lack of a soul? I can't wait to add a 10kW PV grid tied/off grid capable system to my insurance policy. Just like I can't wait for another root canal operation.

Re: geico doesn't insure homes with solar panels!

One thing good (or bad) depends on how you look at it, They cannot deny you insurance, everyone pay the same rate (depending on years driving and accident record). You know if you have an accident or 2 or 3 or 4 what you r rate will be. They cannot drop you like private insurance does. As insurance IS mandatory, it is not a bad system. Lived in North Vancouver for 20 years until moving to Mexico. Now insurance in Mexico is another thing!. Nobody here (almost) has house insurance for fire because almost all houses are built of block and they don't burn down. Even with solar on the roof, the roof is concrete.

I am referring to ICBC insurance company only, it is a a government run company, and they cannot deny insurance like private insurance companies DO.

Re: geico doesn't insure homes with solar panels!

Dr. Strangelove wrote: »

Something similar happened with my old house that I put on the market at just the wrong time, and sat empty for a few years. My other insurance company, USAA, called me and said "You know, your house is empty" and I said "Yeah, there's a lot less to insure." And they said "Yeah, you're going to have to get 'Fire Insurance' - it covers a lot less, but costs twice as much." Behind that demand was the threat that my mortgage bank, also USAA, requires insurance, so they thought they had me over a barrel. You know those houses with nobody in them, so there are no slip and fall accidents, no kitchen fires, hell, there's no personal property to bother to replace, that's the kind of property that needs extra expensive, lower coverage insurance.

...well, those unoccupied homes that aren't getting sold *do* have a tendency to mysteriously burst into flames. And I'm sure that back in the day before insurance companies got wise to the game, it was probably a shrewd premium-reducing move to put minimal "fire insurance" on said homes in the months before their surprise barbecue act. Insurance companies always feel more comfortable when they think that YOU are invested in the preservation of the asset that they're insuring.

Which is why I was happy to hear that my roof-mounted solar panels were considered part of the "permanent structure", and that they'd be covered up to the limits of my existing policy. This is with Liberty Mutual. Of the many groups that I had to deal with to get the system installed (equipment vendors, permitting officials, contractors etc), they were the most reasonable and professional.