Check your homeowner insurance policy

[AbnMP13]

27 May I lost both of my toys, 2006 400EX and 2007 250EX due to a housefire. I had just got to Iraq on a 15 month tour when I got the Red Cross message, I left the next day headed back. Nobody was hurt but I lost everything. Turns out USAA doesn't cover ATV's, only golfcarts.

USAA done me right, they were there the next day with checkbook in hand and gave us an advance on the claim so we could get clothes, food, hotel, etc. They paid the mortgage for the next 4 months while the house was being rebuilt. Very helpful, courteous, etc. My only complaint was they didn't cover the quads.

I had a coffee can in the garage with kerosene to clean air filters. My son (14) kicked it over and either the hotwater heater or the furnace sparked it.

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h239/abnmp13/250EX1.jpg

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h239/abnmp13/400EX.jpg

Here's the funny part, all 5 of these gas cans had gas in them. The fire melted the jugs but they still held the gas.

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h239/abnmp13/GasJugsSM.jpg

[AbnMP13]

We had most of the stuff staged in the garage and of course that's where the fire started. We were getting ready to move from Fort Sill, OK to Fort Polk, LA.

On one hand we lost 18 years of stuff, on the other we got rid of 18 years of junk. That' was the first time in my career that we didn't have to have a garage sale before we moved!

We moved over 13k lbs of stuff from Okinawa to Sill, we moved 5k lbs from Sill to LA.

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h239/abnmp13/HouseFire2717NW75thSM.jpg

Oh and by the way, I have a recently remodeld 1500 sq foot house for sale in Lawton, OK. New roof, all new sheetrock, new appliances, new carpet, new ceramic tile floor, new AC/Heat, new hotwater heater. The only thing old is the brick...

[ZeroLogic]

That really sucks. Sorry to hear that but thank God everyone is alright.

[Regular_Joe]

Homeowner policies will not cover anything that gets a title and can get its own insurance policy. ATVs, dirtbikes, etc. are not covered .....

wow i'm really sorry man

i'm just glad to here everyone was ok

[bwamos]

That sucks, and I'm glad most everything got covered quickly.

The ATV thing catches a lot of people off guard. I don't know if any HO Policies that cover ATV's. You generally have to get a seperate policy for the ATV's. Luckily w/ the multi-policy discount it is pretty cheap. Covers theft as well.

[smr]

I have heard this story more than once.

They will not cover the quad but some will cover parts. :D

I had a buddy that lost his quad in a fire and the insurance agent let him turn in a list of parts he lost on the quad. Really help him out a lot.

[bustedknuckle]

I Had A fire last june.it burnt five quads.two bikes. rember if you use the quads to to yard work,or plow snow.there covered. you need a hitch for snow plow or pull behind mower.two quads were covered because i used them for yard work.still lost the bikes,ant other quads..also rember you can claim the loss as uninshured loss on your taxes.. If your inshurance gives you any grief.ck if your state has a state insurance commishion.here in pa the inshurance co.wouldnt do anything untill i called the state. then watch them dance..... had my money in three days..good luck....

[dpizz450]

Originally posted by bustedknuckle
I Had A fire last june.it burnt five quads.two bikes. rember if you use the quads to to yard work,or plow snow.there covered. you need a hitch for snow plow or pull behind mower.two quads were covered because i used them for yard work.still lost the bikes,ant other quads..also rember you can claim the loss as uninshured loss on your taxes.. If your inshurance gives you any grief.ck if your state has a state insurance commishion.here in pa the inshurance co.wouldnt do anything untill i called the state. then watch them dance..... had my money in three days..good luck....

dude i dont really care about grammar, but geez atleast make your post readable.

on the other hand, sorry to hear about your fire and the original poster. that sucks. good luck with gettin everything back!

[400exrider707]

Sorry to hear about that. You shouldn't be using kerosene to clean the filters anyways!:p

[AbnMP13]

Thanks guys.

Take lots of photos, even of the owners manuals to electronics and stuff or quad parts. The front of the manuals have the brand and model number on them. That way you can prove which ones you had and they can be stored on the web.

Re-Think how much you have your home contents insured for. Mine were only insured for $100k but with a wife and 2 kids that money didn't go too far. Remember how the price of everything skyrocketed when the cost of gas went sky high. It may cost more than you think to replace your belongings.

[cbrooks118]

I just added insurance to all my quads over the summer. They are covered under my policy as farm equioment/saddles. I had to up the coverage from the standard 2500 to 10k. It cost me a $135 a year, but the deductible is the same as the home $1000 dollars. Still cheaper than replacing a 06 yfz 06 ltr and a 04 raptor 80.

We did it this way, because insuring them alone by vin# was going to be like 400 a year. And that was just for theft/fire/acts of god. I laughed in their face when they quoted me for collision insurance + theft/fire/act of god. I told them i have spare parts already because i know I break stuff.

The best part is that on the cheap (135 a year) insurance they are still covered if I go to the dunes and someone steals them there.

BTW I have germania ins.

[Pappy]

Very sorry to hear all of this, sadly most of us fail to properly insure our things and i dont palce the blame entirely on us. The INS companies fail to point out what isnt covered and for many, its only AFTER they need the insurance that they find out.


I just found out that if I have any open flame heat source in my garage then I am not covered. The only acceptable heat source is base board oil or electric. I bought the house with a pellet stove in teh garage and it was inspected by the insurance company when they did the walk through.....but in reality I am not covered. I think its a crappy deal that they can approve you for the insurance yet use it against you to not cover a loss.

[smr]

Originally posted by Pappy
Very sorry to hear all of this, sadly most of us fail to properly insure our things and i dont palce the blame entirely on us. The INS companies fail to point out what isnt covered and for many, its only AFTER they need the insurance that they find out.


I just found out that if I have any open flame heat source in my garage then I am not covered. The only acceptable heat source is base board oil or electric. I bought the house with a pellet stove in teh garage and it was inspected by the insurance company when they did the walk through.....but in reality I am not covered. I think its a crappy deal that they can approve you for the insurance yet use it against you to not cover a loss.

That sucks pappy. You should look into a hardy heater. I bought one a few years ago and I love it. It doesn't effect the insurance and it cheap source of heat.

[AbnMP13]

Originally posted by bustedknuckle
still lost the bikes,ant other quads..also rember you can claim the loss as uninshured loss on your taxes..

I don't itemize on my taxes. Would it be worth it to claim them as losses or can I claim them since I don't itemize?

[05LSR250R]

Those pics made me sick to my stomach!!!!

[AbnMP13]

What companies offer separate policies for quads?

[scuzz]

State Farm does - thanks to this thread I just got mine covered. It even covers damage to my utility trailer with a $250 deduct for my quad for $18 a month.

WooHooo!

[AbnMP13]

Thanks Scuzz, I'll be checking on one of those policies very shortly.

[Ntensweapon]

This is something I've always wanted to check on but always forget. I thought any garage contents would be covered. Thanks for the info guys. I'll be calling my agent on monday. I'm curious how they would cover a claim. Like replacement cost or total price invested. I got a pretty good deal on my quad. The price of the new front end,swinger, and subframe would be more than what I paid for it. I wonder how they would handle that.
I used to race r/c and at one point had about 10 large in equipment. I did talk to my agent and he suggested that I keep a running inventory list with price paid.

To the op... There are minimum amounts to reach before it kicks in. You can deduct real estate interest, daycare,529 funds, health cost, licenses, goodwill, church etc etc. You should be able to reach the minimum easy.

[scuzz]

Originally posted by AbnMP13
Thanks Scuzz, I'll be checking on one of those policies very shortly.

Thank you for making the thread, and I'm sorry you lost your quad. :(

[AbnMP13]

:D I went from a 400EX to a 450R! :D