I have a feeling this may be too expensive to bother with, but I'm thinking about checking with some agents to see if I can purchase insurance while I'm developing my property. Part of my concern is to be covered for vandalism and theft while the property is under construction, and the other is for liability for people that may be on the property working on it. Have any of the other self-builders on this forum done this?
Thanks,
Ray
We had a real time finding a company that would handle unoccupied bare ground. This was after our attorney and our insurance agent cautioned us to get insurance on. It is around 640 acres part of an original family homestead we are the forth generation to own. Sad to loose it over a stupid law suite but.......
Easier said that done. After our agent cautioned us he / we and the people on this forum included could not really come up with any one to handle bare ground. Turned out our insurance company; Farmers had a little known department or sub-company Farmers Alliance. Our agent did not even know it existed but stumbled on to it.
In turn we had 640 acres of bare ground insured through them for several years. Then we went to Auto Owners they insured the same. Then we sold our home on two acres sort of in town and were going to move to that property. Then turned out we are now homeless and living in an RV this winter before we build and Auto Owners dropped the ranch property. According to them they do not have enough statistics for rates and faults. So Farmers Alliance picked us back up. They are also willing to cover the construction come spring. If there is construction.
We found it tough to get insured as an owner-builder. The first place we went was State Farm, and they insured us with no problem for about $500/year. The catch is that they will only insure for one year. As the year ended, we tried to find another insurer with no luck. Theft/fire/vandalism was no problem, but nobody would offer liability, which is the one that could really clean you out. At the eleventh hour, State farm decided to renew us for another year. Even the local agent had no idea why they changed their mind. The policy is up in August, and I doubt we'll be done by then. They won't give you a regular policy without a Certificate of Occupancy, so we will once again have a problem.
Thanks for the responses. That at least gives me a couple directions to start in my search. I may be moving my rv to my property as early as next week. I've almost finished fixing up an existing workshop good enough to secure my tools in, so it will be somewhat of a homestead while I finish tearing down the existing homes before I can build my builder's cottage.
Peace,
Ray
Same experience with State Farm---one year limit. That was fine for me because one year before completion there wasn't much to really insure. They were great to work with, and seamlessly rolled over the policy to regular fire insurance once there was locks on the doors
Check with Farmer's Insurance. They were willing to write a liability policy on our ranch property which is uninhabited. I think they were the only one that I was able to find.
We where able to insure our build for only a few hundred dollars a year. It's probly easier to get if you already own a home.