home insurance beware

[dobo5250]

do not ever mention to your home insurance agent that you do any ebay sales.

mention so you don't  completey lie that you occationly sell items on ebay but don't mention ita a part time or full time business 

in the course of a insurance review manditory very five years by law i was told i let it slip that i sell on ebay as a partime occasion  even though my inventory is at locker location and covered by seperate insurance and i have a post office box for return items so nothing is at my house -- well after the review and items of house updated -- e.g  new roof installed ,breaker box upgraded 100 to 200 amps ,triple sump pumps added protection agaist floods , alarms updated etc etc  i was expecting a slight increase of say 10%-12% 

what i got was a 33 % increase due to no small part of me telling the agent i was selling on ebay  so now my insurance goes from $1014 yearly to $1339 for standard coverage and deductable which is  1000 dollars

when i was told after picking myself off the ground the reason the high increase was the ebay selling i protested and was told that i could find another insurance company - that won't happen - so i guess i was told in a years time i can reavalueate  the policy - which at that time i will tell them  what i have to to bring the rate down ----- lesson learned ---- hope  others learn from my costly mistake  

[flipistics]

Better to find out now. If you had needed to use your insurance and they found out then, they'd probably deny your claim.  It's the same with car insurance too. Taking items you've sold to the post office is considered business activity.

[marnotom!]

This won't be a popular opinion, but in the context of rising grocery prices, rising property taxes, the cost of keeping a car on the road, and so on and so forth, a $325 increase in home insurance doesn't seem like much to write home about.  If you want to frame the increase as a percentage and get all excited over that double-digit increase, more power to you, but stated as a dollar amount it really doesn't look that bad to me.

I'm paying about $2400 a year to get my small almost 80-year old house insured, and that doesn't include the extra insurance I've chosen to get on the earthquake deductible of $99K.  Count your blessings.

[femmefan1946]

When I was selling wood stoves, the most likely way to get our customers to have their installations inspected was to tell them that without a permit and inspection,their insurance was invalid.

Why anyone would think that installing a new heating system, with a live fire in it,would not affect their insurance, was beyond me.

Especially those who planned a DIY project.

[ricarmic]

What I said to my kids when they left the house about shopping around for insurance:

"Insurance is what you want to be there for you when you need it, not what you find out doesn't cover you because you saved $50 (or whatever) when you bought it...."

I also think it is a very good thing to find this issue out now as opposed to when there's a claim in progress.

Somebody once told me that the insurance cos dig deep looking for ways to get out of large settlements, don't know if that is true or just urban legend, but best not to provide an excuse/escape clause when it is really really needed...

[msau4301]

My house insurance is also through the roof (well luckily the roof is still intact) but I just assumed it was because, as marnotom says, everything these days is. I've never told my insurance company I sell on eBay, and even if I didn't sell I am a collector and I've never included my "collections" on our insurance either.

Myself I am a vintage Barbie collector and know my collection is valuable, but mostly only to other fellow collectors, the rest of the world wouldn't get it so I don't bother to mention it. My photos and family heirlooms are my most precious/priceless items and you can never put a value on that.

While you may be correct that by mentioning you keep business inventory at home your rates may have increased but I still think the bulk of the increase is based on what is happening out there as a whole. (With vehicle thefts at all time high they have to recoup their money somehow!)

[reallynicestamps]

Collectors with valuable collections may want to look into Hugh Wood Insurance,which specializes in insuring collections-- and dealers in collectibles.

They have been easy to deal with and understand how what we have can change daily.

They also insure stock at shows and in transit to shows.

We had a $3500 collection stolen from the back of our car while we were parked in a hotel garage and they covered it.
The car insurance covered the window that was smashed to get at it.

They also cover our personal art collection.

https://hwinternational.com/ca/

[msau4301]

Thank you, I'm also curious now as to what is covered by our hefty insurance as it is, I'll have to try and look through that book-like policy we get mailed every year!

[dobo5250]

as a follow up to my original post - i just yesterday bumped into a man at the post office who revealed to me he is a insurance investagator  and he told me when i asked him that they do after a fire or accident at your house check to see if you sell on many platforms as and if they deem it as reselling and you do business out of your home will require a special rider or could jeapodize your claim of insurance on a household policy same as with car mechanics doing work at home in the driveway for money-- so beware -- just another way the man can make money i guess --  

[aviatorsparadise]

Think youself lucky you only pay that little. I have to pay over $600/month for my farm insurance (I only have 40 acres) and that increased by over $100/month this past year.