Home Owners Insurance

[floridareefs]

Tank and all personal property is covered, animals, corals an inhabitants are not. If the tank cause structural damage, that is covered as well, minus your deductible. There is also Replacement cost coverage, make sure you have that or your property will be depreciated. Hope that helps.

[Benny Z]

another state farm employee here. cheers!

[xxxbadfishxxx]

say your tank did break and caused 2000 in damage, would it be worth submitting a claim? i would think your insurance would go up and i also heard that once you have a couple claims in it makes it that much harder to get insurance, is this true?

[InLimbo87]

Originally posted by dukenukem
It's really no different having an aquarium than if you have a waterbed Think about how many gallons a king bed could hold!

Yes and this is why you should inform your insurance company of both waterbeds and fish tanks. Both hold enough water to cause major damage to your home, and knowing that your covered in that situation would be essential for me.

[HoopsGuru]

Originally posted by xxxbadfishxxx
say your tank did break and caused 2000 in damage, would it be worth submitting a claim? i would think your insurance would go up and i also heard that once you have a couple claims in it makes it that much harder to get insurance, is this true?

I would venture that this would be an individual choice based on your policy, most specifically your deductible and consideration of a premium increase.

For me, I would likely pay for $2,000 in damage privately as I know my insurance premium increases for any homeowners claims.

[seapug]

Originally posted by floridareefs
Tank and all personal property is covered, animals, corals an inhabitants are not. If the tank cause structural damage, that is covered as well, minus your deductible. There is also Replacement cost coverage, make sure you have that or your property will be depreciated. Hope that helps.

Do you work for State Farm? Just curious, because this is not what I was told by my agent and a claims rep. They said what you said, but the personal property wasn't covered. To quote the State Farm claims rep I spoke with last week:

"If the fish tank broke and flooded your living room, the carpet, walls, and structure of the house would be covered. But the tank, its inhabitants or a couch, TV, or computer sitting next to the tank would NOT be covered."

That's a very big discrepancy in coverage, so I hope I was told the wrong thing. Who do I believe?!

[xxxbadfishxxx]

Originally posted by HoopsGuru
I would venture that this would be an individual choice based on your policy, most specifically your deductible and consideration of a premium increase.

For me, I would likely pay for $2,000 in damage privately as I know my insurance premium increases for any homeowners claims.

so say your deductable is 500, or even 1000. What amount of damage would need to be done to put in a claim? Is it true that if you make a claim it makes it that much harder and that more expensive to even get insurance? My wife insurance, and she says she tells people that put in claims for a little amount of money then they call back complaining that there rates skyrocketed. In her eye's insurance is only good for catastrophic events like fires, hurricane's, etc. would you guys agree?

[Benny Z]

i claimed a broken pipe that ruined a lot of our basement last year and our premium didn't go up...

[Lordhelmet]

seapug, your claims rep may have been confused by your question, or just didn't know (which happens a lot.) if your tank went crazy and spilled and ruined your TV. by SF standards it is no different if you kitchen sink exploded and ruined your TV. and since Personal property is covered under your homeowners policy, it would be covered minus your deductible. the adjuster may have been thinking that a broken tank was along the same lines as a sewer back up, which is only covered on a policy if there was a riders to the policy added.

xxxbadfishxxx. that is exactly what insurance is for. huge losses. if your ded is 500. then you pay the first 500 and your ins pays everything after that. and to them it doesn't matter if they pay 5000 or 500000. a loss is a loss and they increase your rates on the amount of losses you have. not for how much the loss was for. so if you put in 5 claims for 2000 to 3000 grand each. your rates will be much more then if you had one huge loss for 200,000. and when you do have a loss, other ins companies will know and if you get cancelled other companies might not take your business.

and your premium wont necessarily go up with one claim. you would have to talk to your agent about that.

so only use your insurance if you have a huge problem that you cant pay for.

[seapug]

okay, thanks for the info, Lordhelmet!

[Aslan]

Originally posted by xxxbadfishxxx
say your tank did break and caused 2000 in damage, would it be worth submitting a claim? i would think your insurance would go up and i also heard that once you have a couple claims in it makes it that much harder to get insurance, is this true?

Hell Yes, that's why I have it.

My deductable is $500. I've already paid the insurance for the year, I'd use it as opposed to paying $1500 out of my own pocket, even if I had the $1500.

Hopefully I'll never have to find out.

[HoopsGuru]

Originally posted by xxxbadfishxxx
so say your deductable is 500, or even 1000. What amount of damage would need to be done to put in a claim? Is it true that if you make a claim it makes it that much harder and that more expensive to even get insurance? My wife insurance, and she says she tells people that put in claims for a little amount of money then they call back complaining that there rates skyrocketed. In her eye's insurance is only good for catastrophic events like fires, hurricane's, etc. would you guys agree?

I don't think a few smaller claims would have an impact on getting insurance. IME, insurance companies will only deny insurance to those folks with a track record for major claims, which when run through their statistics makes it likely that one's collected premiums will not be a large enough profit (aka too much risk).

Anything in the $3,000 range and up I would likely make a claim, that's for me based on how much I understand my rates would go up. I hold the opinion where I don't make claims for everything my insurance covers because I am also playing the opposite game of the insurance company, hedging my bets on long term premium payments and trying to minimize my total investment.

Even with this opinion though, I do not consider homeowners insurance to only be for catastrophic damages. When and how to use it depends on your own budget. You can always, at least with my insurance company, talk to them about the amount of a claim and how much it will increase the premium. My parents had a battery dropped on their laminate floor and they decided to go through homeowners insurance. My father is getting older and doesn't do many home projects anymore and a yearly premium increase made more sense financially than paying out of pocket several thousand dollars. It really is an individual decision based on your specific factors.

[sirjohn]

Originally posted by Nightfall_fish
... and if you feel like your agent isn't taking care of you the way you should be...fire him! Go out and find someone who does care about your interests.

That is, of course, unless you live in Florida (i.e., the plywood state)

[hahnmeister]

There is a loophole that many arent aware of. Check your policies for coverage on plumbing fixtures. As it turns out, if you plumb your RO to the tank directly in some manner (even if its on a valve that is manually closed most of the time), like to fill the ATO bucket, or to directly fill the tank, that 1/4" waterline makes your tank, and everything in it except the livestock, a 'plumbed fixture', like a Fridge with an icemaker... and then it is covered.

A few years back, someone here had the bottom panel on their 180g crack and flood everything. The agent at first claimed the tank and other equipment under the tank that was damaged wasnt covered... but then he saw it was plumbed in to the house's water via the RO.... everything but the corals/fish were covered.

As for covering livestock... its not worth it. Its best to 'self insure' unless you are large enough, like a fish store, to need a backup in the event of some mammoth equipment failure that whipes out your whole system.