Hello Everyone-I had a alarming letter today from my homeowners insurance stating that the rider I have on all my R/C gear is no longer covered. I am AMA but we all know that it is really limited in coverage as far as contents being stolen-my major fear is theft or fire at home. I did some shopping and did find a company that would write a policy for the sum of 600.00 per year with a 1% deductible based on 20,000. Has anyone else had any experience or thoughts on this. Too bad they will not cover them for crash damage-hehehehe

That is really a bummer Jim. I think that this might become a disturbing trend in the near future!![]

Brian

What is your current premium?
Suggest you leave the current policy intact and get a quote from a broker on just your hobby stuff.

Depending on the state you should have coverage under the contents portion of your policy... I have worked in the insurance field for 15 + years both as an agent and now as a claims examiner for a property company. The normal policy is what is known as an HO-3 policy and covers your contents for 16 defined perils. Fire and theft are both covered, in fact your contents are covered anywhere in the world for those 16 perils. It sounds like the company had your RC gear schedualed on a rider. This is a common way to get a limit outside of what comes normally with the policy. It also covers the items schedualed for (all risk) with a few exclusions. Yes it would even cover your plane if you "Auger" it in or step on it, shut it in the door of the car, drop it, etc. Those things are NOT normally covered under the basic homeowners. I would suspect that due to the risk factors involved with RC and the premium the insurance company is getting for the risk that they have looked it all over and come to the conclusion that they can't schedual the items. This should not effect coverage under your basic policy for the RC gear nor effect the liability coverage for damage to others property or bodily injury. In short you should check with your agent and ask specifically if coverage for the RC gear exists under your homeowners. IF so then look at the limit for contents and if it is not enough ask him to increase it to cover all of your property. There will be a minimal charge. DO not let him tell you that RC planes are excluded because they are considered Aircraft under your policy. If the agent says this tell them to research it in their trade bullitens. Model Airplanes are concidered models and should be fully covered under the policy. If you need any other help PM me and I will try to help where I can..
I know another company in the North East that paid over $10,000 for a jet model that exploded in the air at a local field. This was all under the basic homeowners policy with no riders.
Jeff

What a ton of great info. Thanks maineflyer, I had no idea. How would they price an item like that jet? Do they just ask the guy what he thinks it is worth? Is building time considered?

of course they don't count your building time! if they did it would take me 100000000000000000000 hours to build the trainer i just crashed!! they usually just pay for replacement cost and you are stuck building it again, but hey thats half the fun anyway!!! and you can make all those changes you thought about when you were buildin the first one!



john

Great way to look at it blue.
I like the optimism.

Brian

If you have replacement cost on your policy HO-490 endorement, your company OWES you the cost to get the plane back to a "pre-loss" condition. This would include a reasonable amount for construction time. No different than if your house burned, paying for both material and labor. They don't just pay for the materials to rebuild but also the time involved. With a hobby I wouldn't press the issue to hard but... What is the difference between the cost of a Kit and the cost the kit and the money you would have to pay ot have a builder assemble it? You could reasonably expect that additional cost to be factored into a settlement. If it were my personal claim you can bet your butt I would demand it..
Jeff

PS most homeowners have the Replacement endorement on contents (HO-490) or something similar. If you don't then GET IT... A word from the wise

Great tip maineflyer.
Thanx

Brian

Wow! Talk about some great coverage. After changing homeowners policies, I noted that my new carrier specifically excludes coverage for ALL types of aircraft, including toys, models, and radio controlled.

Let's slow down and let me get this straight.

You guys are talking about claiming the loss of a model aircraft on you insurance policy?


Like I dumb thumb a 15,000 dollar BVM F-4 and I expect to get a 15,000 dollar check?

Matt,
Let me tell you what I have for a policy... I have an HO-3 policy with an HO-15 rider which gives me "all risk" coverage for my contents and Yes, if I dumb thumb a 15,000 jet into the ground my experience tells me that the insurance company will have to pay for the loss. They may not like it at all but there are NO exclusions in the policy for that type of loss. Before you go ask your local agents about these scenarios let me also explain that 95% of the agency force in this country do not know a great deal about individual policies or coverage, their job is to sell and service the policies they sell. I know this because I was one and deal with them daily. They represent a variety of companies and different policies. My current position requires that I am able to quote chapter and verse for the policies I deal with. So if you ask your agent don't be surprised if you get an adverse answer initially, if so have him check with your company and make sure they research it. As I said in a previous post a guy in the North East had a jet blow up in midair due to a fuel leak, I guess, and I was speaking to the adjuster who handled the claim and wrote the check for the insured. They weren't happy about it but could not exclude it. The exact amount of the check was well over 10,000. The cause of loss was "explosion" which is covered under all homeowners policies I am aware of. As I remember there were a number of witnesses to this event so they had plenty of feedback that the loss was an explosion.
What I am telling you is do the research and be persistent in making sure you know what the policy says. I deal with policies written by ISO. There are companies who do write "manuscript" forms and these are basically "write your own" forms. They are written differently but usually mirror the national ISO and ASI forms fairly well. ISO does have a new form out which I haven't reviewed, their (2000 series). I personally have not seen a policy that excludes models but there are always new forms coming out. The normal exclusion that companies try to use is the "Aircraft" exclusion. When research is done it is found that this applies only to "those that have the ability to carry people".
If anyone has any questions please PM me and I will try to help in any way I can.


PS: I said earlier some companies use their own forms and what might be in those is anyones guess. It would be possible to write in an exclusion for RC planes as long as the states that the carrier writes in approve the forms so there maybe some regional carriers or certain states that allow such an exclusion.
If nothing else check your policies and have a handle on what kind of coverage you have before you have a claim. That goes for all of your policies and all type of claims not just RC planes.