I have a small tractor that is registered in NH, i want to be able to go on the road occasionally and homeowners will not cover if it is registered... seems strange to me. Anyone recommend an insurance co that might cover the liabilty angle. Im not contracting out..just want coverage if i get in an accident. Physical damage insurance is covered by the tractor mfg. thanks for any advice...
Insurance need liability insurance
- Thread starter gravelman
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Sprinklerman
Platinum Member
Erie insurance , you are now a landscaper
daugen
Epic Contributor
if you don't accept money for hire, or technically goods or services in compensation, you aren't commercial and your liability is minimal.
Yes, once your tractor leaves home premises your homeowner coverage falls off. Usually....Some companies have added benefits riders that cover this, and sorry
can't tell you the names in your area. I'm assuming due to Kubota finance you are covered the same way I am, full coverage for damage to the tractor. But NOT, for sure, bodily injury
or property damage to others. (i'm a retired insurance underwriter...)
Foremost or Progressive might be able to write an inexpensive liability policy for you. I have one with Foremost covering my UTV and golf cart for just this purpose, and then my umbrella liability picks up after that.
First you should ask if your existing homeowners can add the coverage by rider. Am assuming you've been told no there, so most agents have access to Foremost or Progressive. Erie is good too but often wants all your business along with the "little stuff".
You bring up a good question. My small farm has road frontage on two roads. I have to travel the public roads when the fields are planted, can't cut through to the other side.
So with all my lights on and flashers flashing I head off.
But if some yahoo high on something runs into the back of me, I just know it will be my fault. Or so says the plaintiff attorney to my insurance company.
Once you take penny one for your work, your liability world changes, but you said you weren't contracting out. With your first penny you are, as Sprinkerman said, a landscaper.
hope this helps
Yes, once your tractor leaves home premises your homeowner coverage falls off. Usually....Some companies have added benefits riders that cover this, and sorry
can't tell you the names in your area. I'm assuming due to Kubota finance you are covered the same way I am, full coverage for damage to the tractor. But NOT, for sure, bodily injury
or property damage to others. (i'm a retired insurance underwriter...)
Foremost or Progressive might be able to write an inexpensive liability policy for you. I have one with Foremost covering my UTV and golf cart for just this purpose, and then my umbrella liability picks up after that.
First you should ask if your existing homeowners can add the coverage by rider. Am assuming you've been told no there, so most agents have access to Foremost or Progressive. Erie is good too but often wants all your business along with the "little stuff".
You bring up a good question. My small farm has road frontage on two roads. I have to travel the public roads when the fields are planted, can't cut through to the other side.
So with all my lights on and flashers flashing I head off.
But if some yahoo high on something runs into the back of me, I just know it will be my fault. Or so says the plaintiff attorney to my insurance company.
Once you take penny one for your work, your liability world changes, but you said you weren't contracting out. With your first penny you are, as Sprinkerman said, a landscaper.
hope this helps
daugen
Epic Contributor
for about twenty years I was an independent insurance agent in my very small home town of New Hope PA.
Had enough contracts with enough carriers that I never had to turn someone away but the casualty property insurance industry
back then was whipsawing around from profit to no profit, and often no profit. So entire regions of the country would find their carriers dropping
them like flies. Once a valued customer, now you were toxic and told to go away. Terrible way to run a business.
The industry has grown up since then, and thankfully is now highly regulated with lots of oversight and consumer protections built in.
My personal feeling is backhoes ruined it all. Too many people blowing up houses and whole neighborhoods when gas lines were hit,
power lines, you name it, Harry Homeowner will hit it. All you guys with your little backhoes digging all over the place...
Call before you dig. For what? Pizza?
I kept current in insurance claims for thirty years, and paid claims for almost twenty.
Amazing what kind of excitement folks can get into...
and if you have assets you want to hold on to, yes you'd better be insured.
Had enough contracts with enough carriers that I never had to turn someone away but the casualty property insurance industry
back then was whipsawing around from profit to no profit, and often no profit. So entire regions of the country would find their carriers dropping
them like flies. Once a valued customer, now you were toxic and told to go away. Terrible way to run a business.
The industry has grown up since then, and thankfully is now highly regulated with lots of oversight and consumer protections built in.
My personal feeling is backhoes ruined it all. Too many people blowing up houses and whole neighborhoods when gas lines were hit,
power lines, you name it, Harry Homeowner will hit it. All you guys with your little backhoes digging all over the place...
Call before you dig. For what? Pizza?
I kept current in insurance claims for thirty years, and paid claims for almost twenty.
Amazing what kind of excitement folks can get into...
and if you have assets you want to hold on to, yes you'd better be insured.
TheMan419
Veteran Member
We are with Nationwide (I'm from Indiana I blame Peyton Manning). My agent put me into a farm policy. Covers the home, equipment etc. Will cover my wife training horses on the property when that happens here in the next couple months.
Frankly I am not sure at this point if the policy covers the tractor when it is off property. I will look into that, but I am sure they can add that for an additional premium if not already covered.
Also I have a $1M umbrella with them that would kick in as well if I damage anything with the tractor.
NOTE I do not do any work for others with the tractor. The only time it is off my property is when I am snow plowing at the end of the driveway or if I bush hog the front part of the property.
I am also sure that Nationwide would have a policy to cover me if I were doing work for hire, again for an additional premium.
I would look for a local independent insurance agent that does farm work. They will know what policy you need and be able to shop it. You will get better results if you are also willing to change your home and auto over to the new company as well.
Frankly I am not sure at this point if the policy covers the tractor when it is off property. I will look into that, but I am sure they can add that for an additional premium if not already covered.
Also I have a $1M umbrella with them that would kick in as well if I damage anything with the tractor.
NOTE I do not do any work for others with the tractor. The only time it is off my property is when I am snow plowing at the end of the driveway or if I bush hog the front part of the property.
I am also sure that Nationwide would have a policy to cover me if I were doing work for hire, again for an additional premium.
I would look for a local independent insurance agent that does farm work. They will know what policy you need and be able to shop it. You will get better results if you are also willing to change your home and auto over to the new company as well.
this is great information, i m getting an education...never too old to learn stuff...thats what i say I had a "contractors" policy before and it was costing me a fortune...i was told that is all i could get.. i don't think so. im calling a local agent this am.
daugen
Epic Contributor
I think that's very good advice. Many insurance companies write farmowners policies and you don't have to be a "business" to be covered that way, though most are, like boarding horses.
Rate per thousand on Farmowners, versus Homeowners, can get expensive in rural areas with frame buildings. Farmowners are often, but not always, based on old fashioned "fire rates" that are published by location. Unless you have an exceptionally low fire rate due to masonry construction and a large pond on premises with a pump..., you usually want to be rated by "class rates" that are average rates. So...if you are low risk, an individual fire rate might be best; if higher risk, the class rate is usually less expensive. But no matter what, shop around. All of this is irrelevant if you can get a separate small liability policy, but if this concerns you, a farmowners route is a good option, which is a comprehensive policy that is unlikely to have any loopholes that will leave you high and dry.
Insurance is truly the Land of the Big Print Giveth and The Small Print Taketh Away...
All those exclusions hidden far back in the policy, which is usually so full of legal jargon and run on
explanations where you have to decide what it means based on a comma or a semi-colon...horribly boring stuff, and I actually taught
it to trainees for a year. Word by word, every policy. This is why you either have to fastidiously read your policy, which I almost dare you to and get through it,
or you have a competent agent who can analyze your situation and provide a comprehensive solution. And by bundling, perhaps saving you money to boot.
CobyRupert
Super Member
I'm curious: You have your tractor registered? With DMV? Does it have a license plate?
I thought only Europe did this? Does anybody else in other states do this?
We don't register tractors over in here in New York, I guess we're a little more "Live Free or Die" :laughing:
I thought only Europe did this? Does anybody else in other states do this?
We don't register tractors over in here in New York, I guess we're a little more "Live Free or Die"
:laughing:
daugen
Epic Contributor
oldballs
Elite Member
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2009
- Messages
- 4,536
- Location
- Kansas...USA
- Tractor
- Kubota B2620 , Case 448 , Kubota B2650
As with most TBN posts there is a lot to learn here. My situation.....just as an FYI. Tractor needs no registration. I'm non-farm, but help the neighbors with mowing, burying dead animals, annual hayrides, plowing, tillling, snow removal, grading, small construction projects, and have to trailer it now and then etc. I do it for no payment, just for the helz of it and enjoy helping them out when necessary...... Do get some free cookies and a dinner now and then.:licking:
My concern is for liability and don't care much about damage to the tractor. Thus I have all my HO, Auto, Umbrella, Liability (including the tractor...off the property) with one company for over forty years.
Cheers,
Mike
My concern is for liability and don't care much about damage to the tractor. Thus I have all my HO, Auto, Umbrella, Liability (including the tractor...off the property) with one company for over forty years.
Cheers,
Mike
Last edited:
You are a good man...my insurance company that handles all my other stuff will cover the tractor too...BUT, they call it a "contractors" policy and it is expensive...this is why i decided to reach out and see what others did....and also get some other quotes..
oldballs
Elite Member
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2009
- Messages
- 4,536
- Location
- Kansas...USA
- Tractor
- Kubota B2620 , Case 448 , Kubota B2650
As to a quote..........I'll look that up for y'all ....when I get more time. Probably be good for me to see that number as well...it might scare me.:shocked:
daugen
Epic Contributor
Having this discussion made me doubt myself so I called my insurance agent, she called the company and:
I spoke to an Underwriter named Lisa, at ASI and explained about the tractors and mowing and sometimes having to go on the road.** Lisa said, as long as the tractors were used to maintain The yard there would liability coverage.
Well, I got lucky, since yes, it might be a big "yard" but that's what I'm doing, maintaining my property. So my homeowners covers me, as I thought, for my run around the block.
In a year, when my tractor is paid off and the Kubota coverage falls off, I will likely increase homeowner contents coverage a little. I already have replacement cost on contents, which gives me 70% of the dwelling limit, and thankfully there is no coinsurance on contents. A tractor, or any tractor implement, is plain contents unless excluded or limited. Which tractors aren't...unless used for business.
Coinsurance is important, if you have a 100K homeowner limit, 50K on contents, and someone steals your $45k tractor, the insurance will pay for the whole thing. Doesn't matter if you are underinsured for total contents, they will pay up to the policy limit. There isn't a penalty clause on contents like there is on building coverage, in order to qualify for replacement cost coverage.
There is a term called PML for claims, meaning probable maximum loss. It's a determination as to how much of the total insured property could burn up or blow away at any one time.
Since most tractors are out in the barn, usually they won't burn up with the house and vice versa. Now a direct hit by a tornado or a plane, then you can pay policy limits. So when you chose a contents coverage level, either standard or increased, keep in mind the likelihood of losing everything you own in one occurrence. If you live in tornado alley, california brushfire area, along the ocean, I'd buy as much coverage as they will give you that makes sense in your budget. Rarely does anyone complain about having too much coverage in a serious loss.
So all of this is to say your homeowners policy contents will cover your tractor to whatever degree of coverage your policy provides, usually either broad form or all risks, based on either ACV (depreciated market value) or Replacement Cost, (claim paid without depreciation). Homeowner liability you need to check on yourself, make the call. Either way, for non business use, coverage should not be expensive.
I spoke to an Underwriter named Lisa, at ASI and explained about the tractors and mowing and sometimes having to go on the road.** Lisa said, as long as the tractors were used to maintain The yard there would liability coverage.
Well, I got lucky, since yes, it might be a big "yard" but that's what I'm doing, maintaining my property. So my homeowners covers me, as I thought, for my run around the block.
In a year, when my tractor is paid off and the Kubota coverage falls off, I will likely increase homeowner contents coverage a little. I already have replacement cost on contents, which gives me 70% of the dwelling limit, and thankfully there is no coinsurance on contents. A tractor, or any tractor implement, is plain contents unless excluded or limited. Which tractors aren't...unless used for business.
Coinsurance is important, if you have a 100K homeowner limit, 50K on contents, and someone steals your $45k tractor, the insurance will pay for the whole thing. Doesn't matter if you are underinsured for total contents, they will pay up to the policy limit. There isn't a penalty clause on contents like there is on building coverage, in order to qualify for replacement cost coverage.
There is a term called PML for claims, meaning probable maximum loss. It's a determination as to how much of the total insured property could burn up or blow away at any one time.
Since most tractors are out in the barn, usually they won't burn up with the house and vice versa. Now a direct hit by a tornado or a plane, then you can pay policy limits. So when you chose a contents coverage level, either standard or increased, keep in mind the likelihood of losing everything you own in one occurrence. If you live in tornado alley, california brushfire area, along the ocean, I'd buy as much coverage as they will give you that makes sense in your budget. Rarely does anyone complain about having too much coverage in a serious loss.
So all of this is to say your homeowners policy contents will cover your tractor to whatever degree of coverage your policy provides, usually either broad form or all risks, based on either ACV (depreciated market value) or Replacement Cost, (claim paid without depreciation). Homeowner liability you need to check on yourself, make the call. Either way, for non business use, coverage should not be expensive.
