Insurance for CNC in home shop. (searched and found a lot of outdated information)

[countryboy1966]

I have a shop on my personal residence property. Nationwide works for me.

 

[Insert]

I was in the same boat as you are currently in when buying my first VMC, I eventually said screw it and paid cash. Eliminated 2 out of 3 things I hate (Interest, Insurance companies, and lawyers)

Would be easier to take out a loan against the house or something else.

 

[Ohio Mike]

See if you can get your homeowners insurance to cover it. Just add a rider to the policy to bump up the value of personal property.

Only if its for personal use. Most will void the policy if its a business. Just so you know even a home owner policy for $500,000 may NOT cover your tools. Tools (like jewelry and firearms) often have a cap on value in standard policies. My old Grange policy covered like a maximum of $1000 for tools. My travel tool box is worth that. Now I have $50,000 in coverage for tools.

 

[john.k]

A lot of policies have a "motor fusion" clause ,and covers any electric motor on the insured premises......Id go for a stand alone policy for fire and storm damage ,and pay a separate premium......I think theft would be very unlikely on a machine over two tons.

 

[xnewmanx]

Just bumping this up because I was all set to go with the bank's insurance, but I had several lines in the water, well, I waited for the last quote to come in and all wound up being a higher than the bank's policy, and so I decided to go with the bank's policy. Well, since it had been 32 days since I had gotten the first quote they had to requote and now it's 50% higher, so now I am back to searching...

 

[wheelieking71]

The OP needs insurance to get the loan and not other concerns.
Bob

I've never needed to provide insurance before the iron was on my floor?

 

[Doug]

In case nobody has mentioned insurance brokers, try one. They know who insures what, etc. I recall the same frustrating search when I wanted insurance on my first CNC. I paid cash for the machine, but I wanted to have it covered since it cost more than our house.

The agent told me it was an easy situation since the risk was so low having the machine where we lived. He said it'd be a more difficult situation if the machine was off somewhere and we weren't living with the machine 24 hours a day.

 

[Fal Grunt]

Insurance is like any other industry with special protections and rules. You can't cover anything related to a business under a home policy. Except some people. In fact, having a business at your home, voids your home policy, except for some people.

Machine shops aren't "those people".

I wound up going with Sentry. People claim they know machine shops, but they don't. From what I could tell, they don't know anything about manufacturing. Or at least, none of the people I talked to did.

$230/mo, covers the building and contents, no product liability.

 

[thunderalley3]

My wife and I own some commercial property and rent it out to different business entities. I see insurance policy changes on some of them every six months.
I can tell you to give as little information as you can to get the coverage you need. We had a tenant, lease signed but not moved into the building yet and his insurance company needed to do an initial inspection prior to him taking possession so they asked if I could meet the inspector onsite. No problem as I am usually there most days to check things anyway. Well this unit was empty and I had one of our Mastiffs with me and he loves to play ball so we were playing ball in the empty space. Knock on the door, put the dog in the down/stay and go to the door. It was the insurance person, I greeted them and they started their inspection and about 5 minutes later said we are done, we can't insure anyone that has a vicious dog onsite, Ummmm that is my dog and we were playing ball, did he bother you? No but I saw him crouched down in the corner ready to attack!! Oh my, I did some quick talking, got him in the truck, assured him I was the building owner not a tenant. He finally calmed down but they get all in arms if they see something they can reject you for.

 

[Speedie]

There isnt a home insurance that covers business in the USA. When I tried and had my little garage shop I had a haas, fadal, millport, doall saw and torchmate plasma table. I hit a dead end but all my junk was old.

 

[FredC]

There isnt a home insurance that covers business in the USA. When I tried and had my little garage shop I had a haas, fadal, millport, doall saw and torchmate plasma table. I hit a dead end but all my junk was old.

See post #7 for my old solution. Maybe an idea that could help.

Now I am on a ranch with a separate building for the shop but Farmers Insurance will not insure my house because I live out in the country. The company was started by 2 farmers doing self insurance. I told them they lost their way. Besides having lightning rods on the house and garage, I have a volunteer fire truck parked next to the front door of the shop and a 4-inch irrigation line about 100 yards from the house. The irrigation line is hooked up to a 20 horse pump and a 10 million gallon irrigation reservoir. There is a pipe line pump station about 15 miles from here with 620,000 barrels of oil storage on site and they only have 1 million gallons of firefighting water on hand. My set up is not good enough.

Maybe in the future I will extend the 4 inch line to the house and put a riser there with a 1 1/2 hose permanently hooked up. Still will not help with Farmers.

 

[standardparts]

Hi,
Firstly, there are several threads on this topic but all of the information seems outdated because I've called those companies and have been told I am SOL by all but one (still waiting from a call back from Federated)

Anyhow, I am in the process of buying my first machine, a new VF-2. I financed about half of it, and the bank needs an insurance policy to cover Fire/Theft/Liability on the machine. I asked for clarification by asking:

“The insurance company has asked me if the equipment needs to be named specifically on the policy (serial number, etc) or if it can be labeled generically (by model) and covered under a “business personal property” policy.”

And they replied:

“As insurance goes, sometimes they require, sometimes they don’t care. As long as Banterra is listed as loss-payee that is fine. If you give us your agent’s name we can give them a call ourselves. We do it all day!”

Well, so far I can't find anyone who is really even interested in talking to the bank.

So for all you guys with a financed machine in a home shop, who are you currently using?

Dead ends so far: Sentry, Farmers, Hartford Steam & Boiler.

Haven't yet heard back from my Allstate agent (where i have homeowners and auto) or another guy that I found on youtube (HA!)

I know when I have to explain what a CNC is that I am talking to the wrong person.

Note I have zero employees and largely make stuff for myself but will be expanding to doing "customer parts to print"

Does anyone have any advice?

Have you discussed the insurance issue with your Haas dealer ?
Considering how many machines Haas sells it might be possible they have encountered this issue previously and can offer a solution.

 

[SteveEx30]

Your best bet is to find a commercial insurance broker. Have them shop it around and find the best rates.
Thats what I did.

 

[Bill D]

Depends what country you live in. OP's location is unknown and he may have moved by now.
Bill D

 

[Farmer Phil]

Some observations, based upon thirteen years as a Property & Casualty insurance broker for the crane and heavy lift/haul industries:

1) Everything and anything is insurable-- it's knowing who to talk to and how steady your check writing hand is.

2) There is no such insurance document called "A Rider." It is slang for an "Endorsement" and using the word instantaneously exposes a person as having no working knowledge or even barely a grasp of the insurance contract.

3) The people offering the advise to be a vague as possible are giving you terrible and reckless advise. How terrible would it be when after a loss occurs, your insurance company denies the loss and retroactively cancels the policy and returns your premium in full because they would not have insured the risk had they known what it was prior to writing the policy?

4) ADeclarations Page is not policy language. Do not focus on cost until you understand the differences in policy language. The insurance contract is exactly that--you are buying words printed on a piece of paper.

Either know this and understand them, or find someone who does-- is easier to find someone rather than commit yourself to learning insurance.

Side note: being vague, or in any way not being completely up front with me was a great way for me to never answer your phone calls ever again. Knowing an insurance broker that truly understands the words they are selling is rare and I knew this and was proud to have a book of business that respected me so I didn't waste time firing clients or prospects.

5) If all that's needed to be insured is a piece of machinery, find a broker to sell you an Inland Marine policy.

6) Do not buy insurance from a bank.

7) Do not buy your insurance from a captive agent such as a state farm or nationwide or whathaveyou. They have no responsibility to you, only to their company. They typically do not have a firm understanding of insurance products and are pushed to sell banking products (see observation #6) more than risk management.

8) I'll leave room for more thoughts when they cross my mind.