Home Insurance pay for electrical upgrade?
FullName
run via conduit to the other corner (55 feet) where the breaker box is.
The electrical wiring in the house was partially upgraded before we bought it
but there are still several code violations.
We have had several electricians come out and bid on upgrading the breaker box
and correcting the code violations. The cost is between $1200-1400.
I was told that if I can get the power company to relocate the service pole to
make a direct line to the breaker, I can save $600 in the 55 feet of extra wire
thru a larger conduit.
I was successful in having the power company relocate the service.
My question is:
Is there any way that the homeowners insurance would assist in the cost of the
upgrade of the electrical wiring in the house?
This is in Texas and the insurance is State Farm.
Thanks
db...@sprynet.com
just dont take their word for it at this level, tell them that you wnat
to make a claim with the them and they will, it does not mean you will
get the claim paid, but they will make it, I was told that the
insurance comp, state farm, does not pay for plumbing repair under a
cement slab. Well I insisted and was called the next day by the claims
office from out of town. they told me to contact the local claim office
and they will walk me through it, contact a plumber and they paid for
it. saved me about $5000. dont just take the agents or the clerks word
for it, they probably dont know what they are talking about. I got my
info from the yellow pages, plumbing ads for underground, underslab
drain repairs, they claim to work with your insurance company. Well i
called these companies up and found out what the insurance companies
covered, seems the plumbing companies knew more than the agents........
@prodigy.net John Bergan
--
John
FullName wrote in message <99ubmu$1gs...@news.hal-pc.org>...
Tom Wilson
violations are corrected.
Just my $.02
John Bergan > wrote in message
<99va5a$62p6$1...@newssvr06-en0.news.prodigy.com>...
Eric Salathe
> The electrical service to our 100 year old house comes in at one
> corner and is run via conduit to the other corner (55 feet) where
> the breaker box is. The electrical wiring in the house was
> partially upgraded before we bought it but there are still several
> code violations.
Are you sure these are code violations or just a result of code
varying over time? Codes generally apply only to construction and
remodelling, not existing wiring. Of couse, there could be real code
violations due to ignorance, lazyness, and sloppy workmanship. Some
houses get rewired with lampcord. But, a 100-year-old house that has
never been remodeled, for example, does not need grounded outlets or a
certain number of recepticals per room to be "to code". Lot's of
things were allowed fifty years ago that wouldn't pass muster now, but
no one's going to make you redo it -- although an update may very well
be a good idea.
If there are just isolated errors, they could be fixed by you or an
electrician fairly easily without a total rewire. If a rewire is in
fact needed, you can do it yourself (unless your local codes are
draconian). You can rewire a whole house (not including panel and
service entrance) for a couple hundred bucks and a couple months of
weekends working at a moderate pace. Fishing cable is mostly low-skill
grunt work once you learn a few tricks. I had the electrician show me
what to do when he did a new service entrance and panel. We had knob
and tube that was totally acceptable from a safety/code point of view,
but we had only a half dozen outlets in the whole house and no
switches. Rewiring was just the easiest fix as opposed to extending
the knob and tube.
That said, some companies will not insure a house with older wiring,
such as knob and tube, and your house may not satisfy your insurance
company's requirements if they knew the details. I'm not sure what
that would mean in case of a claim; you should probably be asking them
that. Safeco will carry houses with old wiring, and is probably one of
the best choices for insuring an older house. They will respect all
the original details, plaster walls, etc if a rebuild is needed (or so
they say and I hope never to verify that).
Eric Salathe
v
wrote:
>Is there any way that the homeowners insurance would assist in the cost of the
>upgrade of the electrical wiring in the house?
Only after the house burns down and they are paying for the re-build.
Don't let someone convince you to confuse a remodelling project with
repair of a sudden break, and get you to think your project *should*
be paid for by insurance, just because they got their broken pipe paid
for.
good luck,
-v.
ameijers
any loss. At best, if you replace all the wiring with modern, they may lower
your rates. The other poster who talked about a claim for replacing plumbing
in a slab- that would have to have been for an unexpected failure, not a
simple upgrade. If he somehow conned them into paying for an upgrade, he
committed fraud, IMHO.
aem sends...
FullName <blud...@nospam.hal-pc.org> wrote in message
news:99ubmu$1gs...@news.hal-pc.org...
Walt
brought up to the most current codes upon each sale.
If you have a house that has been in the same family for 100
years, and then is brought onto the market, you have a house
that has a LOT of catching up to do.
Eric Salathe
> You are correct, though in some larger cities, homes need to be
> brought up to the most current codes upon each sale.
Can you give an example of such a place? I've never heard of such a
thing. If taken literally, that would require tearing down and
rebuilding any house over 100 years or so.
Eric Salathe
jtnews
and get one of those how to books
on electrical wiring and do the work
yourself to save lots of money.
Douglas Miller
Extremely unlikely that the insurance company will pay even a portion of the
upgrade. That's not the purpose of homeowner's insurance. HOWEVER, it is very
likely that once the upgrade is complete, you can persuade them to give you a
modest discount on your premiums because the modernized wiring makes the
premises safer from fire and hence less of a risk to insure. State Farm does
this in Indiana, anyway -- don't know about Texas. Check with your agent.
--
alphageek/at/milmac/dot/com
Stop Partial-birth Abortion NOW!
Ted Kennedy's car has killed more people than my gun.
Bill Seurer
St. Louis Park, Minnesota. It's the suburb just west of Minneapolis.
When I sold Dad's house after he died I had to have some plumbing,
chimney, and electrical work done to bring it up to code. Note that
this wasn't completely replacing the old wiring, though.
--
Bill Seurer Work: seurer AT us.ibm.com Home: Bill AT seurer.net
http://www.seurer.net/ (replace " AT " with "@" to email me)
dearcat...@gmail.com
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