Worldwide Beekeeping
Beekeeping => General Beekeeping => Topic started by: LazyBkpr on February 05, 2014, 09:48:38 pm
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The wife sent the insurance company some paperwork, and was promptly notified that she was NO LONGER INSURED and that a refund check would be in the mail tomorrow..
A call from her revealed that it was because of the bees.. what the &%@#??!?!?!?
So who do you get your insurance from? I would appreciate a heads up. We need insurance!
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Farm Bureau
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foremost, a division of farmers insurance......
been there, done that with the bee thing.....
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What Iddee said, "Farm Bureau."
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Thanks! I will tell her to check with Farm Bureau!!!
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Are you referring to homeowner's insurance?
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Exact same thing happened to me years ago. They informed me that despite a claims free history for years, they would not renew my insurance. Even though they were told no bees were on the property (they weren't) and that no honey was sold from the door., it didn't matter!
I believe they are worried about the liability of you selling a food product. This is something a lot of Mom and Pop farm market vendors need to know.
For example, if Mom sells cookies, or pies, or bread, and someone decides to sue claiming they got ill because of it, your household insurance will not cover you. The moment you start to sell food products made in your kitchen, you are apparently violating the terms of your insurance. What some have to do is then buy additional Commercial Liability insurance (my insurer at the time wasn't interested in that either)!
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Commercial Liability is what my wife asked for. To cover her candle shop, and to cover Bee removal. I never considered insurance, so wasnt worried about it. Generally when you tell someone your about to take a sawsall to the side of their house they either nod their head and say go for it or begin to panic.. Getting sued?? Sure, go ahead, I will just return your bees.. in the middle of the night.. INSIDE, your house.
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Lazy, you don't have to go back to their house.
A couple blocks away will be close enough.
Those bees remember where they lived. Don't ask me how I know this. :D
Farm bureau here.
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you will have to go with a farm type company I use farm bureau
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I use Cotton State, the insurance man buys his honey from me.
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I use Cotton State, the insurance man buys his honey from me.
Now it doesn't get any smarter than that! :D :goodjob: :goodone:
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I think most home owner's policies contain a $500,000.00 liability rider. Then again, I may be wrong. I carry an additional two million bucks liability on my ranch, and it is only a few hundred bucks per year.
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My place is posted "NO HUNTING, NO FISHING, NO NOTHING" and anyone on my property probably needs run off any way. The bees might help their joints a little.
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The moment you start to sell food products made in your kitchen, you are apparently violating the terms of your insurance.
What if it's made in the bee's kitchen? ;)
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The TN apiary law absolves (maybe not the right legal word) registered beekeepers from liability from harm from bees.
http://www.tn.gov/agriculture/publications/regulatory/tennessee%20apiary%20act.pdf
(a) Any person who has registered an apiary pursuant to ยง 44 - 15 - 105, is otherwise in compliance with this part and operates such apiary in a reasonable manner shall not be liable for any personal injury or property damage that is caused by the keeping and maintaining of:
(1) Bee equipment, queen breeding equipment, apiaries, affiliated appliances that are located on such apiary; or
(2) Bees that nest in a beehive that is located on such apiary.
(b) The limitation of liability established by this section shall not apply to intentional tortuous conduct or acts or omissions constituting gross negligence.
It might be worth looking at your state laws to see if there is similar language. :)
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I think part of the business insurance was to cover other people, IE if I star tdoing a cut out on their house and my sawsall blade shoots sparks when i cut through a nail and burns their house down type of thing. I am trying to stay out of the middle of it. Those weekend jail visits started to get old, and now that I am getting old I can bet they would be even worse.. I wonder if they let you chat on the internet nowdays??? then it wouldnt be so bad!
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Has there been any updates on this,as I am very interested in the topic. From what I can find out today. No one carries any insurance that as anything to do with bees. How can this be. There are enough beekeepers out here that there has to be an answer.
There has to be LLC's for honey and honey bee businesses. If you have bees and homeowners gets cancelled but your house is financed, then what?
What about putting hives on other peoples property, Are we setting them up to get their homeowners cancelled. This is nuts.
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Agreed Yankee.. I told her to check Farm Burea.. other than that I am going to stay back behind my bulletproof shield.. when it gets straightened out I am sure she will jabber my ear off about it so Will try to update!
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Lazy,
I may be getting somewhere. I have 3 leads now. 1 says she can help me and I have not heard back from the other 2 but they do beekeeping policy stuff. Here is the info.
http://www.beekeepingins.com/ I havn't contacted them yet but was referred to me from American Beekeeping Federation.
http://www.txins.com/ This one I have talked to and she has said she can do a number of different policies.
Lani Basberg, agent for Lani Basberg Agency LLC toll free 1-800-456-2572 also basberg@bellsouth.net, This one was given to me tonight from a beekeeper and said they were at the Tennessee beekeepers meeting handing out flyers. Have not talked to her yet.
Maybe getting somewhere.
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Awesome! Copied Pasted and printed. I will go hand this to the wife right now! Nice work!
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Also,
I spoke with with 2 Farm Bureau agents and they said they couldn't do anything. But, my partner has Farm Bureau on his house now. He sent him an email asking if he were to buy 5 acres and build a house and have beehives on the property, would he be able to keep his homeowners. His agent said it would not be a problem.
So, moral of that story is even with the same company you get different answers from a different agent. Go figure.
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Also,
I spoke with with 2 Farm Bureau agents and they said they couldn't do anything. But, my partner has Farm Bureau on his house now. He sent him an email asking if he were to buy 5 acres and build a house and have beehives on the property, would he be able to keep his homeowners. His agent said it would not be a problem.
So, moral of that story is even with the same company you get different answers from a different agent. Go figure.
Sorta like beekeepers eh? ;)
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I have State Farm,a Farm and Ranch policy, i ask my agent about selling produce at the farmers market if i was covered or would i have to buy a separate policy. He said as long as it is produced from my farm i am covered selling it from home or where ever i set up. ( no extra policy) I said i have heard that i could loose my insurance if i have bee hives on the farm and sell honey, he said , i have not heard that, but i'll check it out and get back with you if there is anything to it. That was about 10 years ago and i still haven't heard anything? :-X Jack
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Good to know!!!
As far as I know, we currently have NO insurance, but she took the info I gave her and headed off into the great blue yonder so we will see what happens.
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Good to know!!!
As far as I know, we currently have NO insurance, but she took the info I gave her and headed off into the great blue yonder so we will see what happens.
What about a waiver of liability??? Legally register the document, get the local locals to sign off on it, and forget the insurance companies.
???
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So, I am clearly going to have to dig deeper into my homeowner's policy as well as the one where I have two hives. I know there's only a couple folks here from Mass, but what have you found? Also, according to Mass.gov:
Do I need a permit to keep bees in Massachusetts?
At this time, a permit is not required, although you must register your hive so it can be inspected annually.
Do you all register your hive(s) to have them inspected annually?
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I have mine registered, but have never seen an inspector, though I have spoken with the local inspector at meetings on multiple occasions.
Registering here also keeps "commercial" applicators from spraying anything harmful to the bees within a mile of their location. Of course, that does not stop farmers and any other "non-commercial" folks from spraying right beside the hives. I'll take what I can get.
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My business liability insurance does not cover my removals or anything to do with beekeeping, I have a standard "waiver of liability" form, they don't sign I don't remove bees. I've left some too. In a tree, with the owner right next to it.
My homeowners insurance is Allstate, hives were not an issue. Standard homeowners liability is like 100,000, I have big dogs so I carry $300,000. Used to have a big dog that treed teenagers and did bite now and then, got the coverage for him and my ponds. Have never had a claim.
I manage my hives so they don't get too hot, and am well fenced and do not advertise that I have bees.
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I have a standard "waiver of liability" form, they don't sign I don't remove bees.
Is this somewhat of a standard form you might be willing to share? Aside from a few locals and friends, I'm not advertising myself to collect swarms or colonies... YET! The idea of having some sort of waiver, even though in MA it probably won't mean much, is a great idea.
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Incorporate or form a llc the llc or Corp owns nothing so that I'd it ever gets sued there is nothing to award so you lose nothing.
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I have a waiver for doing removals, but my lawyer told me it wasnt worth the paper it was written on. Situation/impression/imagination are always different from person to person. You can explain what you are about to do in explicit detail, and the person you are explaining to will hear only what they want to hear.
So I usually ASK them how they would like the job done. Then do my best to do it their way. I also make sure they understand I gurantee my work. If they are unsatisfied for any reason I will DOUBLE their bees back!
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So, who did you end up using Scott?
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I believe she has State Farm or Farm Bureau.. I didn't ask which when she said we were set...
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"Incorporate or form a llc the llc or Corp owns nothing so that I'd it ever gets sued there is nothing to award so you lose nothing."
beeboy, this is not completely true, also, in the event a business suffers a civil suit/ liability, 'shielded' or not, frivolous or not, you will be paying out a substantial amount of money in attorney's fees.
if anyone of us are concerned about liability, it is best to seek the advice of an attorney who practices in this field. do the best you can to protect yourself, and talk with your insurance company. like scott said, be judicious about the cutouts/removals you are doing.
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"Incorporate or form a llc the llc or Corp owns nothing so that I'd it ever gets sued there is nothing to award so you lose nothing."
beeboy, this is not completely true, also, in the event a business suffers a civil suit/ liability, 'shielded' or not, frivolous or not, you will be paying out a substantial amount of money in attorney's fees.
if anyone of us are concerned about liability, it is best to seek the advice of an attorney who practices in this field. do the best you can to protect yourself, and talk with your insurance company. like scott said, be judicious about the cutouts/removals you are doing.
In your case true. In my case, not true. It helps I have unlimited access to a attorney in the family! 8)
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"In your case true. In my case, not true. It helps I have unlimited access to a attorney in the family! 8)"
well no.......i am married to a legal hat........but he doesn't practice in civil litigation, although others in the firm do........... ;D
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Then your not out attorney fees either.
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well it depends beeboy...............lot's of bartering takes place........ :D
for anyone else, i don't wish upon them a reason to seek legal advice, but when we need to, the smart thing is to do it, let them handle it, and give you appropriate advice for your situation, like cutouts and removals. it's what they do and spent a mortgage on the education. it's just 'smart' to be prepared if something goes wrong and cover our backsides as best we can, and sometimes that's just with 'firing a shot across the bow'...... i think most folks who want bees gone, are happy that we help them out. it's just like anything else, there will always be that someone who gets bent out of shape, so best bet is to plan for 'murphy's law'.............. ;D
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There are people that WANT the bees gone...
"I am going to have to remove that siding. Its OLD and in pretty tough shape....."
1. "I know, do what you can and stack it over there. What i cant patch back in I will replace with new."
2. "So, you think you can get it off without breaking it? I don't want to have to buy new siding."
Reply number 1.. I will go out of my way to do the best I can, and get the job done.
Reply number 2.. I tell them they need to coordinate with a contractor to remove the siding, at which point I will step in and remove the bees.
I make a little money for removals, and get bees that I "may" be able to do something with. If a job looks like it is going to be a headache I don't do it.. Headache meaning a pain to deal with the owner or the money. My prices are excessively low compared to others who do removals nearby. I don't mind working hard for a little pay and some more bees. I do mind arguing about getting paid or how much repair I will do when the bees are removed. The bees are not in "MY" house or barn. If I have to argue or deal with Drama I am more than happy to let someone else do it.
The best removals??
"Were going to tear this place down, but the bees have to go first!"
"I'm in!"
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The best removals??
"Were going to tear this place down, but the bees have to go first!"
"I'm in!"
Sounds good to me: Only way I will do a bee tree besides a not too high trap out involves covering the opening with screen so my neighbor the tree company can take the tree down... Then cut off the log and haul it home to deal with the bees.
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I'm wondering about a personal liability coverage plan. I can get a $1,000,000 coverage from SF.
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Check the exclusions before you spend the cash
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Somehow I missed this thread when it first originated. I have a Farm owners policy with ALFA. They are probably a regional company in the South. But one of the items you have to choose from to declare what type of farm you have is "Beekeeping". In fact my agent is a beekeeper himself.