Can anyone point me to an insurance company for coverage on non-residential property that they’ve had positive experience with?

I’m having a tough time finding a policy for our rural Oklahoma property. Our homeowners policy won’t extend across state lines. And for some unclear reason, because there is a cabin with no utilities on the property, the local agents I’ve talked with (State Farm, Allstate, etc.) won’t deal with it.

Seems like a simple issue: we've been surprising that it’s not. I won’t go into great detail here, but if someone can guide us in the right direction, we would appreciate it!

I have Farm Bureau Ins on my place. They cover my trailer house, tractors, 4 wheelers, trailers, 2 in town rent houses, out buildings and farm equipment. I don't live there. I've only had one claim for theft.

However, I do not have Liability through them. Check with them. I find that they are a lot more obliging than any of the big boys.

Also, check with a local farm co-op and ask them who insures farmland. I don't think it would be that hard to find someone if you were to ask in the right places. But, not living there makes that hard to do.

I was trying to get a $1 million dollar liability rider for my 40 acres. USAA would not cover me and sent us to their "high risk" affiliate because I own two Pit Bulls! I have joined the Oklahoma Farm Bureau and am awaiting information on their farm insurance.......If you own anything over 20 pounds with teeth, you get thrown into "high risk"! There are quite a few breeds on the "verboten" list. The insurance companies read the papers about what goes on in urban America and assumes that the same applies on farms and acreages! Maybe I can get back with you in a couple days with some good news.

I appreciate your input. i've tried farm bureau as well. could be that i've just been unlucky with the persons i've talked with. are there not some insurance reps with ponds somewhere in this forum??

i did find some company in colorado that insures "seasonal residences" - i.e. mountain cabins, but pricey! maybe that sounds picky, but i'm still seeking options.

Google rural homeowners insurance & Oklahoma. This brought up several names of companies for me. I am sure one of them will do non-residential. Stay away from the big boys, they want nothing to do w/rural property. Good luck.

okie, the insurance companies will insure pets, even large pets, its just universal not to insure properties with pit bulls. My wife and i own over fifty rentals and they would drop us if one of our tennants has a pit bull, most other dogs are ok. yours may be safe, but most aren't.

We have a $5 million umbrella policy over all our other coverage through Nationwide; but we don't have the multi-state issue.

Okie: Not to get into a dog discussion; but I've stood next to the bloody body of an elderly lady that was killed by a previously tame and friendly pit bull that just got loose. The owner was a nice, responsible family guy and wasn't into dogfighting, drugs or any of those stereotypes. The victim was his friend and neighbor. I was the one who got the owner to sign the dog over, help load it into the animal control vehicle, euthanize it, and order its head to be sent off for rabies testing (negative). I'm also aware of many other pit bull attacks in our small, rural county. I love dogs and realize than pit bulls get a somewhat bad rap; but I won't trust one and insurance companies review the same attack reports and pay the claims. FWIW: I believe Illinois has the second most paid claims for dog attacks.

My home and auto are covered by Chubb and they have our land/pond covered also.

Dwight insures your pond? And I thought he only spelled it with 1 "b."

There's a lot of things that go into the equation when it comes to vicious dogs. The insurance companies approach coverage in a cookie-cutter fashion where one size fits all. No bread of dog is inherently vicious. Some folks shouldn't be allowed to own dogs, just like some folks shouldn't be allowed to have children.

That's the truth!!

I don't have children, and a few friends have said "wow, your dogs behave and listen better than my kids do!"

.......and raising teenagers is like trying to nail Jello to a tree! LOL!

North Star Mutual. Their coverage area is limited to the upper Midwest.

You are thinking of Big Chub of Small Fathead fame.

That's the one!

dvr-

Not sure if this will help but this is a little more info on your situation. If I understand correctly you have an additional property in another state other than where you reside?

Many times your current company can extend the premises liability from your primary residence to an additional premises such as vacant property within the same state. EX: You have your home at one address and another property 5 miles away. Usually they will list this as an endorsement to the policy so that they understand there are more than one premises that need premises liability coverage and there is usually a fee associated with extending the premises liability.

Now for the catch: Beacause an insurance policy(home insurance or premises liability insurance) is State specific meaning that each policy is written for that particular state, a policy written in Oklahoma will not adhere to state regulations in any other state except Oklahoma therefore it cannot cross the state line for coverage in regards to premises liability. The next problem is that your primary residence is probably in a insurance policy designated as a Homeowners Policy. Because the property you have is basically vacant land with a house that is not occupied and there are no utilities present it doesn't qualify for the insurers definition of a "Home" so an insurance carrier in Oklahoma cannot write it as a Homeowners policy or even a seasonal or secondary residence because of the lack of utilities present.

Many times, IF you have utilities present at the cabin you could possibly contact your current agent in your state and ask them to find an agent in Oklahoma that represents your current insurance carrier and see if your company covers seasonal or secondary residences.EX: You have ABC company in one state where you reside and a property in another state where you vacation. ABC company sells insurance in both states. Your agent in your home state has your Home insurance but because he is only licensed to sell insurance in your home state he cannot write a policy for your vacation property in another state. So, your agent could simply call another licensed agent representing the same company in the state where your vacation property is and ask them to write a secondary or seasonal residence policy for that state for you. KEEP IN MIND THAT NOT ALL INSURANCE COMPANIES WILL ALLOW THIS.

Now, back to your particular situation. An option you may consider if you want the cabin and the property insured would be to get utilities to the cabin and get it qualified as a seasonal or secondary residence. Depending on the cost to do this, it may be cheaper just to pay the pricey cost of a specialty market insurance carriers premises liability policy. A premises liability policy may be your best option if you are not concerned with protecting the cabin, just your exposure of liability associated with owning the property.

Things to keep in mind are that every State regulates that particular states insurance guidelines. One States regulations are often times very different from another even though your major players in the industry can sell their product in multiple states. The way they do this is to write the policy language and coverages to adhere to that particular States regulations. Insurance companies look at a variety of things when deciding what risks they want to insure. A vacant property with no buildings may be more appealing to one carrier versus a property with land, a cabin, and a pond. If you think about it, a property with the woods, cabin, and a pond with noone living there is just an invitation to someone coming in uninvited especially if the owner lives in another state and noone is around therefore increasing the risk of someone getting injured and suing the property owner for their injuries. That means there is a high probability for the insurance carrier to lose money.

The good news is that almost every insurance company out there targets a specific market of clients. What certain companies don't want, there is almost always a company out there that will write the risks. In your situation, this would be more of a specialized market since it falls outside of the normal risks that your big guys like Allstate or Nationwide etc would typically target.

I know that's probably not what you were hoping to hear but I hope this helps you understand a little more about how they approach this and gives you a little knowledge about it. All is not lost though, keep looking around and check into the links below. These are just a couple of several companies out there that target these types of risks. A couple of the links may not apply for your needs but they may have options or suggestions for you to check out.

My last piece of advice is talk to your Insurance Agent and keep them informed of what you intend to do when buying properties like this or building ponds. They often times can offer you really good advice that can help you. Not to mention, make sure you are properly protected and assist you in finding solutions for your needs. What good is an insurance policy if you find out down the road when you really need it that it doesn't cover you the way you thought it did? Sometimes a quick phone call to your agent is all it takes to get things done right.

Good luck with things and I hope this helps.

https://www.shellyins.com/vacant-land-insurance.php

http://www.oigcorp.com/

http://outdoorund.com/index.html

Update....... We called Farm Bureau and they didn't ask me the 9,000 questions that the others did. I believe they are more geared for country settings vs. urban. I don't believe USAA understood what I wanted the Liability coverage for. They wanted me to raise the insurance on my 4 autos to the max and then cover us. In a country setting, you need dogs that will not only protect you from 2 legged critters, but 4 legged critters too! We have a Black Panther running loose, coyotes, badgers, and bobcats. My two Pits shadow me when I'm walking our 40 acres and I wouldn't have it any other way.

As far as my dogs goes there is a lot of misinformation and flat out lies being spread by the Liberal media. Hope this helps.......
http://thetruthaboutpitbulls.com/

Any photos of the black panther? I love black panther sitings in the USA!

My experience with pit bulls is they are some of the sweetest friendly dogs you could ever meet if they're raised that way. If they're treated poorly, they can then become some of the meanest nastiest dogs ever. With the jaw power they have, their bite isn't anything to mess with!

I'll send you photos when I shoot the thing. I haven't seen it personally, but I have seen some big cat tracks around my pond. What bothers me is how did it get here? Black Panthers/Jaguars are not indigence to this area......