On Nov 22, 2:12 am, aemeijers wrote:
Rick Blaine wrote:
wrote:

I just bought a new insurance policy from a new company and when I
asked about the inspection, they said all they do is drive by and see
if there is really a house there. They never look at what is inside.

It's not about issuing a policy - almost any insurance company will do that
even without a driveby. They *like* collecting money.

The problem is when there's a fire or other major damage and you try to collect
from them. The first thing the adjuster will do is pull all the permits and
compare that to the evidence collected at the scene. Any discrepancy and the
insurance company is legally entitled to refuse the claim and potentially put
you into a fraud situation.

Chuckle. Depends on the area. Not every permitting authority is a major
urban area with electronic or microfiche copies going back 75 years.
Around here, I think they keep permit paperwork for five years, or until
the file cabinet gets full, whichever comes first. Hell, they barely
keep property transfer records. And when they converted those to a GIS
record system, they apparently burned the old plat books.

But having said that- if you don't know what you are doing, you should
definitely have a pro and/or an inspector involved.

aem sends...- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

To which I will add, from an eastern Canadian province;

The second owner of a home not far from here in a small municipality a
few miles outside the provincial capital city, a municipality with few
rules for after initial construction work, had a nasty fire a few
years ago.

The owners son showed me the damage which had started in vicinity of
the electrical circuit breaker panel.

Seemingly the insurance company was most unhappy with the way a
previous owner had 'finished' the basement area. The fire situation
being aggravated by lack of fire blocking in the added finish walls
and some over the added basement ceiling work that almost guaranteed
that the fire would have had a horizontal 'chimney' to accelerate it
and increase the damage it did.

The local fire department had some difficulty putting it out, smoke
damage was extensive to whole house. Also judging by the time it took
the owner to have the damage repaired and move back, in the insurance
company did not cover all (or any?) of the cost.

Maybe an idea to watch 'Holmes on Homes' on Canadian TV channels. That
is of course about 'horror story' construction but gives some idea of
what NOT TO do!