60 T-Bird wrecked in Seattle area police pursuit

[JBOYLE]

During a high speed police chase, a Grand Prix left the road and landed on an garage and a 1960 T-Bird.
The owner doesn't know how badly damaged it it, but he hopes the car (which has been in his family since 1968) is repairable.
The topper...he doesn't have insurance on it and hopes his homeowners policy will pay.

http://www.krem.com/news/northwest-news/155390175.html

[BobPalma]

Geeze, you could get basic collector-car coverage on that Thunderbird for maybe $100 a year. No excuse for not having it if the car has any "value" to him at all. BP

[Warren Webb]

Most homeowners insurance will cover the contents of the car but not the car itself.

[Dads Baby]

I have been told that if the car is off the ground, (on blocks, jack stands) the home owners insurance will pay. If it is sitting on the ground, the car's insurance is liable.

[Bob Andrews]

At least around here, the insurance of the car that crashed in will cover any and all damages, including the Bird, even if the car was stolen. If there is none, then homeowner's kicks in and will cover all.

[parts2]

If the Grand Prix was stolen..or in commission of a crime..there maybe no coverage.
If there was..and in the crime $5,000,000 in damages to property and liability,
You have $100,000 coverage. Your company then pays the $100,000 and YOU pay the rest.
So Criminal acts and Auto theft are two very normal exclusions.
Read your policy.

Is the car covered under Homeowners ?
To illustrate lets use a more extreme example..
If Homeowners coverage extends to cars..then what's the limit?
IE..A $150,000 home with a family heirloom Gullwing in garage. The garage burns..do you really expect your homeowners policy to repair or replace the GullWing ?
Do you want your homeowners insurance priced so that a loss like this is paid ? How would an insurance company have any idea how to underwrite the risk ?
All policies would have to take into account what MIGHT be parked in the garage ??
Homeowners insurance would be impossible to price and exorbitant to buy.


What If the owner had a Picasso..would you think a $12 million dollar painting is covered in a home of $300,000 ?

Look at your policy.
Homeowner's coverage cost is a function of replacement of your items in your home and repair of the home to a stated dollar amount of coverage. It is not an open ended amount based on what COULD be parked in a garage unknown to the insurance company.

Motor vehicles are covered by Vehicle Insurance. In some state parts are covered as personal property, but anything that usually requires insurance (Large boats, RVs, ATVs, Motorcycles, etc) should have it or you risk it's loss without compensation.

Comprehensive and or Collision coverage for a stored vehicle is extremely inexpensive..and the owner was foolish to risk the T-Bird.
Even if the garage burned..the owner may have saved $100 a year..at the risk of the car..

If you care for it..or want it covered..do so. If not you take all the risk for the loss..

[BobPalma]

Yep. What Ken said in Post #6.

'Just checked: Excellent coverage with Haggerty for my seven collector cars with all manner of riders and "ups": $618 per year, total. Less than $90 per year, per car.

'No excuse to have not had the Thunderbird insured as a collector car and not be worrying about the current situation. BP

[Bob Andrews]

I agree with Jim's example, but it's extreme. Here in New York, the minimum insurance policy you can get is $50,000 property damage. That T-Bird looks to be an restored car, probably valued at $5000 tops, then the garage repair maybe $10,000- so the total would be while under the $50,000 limit. So the car policy would hey, then negotiate with the homeowners policy to try to recoup some.

Definitely, it makes no sense to not have a collectors car policy on an old car. I'm just saying in this case, that car will be paid for, provided there's insurance on the Grand Prix; which there likely is.