Photo by Erica Keeling
An article has been circulating in the Tiny House Community that just broke my heart (Thanks Kent!). Kim Langston was in the process of building her tiny house and was very near the end of the project, when the barn adjacent to her house caught fire. As a result, Kim’s tiny house was burned to the ground. Sadly, insurance is notoriously not helpful in these situations and she was uninsured. If any of you could spare the cost of a latte or more, she has a PayPal fundraiser underway to help her get started again.
This brought up a good topic! Insurance for Tiny Houses. This has been a controversial and mildly frustrating topic for many of us who live in small dwellings. Traditional house insurance will not cover a tiny house if it is not on a foundation. You also can run into complications because you do not own the property where the tiny house resides. It does not fall under classic RV insurance, as they are not an RV. It is also a rather expensive ‘trailer’. Sometimes there are issues because one lives in a tiny house full time, as it is a permanent dwelling. Not to mention whether or not it meets building regulations or codes.
My dear friend Caris has a converted bus that he was traveling around in full time and living in it. He recommended GMAC insurance, as they covered his bus. I am currently uninsured as I had not been able to find a provider. During the winter storm last winter I was a paranoid mess because I was worried that a tree was going to come down on The Fortune Cookie. I sent GMAC an e-mail regarding my tiny house to see if they offer coverage for such a structure. I am waiting on a reply, I will update you on any news on that front.
Kent from Tiny House Blog had mentioned that if no regular insurance companies offer insurance for tiny structures, that maybe we should form a co-op. Which I thought was a smashing idea. The Tiny House movement meets a lot of resistance due to restrictions and regulations about what constitutes a house. We really do need to find a way to make it work if we expect the movement to grow. Do any of you know any insurance companies that might cover a tiny house?
~Kera
I am thinking the insurance coop idea might be a really sound idea for all. It wouldn’t take but 50 or more tiny house owners to quickly build reserves to allow a mishap to be covered. But the more, the better. We’d need to establish the math to make it sustainable… and a system to deal with any fraud or legal troubles (though the tiny house community is, i feel, far more community-oriented, and should have less problems like that.)
I’d be thrilled to help develop the math, but to do so, I’d probably need someone with statistics knowledge to be included as well.
My question is, could it be set up as a non-profit? We’d need some trustworthy treasurers, as they could be handling quite a bit of moolah at some point. But there are plenty of cooperative structures to use as examples.
After this, maybe we can solve the problem of getting loans for Tiny Houses!
Can we set up a single online discussion for this topic? But one that isn’t bloggy, because I could see it getting a rash of political doomsaying. It does tap on the door of a serious financial glitch in this culture.
I stared a discussion over at Tiny House Forum where a discussion can be had. I feel this is really an important thing to cover. None of us want to lose our homes in the face of disaster.
I don’t own a tiny home, I just bought a house 18mos ago with a 30yr mort. but that’s another story. I’m real curious about this tiny house concept and its something I know I could live in one.
Enough about me, back to the subject you could start the dialogue on twitter with a hash tag like #TinyIns and it would prevent the bloggy responses that might take over a conversation like this.
I’m a firm believer in Credit Unions if you do start a tiny house Insurance Co-op I would suggest to use a CU as a place to hold the $$. I’m sure there are enough mathematicians in the Tiny House movement to help out with your ideas. I would also suggest to follow a similar path of how a regular home owners insurance company come up with a replacement cost on houses and mirror that but just adjust specifically to tiny homes.
Fraud would be a huge obstacle so I would suggest to really do a thorough due diligence on that matter.
I wish you all good luck on the matter and if I come across any info that might help I’ll be sure to pass it on. Don’t wait for Gov to make a move they will never just do it from the grass roots but be sure to cover all the bases.
Cheers,
David