Wine Insurance Recommended

[winecollector]

Hey guys, sorry it's been so long since I've been around, life's been pretty crazy. Things are finally getting back to normal here. For those of you unaware, I had a house fire in early 2005 that... yes... cooked the wines in my cellar. The insurance company screwed me over BIGTIME on both reimbursing me for structural damage to the house as well as my contents, including my wine. When I originally applied for my home insurance, I was led to believe my wine was covered under my policy. Not so... at least not in full. I only received a flat $40 per bottle for all my wines... a mere fraction considering the accumulated value of my older 1st growth bordeaux as well as top end california cabernets.

Needless to say I've been having to do the majority of the repair work to the house myself since my insurance turned out to be junk. This past week I finally began work on renovating the wine cellar. Even though it's a monotonous job, scraping... scrubbing... painting... etc... I'm getting excited seeing the wine cellar take shape and starting to look good again. Bought some white granite tile for the floor tonight, and hoping to make the wine cellar my favorite room in the house once again very soon. Too bad I have to start from scratch on restocking the wine.

So for those of you with substancial cellars like I had, I suggest checking into your homeowners policies to see what sort of coverage you have. Better yet, just spend the extra money and insure the wine separately. Hopefully you will never have to make use of the insurance, but if you ever do, you'll be glad you had the wine properly insured.

[Bucko]

Who is your insurer?

[Innkeeper]

Sounds like good advice WC. The same goes for moving. We moved our wine ourselves with minimum damage even though it got quite warm in our daughter's cellar last summer.

Based on what we got for the other things the movers smashed, broke, lost, et al; we can only plead that you check out movers for their reputation on such things before you hire them.

[winoweenie]

What an absolute bummer WC. I'm very sorry. You've given good advice. I've had a separate policy based on " Fair Market Value " for many years I send an inventory every 90 days. Not nearly as expensive as the alternative. Hope the remodeling goes smoothly. WW

[winecollector]

Insurance company is some hole-in-the-wall place out of central pennsylvania here called Conemaugh Valley. Because I have an older house, I was unable to get insurance with a better company at that time. Now that everying's going to be pretty much new (electric, furnace, roof, windows, doors, etc) I should have no problem getting better coverage with a more reputable company once the renovations are complete.

Thanks for the well-wishes. Btw, the fire was caused by the electrical wiring shorting out in the basement.

[Thomas]

Those three words--fair market value--are the key.

[Bucko]

I specifically talked with my insurer, USAA. No problem with replacement value, with no special coverage required.

[TheEngineer]

Sorry to hear about that. Good luck with your reconstruction.