Car Insurance Covers Chasing Wrecks?

[JohnHuntington]

Seeing three different chasers wrecking their cars in the last outbreak, I was wondering, are those people's cars covered by their insurance?

Seems to me insurance companies are always looking for an exclusion, and I was wondering if a chaser sells photos/videos would that be violate some commercial exclusion?

John
www.johnhuntington.photography

 

[STexan]

All I will say is that I had about $15,000 worth of trailer and mower and yard equipment stolen from a storage facility. I mainly used it for my house and to take care of my church's big yard (no compensation) The insurance company asked if I had ever used any of the equipment for revenue and I mentioned the fact that 1 -ONE- time I did do a large yard for a friend of a friend and charged like maybe $150 about 4 months prior .... my claim (home-owners) was denied only because of that. Ended up taking the non-recovered loss at tax time.

However, I have filed 2 different hail claims (happened while chasing) on 2 different vehicles and they paid no problem on a personal auto policy, and never asked anything about the circumstances but I always had a "bad luck/timing" story to tell anyone who asked.

 

[Dan Robinson]

If you do anything commercial with the vehicle, you need to have a rider on it. Even if you just drive somewhere to shoot photos for sale. Mine is about $30 extra a month over my normal premium. Note that this doesn't cover 'for hire' use, like you'd need if you were a taxi, delivery driver or driving your car for a storm chasing tour.

Same goes for equipment. An inland marine policy will cover cameras, lenses, computers, etc even if used commercially. A homeowners or renters policy won't!

 

[JohnHuntington]

Interesting, thanks!

John

 

[Marcus Diaz]

I bought my Fusion after a hail sale. I got about $8500 off the sticker, plus incentives for working at the dealership. In order to buy this car with the hail damage taken off, I had to accept the fact that I can never claim hail damage on my car. So I can't wait a few years for a hail storm to roll into town and claim it. My VIN# had been forever marked as hail damaged but denied repairs. Kinda sucks but I could probably sell it to a chaser!

 

[Dan Robinson]

Another note - every vehicle I've owned has ended up with hail dents. I never claim and repair that damage, so I take the hit on the trade-in when it's time for a new vehicle (in other words I bear the ultimate costs of the damage). I would think you could only claim chasing-related hail damage once or twice before your insurer would start raising eyebrows. In my opinion, hail dents are just one of the costs of chasing. They happen. As long as you bear the 'routine' costs of hail (dents and the occasional broken window) I'd think you'd never run into problems with insurance.

 

[Sean Ramsey]

I chase in older vehicles, and to me hail dents are kind of souvenirs. Like Dan, I'd never think about actually making a claim on them. Now, if a non-chase vehicle ended up getting damaged by hail then I definitely would.

 

[Todd Rector]

Another note - every vehicle I've owned has ended up with hail dents. I never claim and repair that damage, so I take the hit on the trade-in when it's time for a new vehicle (in other words I bear the ultimate costs of the damage). I would think you could only claim chasing-related hail damage once or twice before your insurer would start raising eyebrows. In my opinion, hail dents are just one of the costs of chasing. They happen. As long as you bear the 'routine' costs of hail (dents and the occasional broken window) I'd think you'd never run into problems with insurance.

Along those lines, insurance companies take it in stride when you live in a city where they had several dozen other damage claims from the same storm system, but it's a total red flag when you "just happen" to be in a hail storm more than once out in the country in another state. I agree - use an older, reliable vehicle and expect damage eventually where you will have to bear the cost yourself.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Oddly enough, me being a chaser has resulted in me actually *escaping* the worst hail damage. Case in point - on April 28, 2012 in St. Louis, I saw what was coming and got under a gas station canopy well ahead of time. I was one of the few people in the STL metro who *didn't* make an insurance claim that day (2nd worst hail event in US history in terms of insured losses). Every vehicle at my workplace and in the town I live in was heavily damaged by baseballs and softballs.

 

[John Hudson]

The worst hail damage I ever got was while I was visiting my brother in the Twin Cities last August. I left the car in Eden Prairie and my brother and I drove his car into Wisconsin so my nephew could attend a cross-country cycling event. While I was almost 200 miles from my car, a tornado warned storm passed over Eden Prairie and dropped golf ball hail on it.

Ironic, and sort of embarrassing at the same time.

John
VE4 JTH