Homeowners Insurance and Chickens!

[Lisa Walker]

Earlier this year, I switched my homeowners insurance from Progressive to Liberty Mutual because the rates were cheaper. Now Liberty Mutual is cancelling my policy because I have 7 Silkie chickens and 6 regular chickens. (I didn't mention the 5 Silkie chicks in my bathroom.) What the heck?! Only one of them even lays eggs. They're pets!

And now, when I try to go back to Progressive, they won't take me back because of the chickens. Another company I called for a quote won't even talk to me, because of the chickens! I just requested a quote from Farmers, and I'm hoping they'll insure me. (With a name like "Farmers", you'd think!)

Has anyone else had this problem? Who do you have insurance through? And what's the deal with not insuring people because they have chickens?

 

[mtngirl35]

The liability would be if you sold eggs to someone and they got sick. Shop around for a farm policy. It should cover your chickens and coop. I think Allstate and Farm Bureau carry these policies and I've heard the premiums are cheaper than regular homeowners. Good luck. I think insurance companies are foolish about things like that. I can't believe you got cancelled because you have chickens. I live in my boyfriend's house and after reading your post I gotta tell him to never mention my chickens to his insurance company. Thanks for the heads-up.

 

[enigma9o7]

I know this is old, but replying as I just had this happen to me, and searched to see if it happened to others and ran across this.

In my case, when being questioned by Liberty Mutual, they asked if we had any pets... I said no, other than chickens that don't come in the house. He asked how many, I said three. After completing the rest of the questions, he said they can't insure us because we have too many non-domesticated animals!@#!#!@? He said that's what his computer said, he didn't have any further explanation and said he would love to write me a policy but cannot do it if that's what his computer says, and he'd never had anyone else mention chickens so didn't know the exact number that was okay. I told him I was pretty sure chickens are considered domesticated (like one of the oldest domesticated animals aren't they?), and even if LM doesn't think that way, what is their limit, three doesn't seem to be a very big number, and it's not like we're selling eggs or anything - we're a family of four and eat them all. I mean the only other choices that might not be "too many", if three is too many, are one or two... The city I live in allows up to 6 hens if the coop isn't too close to anyones house (forgot the exact distance but it was something reasonable like 20'), so not breaking any rules or anything.

Curious if anyone else has LM and was asked about their pets, told them chickens, and they either did or didn't insure/renew you, and how many? Seems crazy. I ended up getting SafeCo (which happens to be owned by LM anyway?!?) but they didn't ask me about pets so it was a non-issue, just don't get the combined auto/home insurance discount I was hoping for. For that matter, curious if any other insurance companies ask/care about it or if it's just LM.

 

[Nemoi]

We've had a FARM POLICY with Chubb for years and we received a letter yesterday saying they were canceling our policy because we sell eggs! We only have about 20 chickens. My wife is heartbroken!

 

[Finnie]

interesting. I’ve never thought about this. I think I will go read the fine print of my insurance policy to see if they list any type of exclusions for this.