NO Charcoal Grills - Posted by Andy

Posted by Justin on June 22, 2006 at 13:21:47:

Your agent should have told you about this, and probably should have inspected the premises him/herself. I am a licensed insurance agent in Alabama and “wes” brings up a good point. Every insurance company, state, and local government will have their own rules regarding things like this. In most cases though if a loss was caused by an uncovered activity (grilling for example) the insurance company would simply not pay the claim. I’ve not heard of a company denying coverage to anyone because of this, but then again I’m only licensed in AL.

Something else you should consider is requiring tenants carry renter’s insurance. It’s inexpensive (avg. $40/mo for $35k contents $100K liability) and with bigger companies like mine it can give them a discout on their auto insurance as well. The benefit to the LL is that your insurance company may even give you a credit on your policy for requiring renter’s insurance, and if the tenant causes a loss such as fire through negligence their insurance pays the claim, not yours. Talk with your agent about this to be sure you understand what will and will not be covered and how subrogation works. Also be sure to check that it is legal to require tenants have insurance. Again, every state is different so do your homework.

NO Charcoal Grills - Posted by Andy

Posted by Andy on May 31, 2006 at 20:10:24:

I had a new insurance policy set up on my new apt. building with American Family. I had a guy call me yesterday from and independent company stating that he works with american family and need to see my property to make sure that there is nothing on the property that AmFam would not want to insure.

After inspecting the property, he told me that charcoal BBQ grills were not allowed under my AmFam policy and they would have to be removed. Gas grill is OK. I have heard of this before but wish my agent would have told me this. The inspector guy said that he works with about 75 insurance companies and they all have this same policy.

Is this common practice for everyones insurance company? Is there a way around this without searching for a new ins. company.

I would not be a happy tenant if my LL told me my grill that i’ve had for years had to go.

Re: NO Charcoal Grills - Posted by wes

Posted by wes on June 02, 2006 at 16:15:38:

Not only insurance companies, but sime city/county and state ordinances do not allow charcoal grills.

Although I do not live there, I heard the 2005 Ohio fire code bars charcoal grills from landings and patios of any apartment…