Tiny home FAQ with Martin Burlingame
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About Tiny Home Insurance
One of our interns sat with CEO Martin Burlingame to talk about the Tiny Home Insurance Program that he started with Lloyds of London.
You can request a quote HERE or learn more about other FAQs HERE.
IT ALL STARTED WITH THE TINY HOUSE JAMBOREE….
What are we insuring: We built our program to cover all 50 states. We can insure Tiny Homes on wheels, sleds, or stationary. We can also do container homes and some of the other cool Tiny movement dwellings. We’re fine with Self Built, Builder built, certified, RVIA approved or any of the previous ones. We CANNOT do School Bus conversions, houseboats or mobile homes in this program.
Who can be insured: We can insure you if the Tiny home is your primary home, secondary/vacation home, seasonal location (you visit for part of the year) , a business tiny or a rental (short and/or long term). We CANNOT insure you in our program if you are using the tiny for something different. For example if you use your tiny as a coffee shop we can insure you but not in our TINY HOME program.
How long have we been offering Insurance? – Almost three years now! Wow time is flying by.
How did we get involved with the tiny home movement? – I blame Darin Zaruba and the Jam 100%. He asked us to get involved and we fell in love.
Would I live/work in a tiny home? I’d love to have a tiny home office setup with a loft to take to different festivals. I saw an awesome model at the Jamboree last year that I really liked but I’ve never pulled the trigger.
How much does Insurance cost? – I’ve seen it as low as $400 a year to as high as $1400 a year. On average it is about 1-2% of the value of the tiny home. Depends on how you have tricked your tiny out. With some homes well north of $100k insurance can have a price tag with it.
What should you consider when building a tiny home? The only thing I tell everyone is to get a trailer built by a trailer company. My biggest nightmare is the trailer falling apart and it turns out you put it together!
What is the difference between regular home insurance and this program? It’s simple – regular home insurance never expected or planned for the home a) moving or b) getting stolen. If you live at 123 Main Street the insurance is for the home at 123 Main Street, and not for your home when it’s at the Jamboree in Texas or visiting family in Maine. Your regular insurance policy never expected the home to be portable so when it goes missing everyone will be scratching their head. Our program handles that.
Do you require certification?
Foremost writes them on a RV policy and requires either RVIA or NOAH certificate. We write them on a homeowner (dwelling 2) form and don’t require that paperwork. Pricing is the same nationally for us so you don’t get the up/down.
Does this include wind in a tier 1 county on the coast of Texas?
We do not offer wind in Tier 1 (actually within 50 miles of coast).
Do you offer a program that would provide for a commercial fleet of tiny houses on wheels?
Yes! Just request a tiny house schedule providing locations and values.
Click HERE to get a quote!
EXPLAIN INSURANCE FOR ME:
Coverage A – Dwelling – This is the value of your tiny home if it gets destroyed. We typically see ranges from 25,000 to 125,000 and sometimes larger tiny homes. If you buy it from a builder the price of purchase is usually the Coverage A limit. Add any solar panels you have mounted on the home to this value! This should include all the built in appliances.
Coverage B – Other Structures – You went primitive and have an outhouse, you built a deck for your tiny home to rest on, or you have an awesome barn on your property. Put it here. We can do up to $50,000.
Coverage C – Contents – Clothes, pots, pans, the 68” flat screen TV you mounted on the wall, the cool speakers you are hanging as art and your mattress.
Replacement Cost for Contents – You have a catastrophe. Do you want a new replacement couch or a garage sale couch? Need I say more?
Theft of Contents – We can offer up to $3,000 in theft coverage for your stuff.
Theft of Tiny Home – If you are worried about your tiny home getting stolen then you need this!
Trip Endorsement – You plan on driving around to all the festivals this year. You need to be covered on the road! Trip endorsement does it.
Liability – Raging party time on the roof deck of the tiny and it collapses! Yikes. Liability steps in to cover it. This protects you against lawsuits!!
Tiny Home Insurance Specialists at The Carrier:
Saaya Boling Underwriting Assistant and Martin Burlingame, CEO of Bigfoot
Read 10 things we want you to know about our Tiny Home markets as told by our Associate Underwriter Saaya Boling:
“Tiny homes are one of our most fun lines of business because it allows the owner to be as creative as they want. We can even insure them on their cross country travels.”
Questions? Email our Customer Success Team or check out our FAQs on Zendesk!
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