Hey DGC,
I was driving with my wife listening to the show, thinking that she is not listening to anything you guys are talking about, when all of a sudden Scotty said, ” Good luck getting home insurance with a home grow” or something to that extent. Well she may not know what VPD is or why I want to buy a 1000 dollar HLG, but man she heard that! I saw her ears perk up and her phone come out. After a couple of blocks of driving and her google fingers flying, she had found the worst possible horror stories of house fires that were not covered by home owners insurance etc, etc. and is asking me a lot of questions about what would happen if this and that were to happen. It looks like I have two options and I would really appreciate some advice on both if you have time!
The two options I am looking at are moving my grow to some sort of building I construct in the backyard, maybe a shed that is insulated or a cargo shipping container made to look nice on the outside since I live in Illinois. Have not really gotten to far on planning anything this just kind of rocked me and was not something I ever thought about before. I just got my medical card and its legal for Illinois residents to grow 5 plants so the last year has been a dream come true, but the plants cannot be in public view. Anyway….
My other option…
I am going to have to talk to a home insurance about my legal medical grow… but that just feels so very wrong to me after so many years of living in prohibition land. My wife one other grower and now you guys are the only ones that even know I am growing because of my loose lips sink ships philosophy… but now I have to figure out something. Just wanted to know if you guys had any experience with this issue, any advice on either how to approach my home insurance guy or what kind of building to look into putting in the back yard? Any advice would be appreciated.
My suspicion is that the insurance company is federally backed, which would supersede any claim of a legal grow. Similar to insurance companies and employees in legal states. The companies operate on a nationwide basis and while they do conform to state and local laws, a subject such as this would be relegated to federal law.
Many of the products these days are legit, major company products. These products undergo testing as any other consumer product would. So if you buy legit gear and don’t start splicing wires at home, you should be good. If anything, I wonder if a faulty light did cause a fire, if there would be consumer protections under which you could sue to recover. Then again, they may say it was used in an illegal act….
Short answer – listen to nike, just do it 🙂
Pretty sure they would have to argue you were knowingly doing something dangerous to deny a home insurance claim, and there’s nothing inherently dangerous about a properly setup grow. Even then they would probably be risking a lawsuit by denying a claim based on the presence of a grow alone.
If you have a personal sized grow that is compliant with state and local laws I wouldn’t worry about it. Make sure your wiring and electrical stuff is up to code and take steps to make sure everything is safe. If you’ve made a good faith effort to do everything safely, it should be pretty hard for them to deny a claim.
HAH – totally understand re: the wife. And totally understand that telling her “well the DGC forums told me it was OK” is probably not gonna assuage her concerns.
If you only grew peppers in that tent with the same equipment and it started a housefire would you be out of coverage? I’d ask that question of your insurance guy (“I’m thinking of growing some peppers in my garage with some LED lighting / heaters / whatever else you got going on equipment-wise . . . is this something I can do under my policy and stay covered?”), and have him point you to any relevant portion(s) of your policy. Then look at the relevant language and go from there.
I think that’s your best starting point.
Excellent approach Smoke Weed and Maintain! I know a few people who have started a micro green business in their laundry room. Completely plausible to grow that crop for local restaurants indoors and in that size of space.
Follow the laws of probability.