- This house was built 1986, approved beforehand and inspected afterwards as conforming to building code in all respects including the wood stove and steel chimney. We use it 100 to 120 days a year, have the chimney swept every 100 days (five times in four years); the local fire brigade has twice inspected, approved the stove and commended our operating methods.
- Property insurance companies have been apprehensive about fires caused by improperly operated wood stoves for about 10 years; for several years (in Canada) they have charged a premium of about 10 per cent for home owners who have a wood stove.
- My insurer (April) asked in May to send an inspector to check on the wood stove. He telephoned in June, inspected in July and wrote in August a report sent to the insurer in September, that says the stove does not conform to the current building code in two particular respects.
- Since then I have asked the insurance agent and the insurance company about six questions about topics from technical detail to policy. (E.g. 1: if we remove one inch all around the fire-resistant panel to improve airflow, as inthe current code, will this satisfy the insurer? E.g. 2: is the insurer asking us to retrofit to meet the current code for new construction, which city building and fire inspectors do _not_ do?) In three months one such question has been answered and none of the others.
We are being jerked around. My impression is (1) the insurance people do not actually know anything about wood stoves, and are relying on (2) the inspector with credentials in Wood Energy Technology Transfer, who has taken a three-day course in stoves and the (current) building code. The ingredient missing is that the insurance company has not yet said, in general, what its policy is or, in particular, what it would like us to do.
How common is this nowadays?