My story:
We rent in MA, but own property (17 acres, house, barn, garage) in NH (our only property). The mortgage is paid off and we are there nearly every other weekend and holidays. We keep it heated and use it year round. It is a 100+ year old farmhouse and has seen better days, but we like it.
After over 15 years with never a claim, our insurance company will not renew because they came out and did an inspection (without our knowledge) and don't like the fact that the paint on the house is peeling and we haven't done something about it.
Checking with other insurance companies locally, it seems everyone won't insure us due to the paint issues. We have one quote for a 40% increase over what we had and it excludes collapse, weight of ice and snow, ice damning, freeze-ups and theft. Anyone who is from the Mt Washington area knows that snow damage is a somewhat critical coverage.
So -- should we forget about house insurance all together and just get some sort of liability insurance? Pay for the insurance that doesn't really cover snow damage, but does cover fire (which is also a biggie)? What about just "Building" insurance? Evidently, there are a lot of places around us that aren't covered for the same kinds of reasons and we are exploring our options.
Thanks for any advice