Are There Conditions Associated with Farm Insurance?

You might be aware that there are certain conditions you must meet when insuring your home or car. But does farm insurance come with conditions, too?

Yes. As with all insurance products, a farm insurance policy comes with certain conditions you need to adhere to as long as you want your cover to remain valid.

Most of these are common sense. For example, it’s common sense that you pay your premiums, otherwise you won’t be covered by your insurance. Others may be less obvious.

In this article, we’ll discuss:

• Do I need to read my policy document?
• What are the health and safety conditions of farm insurance?
• What are the other conditions of farm insurance?

These conditions are a binding contract between you and your insurer, and like with any other contract, you need to uphold your end of the bargain.

Do I need to read my policy document?

It’s not enough to assume you’re comfortable with all the conditions set out by your insurance provider. Make sure you read your policy thoroughly before you sign.

This will help you both spot potential issues that could delay or sabotage a claim made down the road. For example, if only you had been aware of something in your policy which affected an activity you were to undertake, you may have acted differently and thus wouldn’t have needed to claim.

When you get your policy document, always read it thoroughly before adding your signature, as you’re bound by the conditions of the policy as soon as you sign it. If you’re confused about the terminology or conditions laid out, ask your provider for clarification.

Better yet, give us a call. Here at QuoteMe our experts can translate even complex policies into plain language, so you can rest assured you have all the necessary cover in place without paying for cover you won’t use.

What are the health and safety conditions of farm insurance?

When you take out farm insurance, one of the conditions of doing so is that you not act in a reckless manner or endanger yourselves or others. Insurance will not protect you against negligence: it’s there to give you coverage in the case of unforeseen events, not as a license to let your guard down.

In particular, your farm insurance document will lay out the conditions of waste disposal and controlled burning on your property. These are common occurrences on farms, but some of the most dangerous. Many claims are made per year when fires rage out of control, and this is why it’s in the insurer’s interest to advise you to follow fire safety standards.

These will include:

• Never leaving a fire unattended
• All fires to be extinguished 60 minutes before leaving the area, and inspecting the ashes before you leave
• Not allowing smoke or dust to cause harm or annoyance to passers by or third parties
• Checking waste to make sure it doesn’t contain explosive substances or pressurised containers (such as aerosol cans)
• Adequate equipment to be kept near a fire at all times, such as an extinguisher, blanket, water and buckets of sand or soil

In the case of stubble burning, it is also imperative that you create breaks every three metres and always keep the fire away from fences, gates, hedges and other boundaries. You must only burn stubble when wind conditions won’t cause the fire to rapidly spread or drift smoke too far.

What are the other conditions of farm insurance?

Your farm insurance will also contain conditions that you may be used to seeing in other insurance documents. For instance, the section about alteration of risk.

This section sets out that if you change the level of risk too much, your insurance will not cover you. It’s fraud to purposefully conceal information or lie to your insurer to lower your premiums, and it never works out in your favour. Changing the risk includes a change of occupation on the property, when your farm is wound up or discontinued, where the risk of loss, damage, accident or liability is increased, and of course if the policy is removed.

You must also never act in a fraudulent way. Not only does this include lying about the material effects on your farm, but also making false claims about damage or loss, claiming for damage you inflicted yourself in order to get insurance money, and supplying forged documents to your insurance provider.

If you have signed the policy and later decide that it’s not right for you, then you have fourteen days – a “cooling-off period” – to cancel without any penalty.

If you have any queries regarding your farm insurance policy, call us today!

If you are confused about farm insurance or any of the cover options that are available, feel free to pick up the phone and give us a call today, and our farm insurance experts will help you understand the relevant options to protect yourself, employees, the public and your farm assets.