Archive for October 11th, 2007
Resolved Question: What Drugs do Life Insurance companies test for?
Thursday, October 11th, 2007Open Question: Difficulty getting home owners insurance w/ wood furnace in garage?
Thursday, October 11th, 2007I'm purchasing a home that was built in 1979. The home has a wood/oil furnace in the garage that serves as the only heat for the home. This is not a wood stove, it's a wood furnace that has a chimney and is ducted through the ductwork. Because the wood furnace is in the garage, 2 of 4 insurance companies I've called will not write a policy on the home, one of the others isn't sure, and one says they see no problem if it's installed properly.
Can anyone tell me why a wood furnace in the garage is such a large deal? Where else would it go?
I'm going to ask the seller who his insurance company is, but I was just wondering why these policies are so hard to write? It seems like they'd just tack on a surcharge and write the thing.
I may have forgotten to mention that it's a combination wood/oil furnace. It starts up on oil and can run entirely on oil (diesel) or you can add wood to keep down on oil costs. If the wood runs out, the oil kicks back on, so that's how the house is heated when away. However, I've been searching and have found there are a fewtimes problems with the oil tanks that store the oil. Just contacted my agent and there's no problem w/ them, but 2 of the 4 will not write the policy. My worry is that I'll spontaneously get cancelled or have to put in a new furnace, which would have to be propane since I'm out in the sticks (probably 5 miles from a fire station, but definitely not within 1000 ft of a fire hydrant.
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Thursday, October 11th, 2007Open Question: Can a Personal Care Home Serve as Rep Payee for Social Security Recipients?
Thursday, October 11th, 2007I have a relative that lives in a personal care home.
The personal care home seems to serve as my relative's “rep payee.” My relative's income consists solely of Social Security benefits along with a bit of income from working in a “sheltered workshop.”
I am not aware of how the home sets the monthly fee that it charges my relative. It is possible that the home charges far more to people who have greater income/resources available.
My relative happens to use a lot of over the counter medications, which aren't covered by medicaid/medicare.
The relative doesn't fully trust that the home is handling her finances correctly. Sometimes, she will be told that she has run up a few hundred dollars worth of “bills” by purchasing so many over-the-counter medications.
The relative feels she makes progress at paying off her bills for over-the-counter medicines only to find out that she again owes a bunch of money.
I don't know the law, but the home may in essence be entitled to every single penny that the relative gets from Social Security and from the sheltered workshop, less a monthly allowance.
The bottom line seems to be that the relative seems fearful that she owes hundreds of dollars for over the counter medicines (it's interesting that a fewone deals with her as if she has a line-of-credit). She also seems disconserted that she works at the sheltered workshop but ends up owing almost off of her earnings (thought relatively small in size) to the home.