Insurance co, wont underwrite Zinsco but will FPE?

[tortuga]

A local business here has about 8 panels, among them are FPE (Federal Pacific) and Zinsco the insurance Insurance co, wont underwrite the Zinsco but will FPE.

Seemed odd to me and I don't want to do a bunch of work and have the insurance come back and say 'oh yeah FPE also' so I spoke with their agent directly and asked them to email their underwriter and clearly ask are FPE, "Federal pacific", "Stab Loc", "Federal, pioneer" etc acceptable?.
The written response they said yup fine to keep those, just replace the Zinsco, their data only shows a problem with Zinsco,
there are no more issues with FPE panels than other panels of the same age.
Does anyone know anything about this testing that has happened or this new data that they have?
I got all they are going to give me from the insurance co.

 

[letgomywago]

A local business here has about 8 panels, among them are FPE (Federal Pacific) and Zinsco the insurance Insurance co, wont underwrite the Zinsco but will FPE.

Seemed odd to me and I don't want to do a bunch of work and have the insurance come back and say 'oh yeah FPE also' so I spoke with their agent directly and asked them to email their underwriter and clearly ask are FPE, "Federal pacific", "Stab Loc", "Federal, pioneer" etc acceptable?.
The written response they said yup fine to keep those, just replace the Zinsco, their data only shows a problem with Zinsco,
there are no more issues with FPE panels than other panels of the same age.
Does anyone know anything about this testing that has happened or this new data that they have?
I got all they are going to give me from the insurance co.

They might have more claims locally for zinsco. If 30% of 60-80 houses and business have zinsco and 5% FPE for the same era then it'll look more like zinsco is the problem.

 

[brycenesbitt]

They might have more claims locally for zinsco. If 30% of 60-80 houses and business have zinsco and 5% FPE for the same era then it'll look more like zinsco is the problem.

Last I looked at the national fire incident reporting form... it was not even collecting the data on the panel or breaker vendor.
Risk analysis is hard unless you know the percentages of installed base.

 

[letgomywago]

Last I looked at the national fire incident reporting form... it was not even collecting the data on the panel or breaker vendor.
Risk analysis is hard unless you know the percentages of installed base.

Do the insurance companies somehow collect their data separately by looking at initial underwriting data?

 

[brycenesbitt]

Do the insurance companies somehow collect their data separately by looking at initial underwriting data?

The insurance companies have CLAIM data. So they likely are looking at both the fire reporting system, their own claims,
and whatever they share between insurance companies through industry associations. And spitballing. Don't forget that part.