Yes. A wood stove does not rule a house out on its own. What it changes is the questions the insurer asks, the price it quotes, and in some cases whether it offers a policy at all. If you are buying a house with one, those questions are worth answering before you remove your contingencies, not after.
Why the stove matters to an insurer
State insurance regulators are open about it. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners' 2022 consumer guide to home insurance lists having a wood furnace or wood stove among the household characteristics that can affect what you pay, in the same list as a swimming pool or a home business. Maine's insurance regulator lists having a wood-burning appliance in its own consumer guide.
Neither guide says the stove will raise your premium by a set amount, or at all. They say it is one of the things an insurer weighs. How much it weighs depends on the carrier and the state.
What one insurer's filed rules say
Some insurers' underwriting rules are filed with state regulators and published. One insurer's new-business eligibility guidelines, filed with Maine's insurance regulator, give a concrete example of the conditions involved.
That filing lists as ineligible a home with a wood, coal or pellet stove used as alternate or supplemental heat, unless the stove was professionally installed or has been inspected and approved by the local fire department or building inspector. The same filing also lists as ineligible any home without a thermostatically controlled gas, oil or electric central heating system.
One filing is one insurer in one state, not a rule for the market. But it shows the kind of questions an insurer can ask: who installed the stove, was it inspected, and is it the only heat in the house.
If the stove is the only heat
A stove that supplements a furnace is one question. A house where the stove is the heating system is a harder one, because the filing above treats a missing central heating system as a problem on its own, separate from the stove. If the house you are looking at is heated only by wood, ask your carrier about that specifically, in writing, early.
Before you make an offer
- Ask the seller who installed the stove, and for any permit, inspection approval or installer's paperwork. Professional installation or a fire-department or building-inspector approval is the condition that filing turns on.
- Get a written answer from your own carrier, with the stove described accurately: the type, whether it is primary or supplemental heat, and who installed it. A quote given without the stove in it is not a quote for this house.
- Have the chimney looked at properly. NFPA 211, the national standard for chimneys, fireplaces and solid-fuel-burning appliances, calls for a Level 2 inspection when a property changes hands. It is an industry standard, not usually a legal requirement for closing, and it adds a video scan of the flue that a standard home inspection does not include. A Level 2 inspection runs about $250 – $600; book it with a CSIA-certified chimney sweep.
If you add a stove later
The Office of the Maine State Fire Marshal's stove installation standards, drawn from NFPA 211, make the same two points from the other side: check with the local fire department or building inspector before installing, and ask your insurance company about any restrictions it has on wood-burning appliances. Telling your insurer before the stove goes in means the policy is written for the house you actually have.
A free Before Regret report for the address lists the checks that matter for a home of its age and county, including the chimney, and the questions worth putting to the seller.