WARNING

[Space Bat]

Have a friend who has recently been burgled and they took his pride and joy...over 3K of road racing bike.

He believed it was covered on his house insurance.

Wrong....because he didn't disclose it as a special item..he was not covered to get a payout for the total cost of his bike - including all modded parts...CF bars etc.

I have been aware how awkward insurance companies can be - so when buying my scope informed insurance and had it covered under special items...and update if ever get new bits and bobs...etc

So if you haven't done similar with your house insurer - chances you are not covered...so check out if not sure.

[ChrisEdu]

Fortunately, M&S have quite a generous standard limit for single items and the policy is pretty good, too. They are one of the few companies, along with places like Hiscox, that will insure contents in the region of £100k+, as opposed to many companies who have upper limits circa £60-70k.

[malc-c]

Thanks for the heads up

I checked with my insurance company, and as one single item (scope, pc etc) didn't come to over £1500 individually I was covered, even with them being in an observatory. However, if the value of each item to replace was over £1500 then it needed to be listed, so in the case of your mates bike I can understand why. Most insurance companies pay out on shed thefts as most items like bikes, mowers, tools etc are typically just a few hundreds of pounds each. Having said that I think I'll list everything in the obsy, and what security measures I have in place and send a copy to my insurance company to be on the safe side

We store our son's moped (£2,400 when new last October) in a brick built shed at the end of the garden, and even with a padlocked door, security lights, bolted side gate and a 4 yr old German Shepard protecting the property his bike insurance company still insisted he uses his chain and padlock around the rear wheel otherwise they will never payout in a theft claim !

[nebogipfel]

Fortunately, M&S have quite a generous standard limit for single items and the policy is pretty good, too. They are one of the few companies, along with places like Hiscox, that will insure contents in the region of £100k+, as opposed to many companies who have upper limits circa £60-70k.

It is my understanding that the problem is with undisclosed high value items, whatever that may mean and is nothing to do with the total value of contents insured.

If you work on the basis that if insurance companies can get out of paying they will you will not go too far wrong

I think the advice from the Space Bat is ignored at your peril

[ChrisEdu]

Well, it is always worth checking what the limit for bikes is, as companies often have very different limits. Luckily, my bike is covered under the standard allowance.

[faulksy]

will check mine tommorrow never thought about it good call bat

[Stephen]

Agreed, always check the single item limit.

None of my kit goes above the limit, but my insulin pump (3K worth!) has to added as an additional item. Costs me about £4 extra a month to cover it.

[onlyme]

better to check than be sorry, thanks Space Bat for the reminder.

[TheThing]

Oh dear! The old 'insurance companies will wriggle out of paying' quote!

Sorry to be blunt, but the only people who say this are the people who don't read their policies and have no idea what they are covered for. The vast majority of people simply stick it in a drawer and never look at it until it's too late.

Have a quick Google search of all the UK trading insurance companies. You'll find that none of them are registered charities.

It's up to the policyholder to ensure they have adequate cover. If in doubt, ring your insurers. I've said it before and it's worth repeating - if your not happy with the reply, ask to speak to an underwriter, not just the call centre.

TheThing

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[AndyH]

Oh dear! The old 'insurance companies will wriggle out of paying' quote!

Sorry to be blunt, but the only people who say this are the people who don't read their policies and have no idea what they are covered for. The vast majority of people simply stick it in a drawer and never look at it until it's too late.

Have a quick Google search of all the UK trading insurance companies. You'll find that none of them are registered charities.

It's up to the policyholder to ensure they have adequate cover. If in doubt, ring your insurers. I've said it before and it's worth repeating - if your not happy with the reply, ask to speak to an underwriter, not just the call centre.

TheThing

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Totally agree with wot he said

Andy.

[kniclander]

this is one of those rare occasions when I disagree with the eminent the Thing - I had a recent issue over a mobile device that my insurer was refuisng to cover because they said it was a phone (pah!) - it was clear that they were wrong and I took them to the Financial Ombudmsan and was successful. much wriggling went on on their part but I had them well hooked - ha ha

[great_bear]

Sorry to be blunt, but the only people who say this are the people who don't read their policies and have no idea what they are covered for.

If that were true, then the business of Insurance Claims Negotiators wouldn't exist.

Insurance Claims Negotiators are (typically) ex-Insurance Company employees who know from first-hand experience that insurance companies do deliberately wriggle out of paying - even when they are legally obliged to do so.

If you have a payout refused or lowballed, an Insurance Claims Negotiator will take things up on your behalf, squeeze as much money out of the insurance company as possible, and take a percentage of the final payout.

I remember when there was a radio phone in on this subject, and supportive callers phoned in to say that Insurance Claim Negotiators had obtained large payouts when their insurance company had told them they were entitled to nothing.

[Bulkins]

For astronomers I suggest they are 100% clear on what is covered 'away from home'. Some insurance companies have different limits (regardless of any specified high value items) on what they will pay out when items are stolen from a vehicle and will only contemplate such a pay out when items are out of sight in the boot. Items left unattended at star parties or when observing in the field are never covered.

After much consideration I decided that the 'away from home' cover was so leaky that the best option was to invest in appropriate security rather than pay for expensive insurance add-ons. Having a clear understanding of the limitations of my insurance also lessens the likelihood of reckless behaviour on my part and therefore lessens the risk of a loss, i.e. I know when I'm not covered and behave accordingly, rather than simply assume that I'm always covered.

Sermon over

[malc-c]

As part of the research process when building my observatory I contacted my insurance company to see if it made any difference to my policy, and / or am I covered in the event of a fire or theft. Now this is where some confusion comes in. We have both contents and buildings insurance, and under this policy the observatory (and any outbuilding within our boundary) and its contents are covered under the building policy to a value of £75K with a single item limit of £2500. If we had just had contents insurance with them then there would be no cover as this only applies to items inside the house.

If in doubt do as others have suggested, contact your insurance companies and double check that in the event of a break in to your shed or any other outbuilding that you are covered. Normally calls are recorded and they are duty bound to log notes on your policy of your call so they can't then turn round as say you never informed them. Also, as others have suggested, let them know of any high value items over £2K or whatever the limit is on your policy.

[Spider]

If in doubt do as others have suggested, contact your insurance companies and double check that in the event of a break in to your shed or any other outbuilding that you are covered. Normally calls are recorded and they are duty bound to log notes on your policy of your call so they can't then turn round as say you never informed them. Also, as others have suggested, let them know of any high value items over £2K or whatever the limit is on your policy.

May I also suggest that you ask for confirmation in writing of any and all "adjusments" to your policy, as I had an occasion of "That employee was not authorised to make a particular adjustment to your policy" took nearly 6 months for them to pay out, solicitors advice was do not reley on verbal confirmations always get it in writing.

HTH colin

[PunkJay]

Time to call my insurance company methinks...

[Hypernova]

I have my two bikes covered under my mum's house insurance, they aren't covered as standard and I had to ring up to get them included. It is about £27 extra a year to insure them, they are worth £600 in total so not extremely expensive but I would be hard pressed to replace them in the event of them being written off or stolen, they are at least covered for away from from the home assuming they are locked (nice d-lock for that) and also RTAs should I ever be involved in one.

[TheThing]

Wrong! Oh so wrong.

Claim negotiators, actually loss assessors, generally deal with claims that are covered anyway, but will sell you the story about how they battled the insurance company and got you a big payout. A 'payout' you'd have got anyway if you'd bothered to read your policy and deal with your claim yourself. Oh, and they will charge a huge fee for the benefit which is not covered by your insurers. They are glorified ambulance chasers, experts in the art of self promotion. Only the gullible and ignorant believe/use them.

The use of the Financial Obudsman is a good example of how insurance companies are changing. Unfortunately, your policy can't keep pace with technological advancements in the computing/mobile industry. It's often a grey area. In addition, insurance companies are staffed by people. One person's interpretation of a policy wording might not be another's, especially when it comes to new or fairly new technology.

The insurance company will use the FOS to give a definitive ruling on the matter for the whole industry to adhere to.

As in all walks of life, it's easy to blame someone else for our own shortcomings and ignorance.

TheThing

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[kniclander]

Wrong! Oh so wrong.

Claim negotiators, actually loss assessors, generally deal with claims that are covered anyway, but will sell you the story about how they battled the insurance company and got you a big payout. A 'payout' you'd have got anyway if you'd bothered to read your policy and deal with your claim yourself. Oh, and they will charge a huge fee for the benefit which is not covered by your insurers. They are glorified ambulance chasers, experts in the art of self promotion. Only the gullible and ignorant believe/use them.

The use of the Financial Obudsman is a good example of how insurance companies are changing. Unfortunately, your policy can't keep pace with technological advancements in the computing/mobile industry. It's often a grey area. In addition, insurance companies are staffed by people. One person's interpretation of a policy wording might not be another's, especially when it comes to new or fairly new technology.

The insurance company will use the FOS to give a definitive ruling on the matter for the whole industry to adhere to.

As in all walks of life, it's easy to blame someone else for our own shortcomings and ignorance.

TheThing

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hang on there, the insurance company didn't use the FOS - I had to take the claim to the FOS myself .

it wasn't a question of "interpretation" - clearly the intention of the insurer was not to cover phones but the drafting of the policy was so poor that it patently failed to exclude anything that functioned as a phone as well as anything else. It wasn't "one person's" interpretation of a policy - it went to several levels of the insurer, all of whom stuck to the same nonsense before I took it to the FOS.

it was quite clear that there was a mis-match between what they intended to be covered and what actually was covered yet the villains at the insurance company stonewalled me until the sword of british justice prevailed. hurrah!

I could have drafted it properly for them in about three minutes, regardless of technology changing - the root of the problem actually is an obsession with "plain english" which makes it very hard to express anything precisely

btw even if there is a "grey area" in a contract it will be construed (by a court) "contra preferentum" the draftsman - ie against the insurer. but insurers don't see it like that. they'll get away with what they can (or at least they tried to in this case).

ps - don't know anything about loss assessors but what you say sounds right to me...