Theft update and an apology

Well when the OP reported he already had it sorted out I was pretty sure it was not CNA or Tokyo Marine insurance. A few will know what I might mean by that.

I realise insurance depends on a lot of things but my LV is only £88 and they insist this covers all home entertainment components, even when I tell them that the value of this is probably about 30% of the entire contents ... didn't even have to declare them - had to declare my guitars and they are only about £3k together - crazy.

This cost is for buildings and insurance with up to £1m for the house and £80k for contents.

Insurers just don't get that some of us have such expensive hifi so bundle it in as home entertainment with no maximum specified, so why not take advantage.

They were fine with replacing my Krystal cartridge after accidental damage earlier this year although I suppose the real test is what the renewal cost is

If mainstream insurers are going to offer this then I just don't get why I need to take out a specialist or more expensive policy that covers my gear explicitly - LV and my previous insurers have all been happy to cover it under that home entertainment banner.

Allaniare

The last few insurers I've used both had a £1500 per item limit, above which individual items have to be declared in order to get cover for them. This part of the application process only appears after you have had an initial quote based on total content value, and the price goes up a bit when you start adding high value items. It wouldn't be that difficult to miss this part of the quotation process if you were in a hurry, in which case the cover would not be valid.

Yes Chris, I've had the same but my last few insurers, not just LV, defined "valuables" as things like jewellery, paintings, collections, musical instruments. As I said, when explicitly challenged regarding the HiFi components they did not want to know - their response was that this was covered under entertainment, and with no limit - don't worry I checked a number of times

I make sure that, if on the phone, I note the date/time and I explicitly ask these questions and get the operator's response then, if it turns out that the T&Cs aactually do impose some restrictions then I can refer them back to their recording of our original call ... I did this successfully a couple of years ago when an operator had misinformed me (actually by omission) and got my (initially rejected) claim accepted (Post office insurance - worth a check, they can be very competitive).

Allan

I've been with LV for a number of years and this is the same response that I've received when queried about HiFi components. I just have to declare cycles, laptops and other valuables that will be taken out of the house. 

This year I moved from a company that insisted I declare everything over £1,500 to Direct Line who only want to know about what they define as valuables which seems to be limited to jewellery or works of art worth more than £4,000. I also phoned to check about the system and got the same response, that audio systems did not need to be declared. The cover was unlimited buildings and £100K contents and £140 cheaper than my last provider.

Peter 

Being in the states I know it is not as much interest to many on the forum, but even though my homeowners policy would cover my guitars, it has so many limitations (e.g., offsite coverage is almost non-existent) and they are so unfamiliar with the entire instrument scene that I have a special policy with a company named Clarion out of NYC; covering musical instruments is what they do.

However, reading this forum makes me want to touch base with my insurer to ask about my Naim gear, since I have "replacement cost coverage" and I am sure they are not used to systems that have components in the price range of Naim gear...even at my level, let alone the 300/500 tier.

I thought Fortune favoured the brave, and there is a Fortune insurance company. I have no idea if they are any good though.

Hiscox are becoming more and more expensive, they ought to have some sort of sliding scale on the excess levied, makes it almost pointless to claim on certain items.

Check carefully with LV. At the quote stage they were very clear they couldn't cover a 500 system.

How ironic that the only people who have let me down in all of this process have been Naim with the delivery of my kit. 2 deceivery dates missed now... 

Oops... Third time lucky - hopefully!

Keeping my fingers crossed.

I love the term deceivery dates  

Dates such as those were never going to be met.

I also use Hiscox for my household insurance, for two main reasons:

1. The lack of a per item limit which would impact my system
2. The lack of a 'collection' clause for CD's and albums

Steve

I am opting for home insurance soon, however, will a policy cover all the music i have on my NAS from ripped CD's? I will find out when i enquire tomorrow. However, a lot of the ripped music comes from my local library. If/When I start to download hires files i guess that will change!

I'm not sure you can insure stolen goods. 

djh1697 posted:

I am opting for home insurance soon, however, will a policy cover all the music i have on my NAS from ripped CD's? I will find out when i enquire tomorrow. However, a lot of the ripped music comes from my local library. If/When I start to download hires files i guess that will change!

Not wanting to drag this off topic but as HH has alluded to, you / we are not allowed to rip store and save music from for example a public library, it is unlawful. Currently its moot whether or not we can even rip/store and save music from our own CDs and media that we have purchased and that remain in our own possession! If you wish to stay on the right side of this *legality* you might do well to consider deleting all and any music that you have unlawfully ripped from the public library. 

djh1697 posted:

I am opting for home insurance soon, however, will a policy cover all the music i have on my NAS from ripped CD's? I will find out when i enquire tomorrow. However, a lot of the ripped music comes from my local library. If/When I start to download hires files i guess that will change!

Several of the insurers I looked out specifically mentioned doenloaded music, videos and software, with limits. All said something to the effect of legitimately downloaded, and I guess might require proof of some sort.