General consensus of the masses sought!!
Do you have a beefed up, premium house/contents insurance to protect your system??? Or is a separate specialist hifi policy the way to go???
Depends where you live. John Lewis are good for me, though Iāve never had to claimā¦
Iāve heard good things about them. So far I have never had to claim on my house insurance, and I know that god forbid if some low lifes got in and made it past my German Shepherd, a bunch of black boxes with green logos would mean nothing to them. But in the event of a fire then by the book only my HiCap would be replaced new for oldā¦
I have used Hiscox for many a year covering my Hi-Fi kit, LPs and selected artwork along with house and general contents. Very efficient and understanding but I have never had a claim.
They are beginning to be expensive so I may well check elsewhere at renewal time.
Richard
Most regular insurance policies have the option to specify any items above a certain value, and if you fail to list them, they will not be covered. I canāt see why a āspecialist hifi policyā would be required. Does such a thing exist?
Hiscox, same as above. And when my kit got a little fried by a lightning strike some years back payment for total repair was within four hours of me settling the final bill/s. A comforting experience.
Adding my bikes as high value items raised the premium considerably. My bass guitars, amps, cabs, and associated equipment are under a totally separate policy with a specialist insurer at a very favourable rateā¦ Such hifi policies do exist, but I havenāt delved deep enough to do a cost vs benefit comparison yet
Adding my Naim boxes to a regular home and contents policy only increased the price by about Ā£20, so I just stick with that.
Try looking for an āExecutive Homesā type of policy. Ours sent an agent round to assess our contents, advised us we were woefully under-insured (which we knew) and noted all items valued over 5k at new for old prices. Insurance is worldwide, out of home, new for old etc. and covers us for being careless fools. Our premiums went down and have stayed down ever since, despite adding more high value items.
My current policy covers my house for the contents value, and they have a very limited number of things which can be declared. In my house one piece of silver is all I can declare. So I keep a record and tell them verbally every year on my recorded conversation I have 3 expensive collections and the6 need to know that.
The wine, hifi/vinyl/CDs and glass doesnāt get itemised. I keep a spreadsheet with my āmore valuable than it looksā stuff for my will, which I keep on my home NAS and off-site backup. I also have photos of the hifi and glass, the glass I keep the certificates of authenticity and offsite copies, the hifi I have receipts for more modern purchases, the wine I have records, but given its ephemeral nature Iād expect more challenge.
At my price point wine is for drinking, not insuringā¦
Thank you so far for the input!!! My recent system upgrade has fortunately coincided with a policy renewal due - I know weāre only talking worst case scenario, but having an idea which avenue to try is very helpful
I renewed my insurance last week swapping from a local broker to LV.
The broker quote did not have enough total contents cover for all my Naim boxes and general contents and to go up to the next band would have quadrupled the premium cost.
When checking with LV they had no upper limit on individual audio items only stating that you had enough contents cover for all your items fortunately taking out there premium policy gave enough cover.
Itās LV Iām with, but I decided it was sensible to follow the approach above to be able to prove any claim given that the value of things like Naim systems and large LP/CD collections donāt sound ārealā without strong evidence.
In some ways it was easier with named items, but LV are cheaper.
A very wise procedure Eionk!! As I know from various otherās horror stories an underwriters value of a no longer available item vs itās true market value can vary wildly!!! Thereās probably a wreck of a CDS3 that once sold for Ā£250 that insurers now use as their reference pointā¦
Hiscox have always been good but always been expensive. I was with UIA but never had to claim. They also became expensive. Moved to LV and have been assured Iām covered.
Iām with M&S, but it gets ever more expensive.
BTW, for anyone using general home insurance and unaware, if your policy is not unlimited value, do make sure youāre not under-insured, covering replacement cost of everything in the house (and surprising how it adds up). If you suffer a loss, and they send in the loss-adjuster to have a look, then if they assess you were underinsured - say by 50% - then you will only get that proportion of anything claimed, even is only a fraction of the total insured value.
Just within the past couple months I added a personal articles policy to my insurance to cover the hifi separately (Iām in the U.S., BTW). It covers replacement cost, is not subject to my rather large homeowners policy deductible, and covers accidental loss (e.g. if I trash the cantilever on my expensive cartridge, or my dog puts her claws through my sub driver, etc). I am covered for $100K total and it costs me about $100 month. Maybe seems pricey to some, but for such an expensive system it gives me peace of mind.
We use Nationwide, who in turn use Sun Alliance. Itās a good policy with unlimited buildings and contents, accidental damage, new for old etc etc. The stereo is simply part of contents. This thread has got me thinking how Iād prove I have 3,500 albums on my nas.
I had to claim once and they were absolutely brilliant.
One tip Iād give to anyone - choose the legal protection option, which will cost about Ā£25. After my accident we used it to get compensation - without it weād have been in the hands of the no win, no fees outfits.
Similar experience as HH here.
Having researched quotes and T&Cās from several insurers (inc some of the āexecutiveā - type policies* or whatever they are named), I ended up with Aviva.
Needless to say the investment in time was material in ensuring like-4-like terms.