My current U.K. insurer has just declined to cover my HiFi. Under the terms of their policy, a sound system is treated as a “whole”. At present for my High Risk items, I need to declare items where the value is greater than £4,000 and the combined Hifi comfortably exceeds that! We have a number of nice watches which are disclosed items and are kept in a secure safe so I suspect that the aggregate of watches plus HiFi takes me over the insurer’s ceiling for High Risk items. At the moment, I don’t want to change insurers as the current premium seems very reasonable compared to costs that I have seen on previous threads on this site.
I have had a look at a some of the previous threads relating to insurance and I am unable to find a specialist insurer that will cover solely my HiFi.
Can anyone give me a recommendation or do I simply use a good broker? And if the latter, any good brokers out there?
Never had an issue. Used NFU mutual in the past and you just add high price items over £3,000 per item from memory. They would expect to see original receipt in the event of burglary but that’s it
When I upgraded to a 500 series system I had similar problems with my home insurance company, and others I had used previously, because the cost of the individual units exceeded their ‘maximum value’ for a single item. I eventually got total cover with Hiscox with the 500 series components being itemised on the policy. But……the annual premium is expensive, and has got more expensive every year since.
We have LV and I’m pretty sure they just treat hifi as contents. It will very likely be cheaper to get a new insurer than insure the hifi separately. Even if you have a pay more it’s better to be safe than sorry. Expensive stuff and expensive insurance pretty much go together.
Likewise, I use LV and the HiFi is incuded in the standard contents. I previously used Direct Line who had the same arrangements but their maximum total contents value was insufficient.
IME, careful with the comparison ‘sites, as while they might drive towards a cheaper premium, you have to load in lots of detail about your property, and once it’s there??
Suggest you explore Aviva who, I understand, have ‘unlimited contents’ as an option and, IME, they weren’t fussed with the kit value when it was explained. They are more focused on ‘valuables’ e.g. watches and akin, which are more easily stealable/prone to being lost.
Yes, it’s valuables outside of the home that are the issue. I don’t have a valuable hifi any more, but even when I had a 552 etc it was always just part of contents.
I found Hiscox a lot more expensive than LV, but I now use Aviva, which proved cheaper than LV for similar cover. But of course it all depends on personal circumstances especially location.
Yep, that’s the nature of conversation I had with the Aviva underwriter when I went with them e.g. they’d need a transit van and a trolley, plus the kit was pretty much worthless without the boxes. Of course, this is only one facet of risk.
I’d encourage people who can discuss insurance matters with humans nowadays to keep notes of the calls (even record them). My recent experiences suggest it’s all done via portals/engines etc,
I’ve been with Hiscox for my contents cover for over fifteen years. Yes, they are expensive but never had a problem with them covering my art, watches or hifi. I had a claim several years ago from a lightning strike, which was settled within days of submitting all the repair costs. I was very impressed.
Does anyone have experience of making a claim for stolen hi-fi (surely the true test of a good insurer)? I am always led to believe that thieves only take stuff they can easily sell (TV, jewelry, silverware, etc.) and have no concept of the value of separates. Also, would a thief want to carry a 50 kg speaker very far?!
Heavy and specialised hi-fi items are very unlikely to be a burglary target, but the risk of loss from fire or other damage is the issue.
There seems to be a significant variation in the way insurance companies view individual components. I did make a claim many years ago for damage and the loss adjuster agreed with my assertion that each item was a separate entity and therefore did not have to be included in the schedule of high value items. My current system would be a different matter I’m sure, but Id say it is definitely worth doing some research with several companies.
