Insurance for Record Collection /Hifi

[Eightiesguy]

<snip>
John Lewis do have a single item limit of £3000,
<snip>

... for high value items only, HiFi is not classed as High Value.

The proposal we have has £40,000 for unspecified valuables , it says items such as stamps, coins, antiques, medals etc, I will check with JL but it would cover my vinyl. Entertainment systems are listed under separate parts of the policy.

[Eightiesguy]

I have sought clarity from John Lewis, we are looking at their Premier Policy this is what is defined as valuables and have specific limits.

Home Insurance from John Lewis Finance defines the following as 'valuables':

Jewellery (including costume jewellery)
Paintings and other works of art
Coins and medals
Cameras (including video cameras, camcorders and digital cameras)
Binoculars
Watches
Articles of or containing gold, silver or other precious metals
Collections (including stamps)
Furs

John Lewis have confirmed Record/Music collections come under general contents along with HIFI, in the case of the policy we are looking at the value is unlimited , seems pretty clear now. John Lewis are underwritten by Royal Sun Alliance.

[evil_C]

I have sought clarity from John Lewis, we are looking at their Premier Policy this is what is defined as valuables and have specific limits.

Home Insurance from John Lewis Finance defines the following as 'valuables':

Jewellery (including costume jewellery)
Paintings and other works of art
Coins and medals
Cameras (including video cameras, camcorders and digital cameras)
Binoculars
Watches
Articles of or containing gold, silver or other precious metals
Collections (including stamps)
Furs

John Lewis have confirmed Record/Music collections come under general contents along with HIFI, in the case of the policy we are looking at the value is unlimited , seems pretty clear now. John Lewis are underwritten by Royal Sun Alliance.

Interestingly you could own Naim Audio Statement amplifiers, together costing more than £170k and John Lewis Insurance wouldn’t consider them ‘valuable’!

[Mr Onion]

I guess the thinking is that they are not easily 'convertible' whereas gold et al is.

Just had my John Lewis renewal through. Full unlimited cover for buildings and contents including accidental damage, garden cover, public liability etc etc Price hike of just £17 for the year.

I am not even bothering to look around as previously I haven't found anyone else who comes near the cover at a decent price.

[Eightiesguy]

I guess the thinking is that they are not easily 'convertible' whereas gold et al is.

Just had my John Lewis renewal through. Full unlimited cover for buildings and contents including accidental damage, garden cover, public liability etc etc Price hike of just £17 for the year.

I am not even bothering to look around as previously I haven't found anyone else who comes near the cover at a decent price.

Agree James its a very comprehensive policy, that was one of the most attractive parts to Mrs J.

Mind you John Lewis can do no wrong in Mrs J's world

[Wenge1]

I guess the thinking is that they are not easily 'convertible' whereas gold et al is.

That's exactly how they do it. Convertibility is the most important factor followed by ease, of which portability is the main factor followed by time taken to remove an item from a premises or a dwelling. The convertibility of stolen HiFi into cash is very low and is just not worth the effort to remove and then try and flog on as compaired to smaller items eg. jewelry, laptops, phones, tablets, cash etc.

The main 'threat' of a large claim for something like HiFi would be fire / flood which thankfully are still quite low unless you live on a river or near one or on a flood plain. Places like this have seen noticeable hikes in insurance premiums. There is also the fact that the number of people in insurance 'population' that have expensive HiFi components is very very low. Most people listen to music via phones / smart speakers or the like these days.

[MHmusic]

Will take a look at john Lewis policy myself but we have just renewed.

We have had a Hiscox unlimited buildings and contents policy which hasn't been cheap but it was actually cheaper than what we had paid before. The attraction was not having to be 100% accurate on the items as much as anything (I am a lazy *it) and the thought that we should be covered for anything now.

Can't remember if I posted on here before (probably did because I was fuming) but we discovered that following some seriously heavy winds in the late autumn 2019, we noticed a couple of minor things and to cut story short our roof was tipping and threatening to take the gable end wall with it into the drive. Throughout the discovery process everyone said don't worry you will be able to claim on your house insurance.

The verdict was that we needed to remove the whole roof and partially dismantle both gables before rebuilding it. To do that the suggestion being to put a huge tent up over the whole house (looking a bit like the stages at Glastonbury with a house under it). The tent alone was over £20k. Thank God for Insurance we thought. We were oh so wrong.

They sent a surveyor and then advised us we wouldn't be covered because it wasn't an event and the roof must be falling down to poor construction, materials or design and then they proudly pointed out the term in the insurance that precluded their liability. It got worse from there onwards and without detailing it we have lost a lot of cash but gained a new roof and the poshest storage area in the street (we had to put girders in and ended up with usable space despite that not being the objective. I don't mean to appear to be blase about it but it's cash we were lucky enough to have had set by for a big emergency/problem, no one died and we are all healthy-ish and we are 6 mths on from the finish. What state we would ahve been in if we hadn't got that emergency stash or if it hadn't been sufficient, I don't know (both retired). We have also tried hard to just leave it behind us rather than fester on it and let it ruin our lives and TBH COVID and my sister in law's recent heart failure/op puts things into perspective for us too.

Anyway - a lot of info - but I post this a sober warning not for sympathy. If you check the policy terms you will see that line in there I am sure as I have since been told they all have it now. We had a survey on our house when we bought it 20 years or more ago, the recommended work was undertaken and so on but it meant nothing apparently. The original builder died last month anyway but his business had ling since closed. We appealed but nothing.

You could ask why one earth are we still with Hiscox? Well in part because I now think the other insurers operate the same way (for those that know the industry it's horizontally sliced not vertical. Moving risked awkward conversations re failed claims (in my mind - probably not a real issue) and I didn't want a massive premium and no better cover so we have stuck with them for another year. The irony was when I got the renewal on slighlty different terms due to our hifi and increased substantially due to them having to pay out on so many claims ....... I went ballistic at the guy on the phone when he rang to tell me that - doh!

Anyway - long story - too long but the point is that term exists and is one to be wary of. I don't really know what the answer is. Prayer mat maybe?

[Scooter]

Will take a look at john Lewis policy myself but we have just renewed.

We have had a Hiscox unlimited buildings and contents policy which hasn't been cheap but it was actually cheaper than what we had paid before. The attraction was not having to be 100% accurate on the items as much as anything (I am a lazy *it) and the thought that we should be covered for anything now.

Can't remember if I posted on here before (probably did because I was fuming) but we discovered that following some seriously heavy winds in the late autumn 2019, we noticed a couple of minor things and to cut story short our roof was tipping and threatening to take the gable end wall with it into the drive. Throughout the discovery process everyone said don't worry you will be able to claim on your house insurance.

The verdict was that we needed to remove the whole roof and partially dismantle both gables before rebuilding it. To do that the suggestion being to put a huge tent up over the whole house (looking a bit like the stages at Glastonbury with a house under it). The tent alone was over £20k. Thank God for Insurance we thought. We were oh so wrong.

They sent a surveyor and then advised us we wouldn't be covered because it wasn't an event and the roof must be falling down to poor construction, materials or design and then they proudly pointed out the term in the insurance that precluded their liability. It got worse from there onwards and without detailing it we have lost a lot of cash but gained a new roof and the poshest storage area in the street (we had to put girders in and ended up with usable space despite that not being the objective. I don't mean to appear to be blase about it but it's cash we were lucky enough to have had set by for a big emergency/problem, no one died and we are all healthy-ish and we are 6 mths on from the finish. What state we would ahve been in if we hadn't got that emergency stash or if it hadn't been sufficient, I don't know (both retired). We have also tried hard to just leave it behind us rather than fester on it and let it ruin our lives and TBH COVID and my sister in law's recent heart failure/op puts things into perspective for us too.

Anyway - a lot of info - but I post this a sober warning not for sympathy. If you check the policy terms you will see that line in there I am sure as I have since been told they all have it now. We had a survey on our house when we bought it 20 years or more ago, the recommended work was undertaken and so on but it meant nothing apparently. The original builder died last month anyway but his business had ling since closed. We appealed but nothing.

You could ask why one earth are we still with Hiscox? Well in part because I now think the other insurers operate the same way (for those that know the industry it's horizontally sliced not vertical. Moving risked awkward conversations re failed claims (in my mind - probably not a real issue) and I didn't want a massive premium and no better cover so we have stuck with them for another year. The irony was when I got the renewal on slighlty different terms due to our hifi and increased substantially due to them having to pay out on so many claims ....... I went ballistic at the guy on the phone when he rang to tell me that - doh!

Anyway - long story - too long but the point is that term exists and is one to be wary of. I don't really know what the answer is. Prayer mat maybe?

That sounds like a lot of stress, thankfully you've got through it. Never trusted insurance. We've only claimed once years ago when my wife lost a necklace when travelling home off holiday. Home insurance said to claim it off holiday insurance and vice versa. Annoying part it was the same company. The holiday insurance was like an extension of the home insurance but technically a separate policy. In the end the holiday insurance paid after a lot of going back and forth.