Insurance for Record Collection /Hifi

[Eightiesguy]

Hi Kabin folk, its house insurance renewal time , a good friend recently lost most of his house contents in a house fire, all ok fortunately.

Checking our insurance , the value if my records/hifi is starting to heavily impact the contents insurance.

Has anyone any recommendations on solutions, ie separate cover?

Many thanks indeed, Adrian

[Mr Onion]

John Lewis home insurance offers unlimited cover for the HiFi. I have been with them for years and have a great product at a great price, and more importantly give a great claims service. New Cartridge for the cost of the excess when I caught the stylus on my sleeve.

Records are a different matter as they generally come under recorded media so are always going to be expensive as an added option.

[Eightiesguy]

John Lewis home insurance offers unlimited cover for the HiFi. I have been with them for years and have a great product at a great price, and more importantly give a great claims service. New Cartridge for the cost of the excess when I caught the stylus on my sleeve.

Records are a different matter as they generally come under recorded media so are always going to be expensive as an added option.

Thanks James , stylus accidents are a big fear for all with expensive mc carts. :Been there

My better half is now tackling the JL site.

My records are worth @£40k , I do grade accurately ( with realistic gradings) on Discogs . Hiscox have quoted £170 pa for this value for reference..

I'll let you know how this develops.

[wiltshireman]

I am with the NFU and they are just amazing! Try them and do yourself a favour.

[Eightiesguy]

Thanks Wiltshireman

[evil_C]

Like James, we have our insurance through John Lewis. It is not cheap, but it offers new for old replacement, covers accidental damage and provides unlimited cover. Surprisingly, it does not consider stereo equipment to be valuables, at least they do not need to be itemised. Nor do they require lists of record collections, although you are encouraged to keep a record of it. For such purposes I keep an MS Excel spreadsheet with everything itemised. I guess I ought to take photographs occasionally too.

[Eightiesguy]

Like James, we have our insurance through John Lewis. It is not cheap, but it offers new for old replacement, covers accidental damage and provides unlimited cover. Surprisingly, it does not consider stereo equipment to be valuables, at least they do not need to be itemised. Nor do they require lists of record collections, although you are encouraged to keep a record of it. For such purposes I keep an MS Excel spreadsheet with everything itemised. I guess I ought to take photographs occasionally too.

Thanks, cataloging on Discogs is useful as it creates a dynamic value linked to market trends, it is also fun ( for me anyway) . It has the ability to download into excel.

John Lewis and also NFU are in the mix on insurance

[Eightiesguy]

John Lewis has come out on top, NFU unfortunately cannot be reached easily just now.

Thanks all for the tips and advice

[Lanark]

Like James, we have our insurance through John Lewis. It is not cheap, but it offers new for old replacement, covers accidental damage and provides unlimited cover. Surprisingly, it does not consider stereo equipment to be valuables, at least they do not need to be itemised. Nor do they require lists of record collections, although you are encouraged to keep a record of it. For such purposes I keep an MS Excel spreadsheet with everything itemised. I guess I ought to take photographs occasionally too.

John Lewis do have a single item limit of £3000, if as is quite likely they consider a collection of related items to be one "item" thats likely to be a max £3000 for the hifi and another £3000 for all the records. Any verbal assurances the sales people may give you are worth nothing if not in writing as part of the policy.
When making a claim you are often dealing with an entirely different outfit to the people selling the policy.
I know I'm vastly under-insured, but I don't see the point in buying additional insurance when it's often impossible to make a claim. To give an example if you have a damaged sofa, with Direct Line they will offer to replace it with anything you like with the one stipulation it has to be an equivalent size sofa from the range at Argos!

[Mr Onion]

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

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

[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.

[Mr Onion]

My home insurance is due for renewal this month so I checked all through the updated 'paperwork' as John Lewis have changed underwriters. There is now a blanket £15K single item limit, which obviously excludes a full loaded LP12*, and even my 'not quite there yet' exceeds the limit, so it was time to look around again.

Aviva will cover the HiFi fully no matter what the individual or overall value (confirmed by email) and for broadly the same cover are slightly cheaper than John Lewis' new underwriters. I am now with Aviva.


* I did ask, and even though the LP12 is a collection of separately available parts it is still classified as a single item

[evil_C]

My home insurance is due for renewal this month so I checked all through the updated 'paperwork' as John Lewis have changed underwriters. There is now a blanket £15K single item limit, which obviously excludes a full loaded LP12*, and even my 'not quite there yet' exceeds the limit, so it was time to look around again.

Aviva will cover the HiFi fully no matter what the individual or overall value (confirmed by email) and for broadly the same cover are slightly cheaper than John Lewis' new underwriters. I am now with Aviva.


* I did ask, and even though the LP12 is a collection of separately available parts it is still classified as a single item

Thank you Mr. O. That’s very useful to know as we are with John Lewis currently. Once 5hethe comes up for renewal I suspect we’ll be following you to Aviva.

[FangfossFlyer]

I use John Lewis’s Specialist Home Insurance, specifically listing and valuing my LP12, speakers, Naim amps and vinyl collection.

Richard

[evil_C]

This is also being discussed today in a green sort of place. I tried to refer those readers to read this discussion, but my post has been edited to remove reference to the Kabin.

My second post there also references the Kabin, referring in a loose kind of way to Richard’s post. That post hasn’t (yet) been edited.

[evil_C]

I use John Lewis’s Specialist Home Insurance, specifically listing and valuing my LP12, speakers, Naim amps and vinyl collection.

Richard

Hi Richard,

We’re just in the process of renewing house insurance, having been insured through John Lewis for many years. We have been told by John Lewis that they now have a single item limit of £20,000. We have been referred to their specialist insurance, which it seems is a company called Covea. Is this the one you are using or have you got something specific with JL?

Thanks,
Clive

[evil_C]

I use John Lewis’s Specialist Home Insurance, specifically listing and valuing my LP12, speakers, Naim amps and vinyl collection.

Richard

Hi Richard,

We’re just in the process of renewing house insurance, having been insured through John Lewis for many years. We have been told by John Lewis that they now have a single item limit of £20,000. We have been referred to their specialist insurance, which it seems is a company called Covea. Is this the one you are using or have you got something specific with JL?

Thanks,
Clive

We’ve just had the quotation come through

[evil_C]

Now on the phone to Aviva as suggested by Mr Onion. Fingers are crossed.