Home insurance and music

[Ordinaryman]

Last tuesday around 3am i discovered water dripping on to our landing, panic putting bowls everywere, isolate water etc etc. Cold water tank {plastic} had cracked, never known this before even after 30 years in the building game. So, large cupboard in landing stored some of my vinyl collection (40 years worth) couple of vintage amps, rogers,qaud, rotel and nad cd players. Fortunately during lockdown i had a major sort out, moving the bulk o my stuff into my back bedroom,thank god. The result, insurance company not prepared to pay for tank replacement(wear and tear) as for the vinyl and electronics they appear to think my origional invoices apply, which i supplied, trouble is you cant buy them new anymore and not even second hand at those prices. Still wating for loss asseser to come, next friday for building damage and structural repairs, carpets,ceilings,timber etc etc. So it seems we will have to endure another week of non flushing toilets, no hot water or heating (thank god its not cold) . Lesson learned, check your insurance i thought i had, make sure the things you believe are covered actually are

[Daniel Quinn]

1. How is a crack wear and tear? Check nothing fell on it.

2. What you paid for something is irrelevant to its insured value. It is what it costs to replace at current market value. I fail to see how what you paid at purchase is relevant.

[Ordinaryman]

1 my question. (pretty sure nothing fell on it) maybe extreme heat cooling etc in the last few months?
2 i tried to explain this, i have owned most of this stuff from new, possibly my mistake for supplying the receipts?
although the insurance is quite comprehensive and detailed the dispute seems as always
on value particularly the vinyl, over 30 first pressings including some BBC one off acetates, amps,cd etc. Don't get me going on the Mark rothko framed prints i have been collecting since the 60s.
will try to post some pics if i can.

[Daniel Quinn]

They have to give current value. You may not agree with the value, but its current value is a tenant of insurance law.

[Ordinaryman]

Thank you for taking time out to reply. I'm sure the insurance company will do what insurance companies do, regardless. Just hurts a bit as i know some of the stuff is just unavailable anymore. As they say shit happens. I would still urge everyone to go through there insurance policy, just in case they are making the assumption , as i did that every thing is ok

[karatestu]

Sorry to hear of this. Must be one of the reasons to get a combi boiler.

[Ordinaryman]

best choice you could make but stupid does as stupid is. My bad.

[Daniel Quinn]

You are not making sense. If I can't understand what the issue is, I doubt very much whether a loss adjuster will and you will end up perplexed and possibly out of pocket.

Also you warn others to check thier policies, but what are they checking for?

[Ordinaryman]

Sorry for not making sense. Fitting of a combi boiler would meant no cold water tank and no leak "best choice you could make"
In my case i payed an extra premium for "emergency cover" including plumbing up to £500.00 i assumed this would go toward repairs because the insurance co see this as "wear and tear" this is not the case. They say it just covers call out to stop further damage ie isolate the tank, hence no cold taps, flushing wc.or hot water. Cold tap in kitchen only source of water. I based my "assumption" on my reading of the renewal schedule received, did not refer to the insurance policy booklet( no idea where that is) which contains many caveats "stupid is as stupid does" So would advise people check theirs to possibly stop any misinterpretation should the worse occur. For instance if i had claimed to have "damaged" the tank it would have been covered! although damages caused by leak are covered, with an excess due of course repairs to the source of leak are not. You are right about "perplexed and out of pocket" Hope this makes a bit more sense.

[NSNO2021]

Our house caught fire back in 2001, the insurance claim totalled £168,000. I very quickly became knowledgeable on domestic insurance. Here is an interesting example. You have £50k of contents insurance. A pipe in the loft bursts and causes £25k of contents damage. They send an assessor round to go over the claim. After a thorough review the assessor calculates the total value of your contents is £100k -- As a result you will actually get a maximum of £12.5 k towards your £25k of water damage as technically you had only insured 50% of your contents.
You really should review all insurance documents very carefully.