Workshop insurance

Some years ago a number of MEs suffered losses from fires which were not properly insured. In MEW299 the subject arises again and here are my thoughts and actions.

At that time I was insured with More Than (Royal and Sun Alliance) . They would not insure me for workshop but Walter Midgely would. Strange to recall that the insurer standing behind WM was/is RSA!

That annoyed me so I looked around and found a mainstream insurer who would cover home and workshop for a premium similar to the combined RSA sums, I went with them getting a discount related to my Professional Institution.

Following year has seen Premium creep as I would call it, last year they tried and this year succeeded in going too far, so lost the business on the Renewal basis..

Looking around I have found LV= Home Plus will insure me for Building and Contents including machinery, tools and models (additonal letter confirms the latter. N.B. Hobby/craft use, no commercail work).

Buildings - Unlimited rebuild costs, Contents - £150K, contents not required to be itemised. In all, similar cover to the that offered upon Renewal from my current insurer BUT I have saved over £600.

Now that will be helpful as my Buildings & Contents is up for renewal exactly one calendar month from today. And, what's more, I took out LV= motor insurance earlier this year as they were considerably cheaper than the previous insurer. Ok, Ok, I know, cheapest is not necessarily the best etc, but with a getting on for 8 years old car with 99K miles on it just how much insurance does one need?

Thanks for the heads up Kwil,

Peter G. Shaw

My home insurance is with LV and, although is covers outbuildings it does not mention hobby use.

I'll give them a call on Monday.

Many thanks for the info.

Brian

Last year my car insurance was due. Got renewal notice. Looked on line, same firm was £200 cheaper. so rang them and questioned this. The girl said I'll call you back. She did and said it's not online. I checked and sure enough the firm wasn't on line. I changed firms. Loyalty doesn't count anymore. 

And car insurance goes through the roof when you reach 80.  Travel insurance is non existent

Roy

Edited By roy entwistle on 05/12/2020 15:10:37

roy entwistle:

Rather than take the thread OT I will PM you.

Had the same problem with my car insurance. Been with the same company for 35 years and the last premium was really taking the ****. Went with the operatic tenor to T**** for identical terms but half the price.

pete

Different Highwaymen, different demands ??

Come back Dick Turbin, all is forgiven !

Another important thing re workshop and insurance is to take photos of all your tools and gear and store them somewhere safe that wont get stolen or incinerated along with the workshop, eg drop box or cloud storage etc. Insurance companies love to refuse to pay out on things you can't PROVE you had. And the onus of proof is on you. Don't ask me how I know this!

One issue with contents of household outbuildings that I have come across with several insurers is a restriction on theft from outbuildings. Annoyingly, this isn't to be found anywhere in the policy documentation, but rather in the schedule. You won't see the schedule until you have bought and paid for the insurance. So your policy wording will imply that you have full contents cover for your garage/shed/workshop, but the schedule will limit a claim for burglary or theft to something like £1000 total. This amount would barely cover a garden tractor or motor mower and other power garden tools many people may have stored in a shed, let alone the tools and equipment that many members on here probably have in their workshops. I have cancelled two policies during the cooling off period because of this issue, which I believe is common to domestic insurance policies.

I now have my workshop contents insured with Walker Midgely, I'm hoping not to have to test how good the cover actually is in the future.