Home contents insurance advice

Ah right, guess that's further fine service from Woodrup's as they quickly valued 2 custom bikes for me gratis.

Do you have an LBS that you use for little bits?

LVE haven't asked me to justify the value of my bikes nor did they the last time I claimed for one.

M&S bank, arranged online, have a look

Totally second M&S. you don't need to specify cost or approx value of any bike, and they are insured away from home too. I couldn't believe it at first but after going through the t&c's with the dude in the end of the phone it seems that even custom builds come under this policy. Pretty cheap too.

According to Hippy you now do need to specify bikes above £2,500 with M&S

Totally second M&S. you don't need to specify cost or approx value of any bike, and they are insured away from home too. I couldn't believe it at first but after going through the t&c's with the dude in the end of the phone it seems that even custom builds come under this policy. Pretty cheap too.

They changed the rules. You need to specify any bike over 2 or 2.5k (I forget which). It's almost doubled the cost of M&S for me.

Have they agreed to cover the Shiv?

£2500 for an individual bike, or £2500 collectively?

LVE haven't asked me to justify the value of my bikes nor did they the last time I claimed for one.

Is LVE the same as LV?

You need to specify bicycles because they are not considered personal possessions so they don't ask, you don't provide and then low and behold when you go to claim they don't pay.

"The most we will pay for any one item is £1,500 unless it is shown separately on your schedule (excludes money and credit cards for which a £500 limit applies)."

http://www.lv.com/assets/pdfs/home/21120767_home_excl-ha_policy-summary.pdf

"We will pay up to £5,000 for loss or damage to your contents"
"But not: loss or damage to pedal cycles"

This section only applies if selected by you and shown as covered on your schedule.
Pedal cycles being property belonging to you or your family, or for which you or
they are legally responsible. The most we will pay for any one pedal cycle and
its accessories is the value shown against it on your schedule.
We will provide cover for any loss or damage to pedal cycles in
Europe and up to 60 days worldwide in any one period of insurance.
We will not pay for:

theft of any pedal cycles away from your home, unless locked to a permanent structure;
theft of pedal cycle accessories unless they are stolen with the pedal cycle;
loss or damage whilst racing, pace-making or taking part in time trials;
motorised pedal cycles

Have they agreed to cover the Shiv?

Of course. They'll cover anything.. so long as you pay..

£2500 for an individual bike, or £2500 collectively?

The 2 or 2.5k limit is 'per bike'. If you have 100 bikes and they costs £1000 each you should be ok.

They turned me down for my Cannondale.

They turned me down for my Cannondale.

Why?

Too heavy.

Too noisy :)

Over their maximum insurable value- which I would have thought the Shiv would also be, hence the question.

For high values, Hiscox is your friend.

May not be the cheapest product on the market but coverage is broad and their claims service is second to none.

I'm currently with Hiscox, the bikes are only covered inside the house though.

Have you spoken to them/your broker to extend coverage?

My experience of working with Hiscox - as a broker - is that they are usually very accommodating and tend to try and find a solution.

Yes, I did- the price was too high to cover the expensive bike so we left it as being covered only in the house.

We did have a bit of a rocky patch when they issued terms that contradicted what they had said on the phone, but we eventually got that resolved.

However- I suspect that they are going to stitch me up come renewal time.

That is a shame really as they have been helpful beyond the call of duty when I have traded with them in the past. Admittedly, I was accessing them as a broker through their commercial fine art channels, but they have paid claims which are at best questionable and agreed various extensions to customer policies for very little if any additional premium.

I have been out of the broking game for a few years now but am still firmly within the industry and Hiscox are still the big players for high-end/high value insurance.

However, there is very little loyalty or sentiment in personal insurance generally and come renewal you should do some shopping. A decent broker can be very useful in such times.

To be fair to them they checked the tape of the initial conversation, agreed that their agent had indeed offered what I thought he had, then updated the policy to reflect that.

They did say that they'd be repricing come renewal time though, so I am anticipating only being able to cover two of my bikes out of the home, as otherwise the policy will be too expensive.

All of that said I'm most concerned with the bikes being pinched from my house when I'm out, so that (kind of) works for me.

My insurers have told me that my bikes are covered globally for anything except competitive events, as part of my household insurance. I'll PM you my broker.

Is LVE the same as LV?

You need to specify bicycles because they are not considered personal possessions so they don't ask, you don't provide and then low and behold when you go to claim they don't pay.

Yeah that's the folk.

You have to specify them but they've never asked me for receipts or valuations, if I tell them my bike's worth a grand, they cover it for a grand.

I've found em really good to deal with, I got knocked off a few years ago, tiny dent in my toptube that I only noticed after I'd gotten home, no crime/incident number from the police as I'd not taken action at the scene but LV still replaced the bike (paid out, didn't want dented one back, dunno if this is the norm?). The only bike I liked was £100 more than the insured value too and they just said "fuck it, have it" in not quite those words.

I've just taken out my own policy with them, have previously been living with parents and on their policy and adding the bikes on did make a significant difference to my premium as opposed to adding a tenner or so to my parents premium but still very affordable.

Over their maximum insurable value- which I would have thought the Shiv would also be, hence the question.

Sounds like you've been spun a line. How much did you tell them it was worth?

They wanted replacement value, not market value.

Which would be around 11 to 12k.