Home insurance question

It depends what you mean by "quite a bit of money" - my home insurance has a single item limit of £2000 for items not declared and therefore if the signature is worth less than that there is no need to be worried about it other than potentially including the value within the high risk/ valuables item limit (depending on the insurers definition of these terms). If the item is worth more than the single item limit you can normally add the item for an additional premium so give the insurer a call and see how much it will be.

There certainly are specialist insurance policies about but these are generally aimed at people with collections of items worth £100k+ and in many cases are really for people with collections worth 3-10x that

LeroyBoyce wrote: »

The signature is worth as much as £10000 at smoe auctions...

Given its enormous value, have you considered having it professionally stored elsewhere in a fireproof safe, whilst perhaps keeping a high quality photocopy for reference/display?

Supposing you were to get it insured, would you be in a position to prove its authenticity in the event of a claim?

I would say that if you keep the autograph at home, its existence would have to be disclosed to your general contents insurers anyway, if only so that it could be specifically excluded from cover. You are normally required to insure for the value of ALL your contents and the presence of such a valuable item on the premises could also be considered a material fact since it would make your premises a target for burglars. All in all, I don't think you will be able to arrange contents cover online whilst you have this item in your possession.

LeroyBoyce wrote: »

I've heard that a CD collection of over 20 would not be covered by many home insurance policies, as it is considered exactly that: A collection.

The signature is worth as much as £10000 at smoe auctions...

Can I ask where you heard / read that. I work in insurance and I think it is wrong but at the same time it does concern me. With nearly 400 DVD's and a similar number of games / PC games etc I would be absolutely gutted if a loss adjuster turned me down for not disclosing a "collection".

As for the autograph, be careful if you do decide to go down the route of a fire resisting safe. There are many second hand safes available at auction with large brass plaques proclaiming "Patent fire and burglar resisting" safe or similar. Its all a load of tosh though as the fire resisting barrier is usually only plaster of paris or soil in the internal cavity. Over the years this falls to the bottom of the safe and the fire resistance is gone.

You need to look at modern safes or document cases which use modern barrier materials to give you the fire resistance.