Home insurance - new for old ? How to assess

scattycat69

Hi
I am hoping someone can offer me extensive advice on a home insurance claim and replacement of the items lost.
Very briefly I left my camera bag on a train and it has not been handed in or located. I have therefore made a claim on my home insurance and have been contacted by a company who are instructed by the insurance company to look into the technical details of the camera and offer a like product.
I always thought (possibly wrongly), that your home insurance policy covered you 'new for old', that is to say if you bought a top of the range camera in 2006, it would be replaced by an equivalent. Not that it would be replaced by a camera of the same specification.
I do appreciate that this is a difficult area and that possibly replacing with a camera of the same specification is reasonable, but how do I know that the replacement offered is reasonable? Do I have to trust the insurance company on this one?
It seems a little unfair that I was prepared to purchase a camera in 2006 for £1,000, but now I am only offered one for £400. I know the cost of cameras etc come down and specs go up, but equally should I not have a model that is in spec for now not 3 years ago?

Also is there anywhere I can look to see the model numbers of the previous cameras and the current equivalent?

After all why would we have insurance to cover us for the eventuality of replacement, when we could just save the premium and but a cheaper product?

Any sense of this and help would be appreciated. Insurance and pensions are very much beyond my relative thinking

Thanks

FlameCloud

You are right, in that policies are new for old however your perceptions of it are a little off.

In essence, the point of any insurance is to put you back in the same financial position as you were immediately prior to the loss occurring. At such, you had a camera with specification x, which would be worth y today.

Your insurer will then look to see what camera has a similar range of functions and abilities now to determine what model to base their settlement offer on.

If you didn't do it this way, policy holders would get what is known as betterment, where they were in a better financial position than they were before the loss- which will only ever result in increasing fraudulent claims.

dacouch

Electronic goods are unusual as their price reduces constantly but their specification increases constantly.

Your Insurer is entitled to keep costs to a reasonable amount so you cannot expect them to replace a camera that had x specification three years ago with a top of the range current camera. They are entitled to replace with a current camera with the same specifications.

If they did not operate this way you would be in a better financial situation than if you had not lost the camera and in addition it would encourage fraudulent claims.

There is room for arguement if you have chosen say a sony camera due to the quality of manufacture when they are trying to replace with say a currys own brand.

It can be possible for you to use your own supplier if the costing are roughly the same.

These rulings from the Ombudsman may help you

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/10/oct-repair-replace-cash.htm

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/75/75-household-insurance.html