Contents insurance and second hand items

bitsnbytes

Need some help guys, I have a pretty good contents cover which insures valuables home and away from the house. Recently I purchased a very expensive laptop for the missus which costs well over £1800, but since I got a good deal from a local classified (just a month old) for £1000 I purchased that one since it was just as new.

The problem now is she managed to drop the laptop causing a big crack at the side :eek: It works, but the internals in one side are exposed. My question is now, does the home contents insurance cover second hand items? I got a receipt from the bloke who sold me the laptop (where he purchased it originally) but of course that is in his name. Will this cause a problem for me when it comes to making the claim?

Please advise, its some serious amount of money

huckster

Make the claim and see what happens. As long as you have adequate Insurance for the laptops under the policy and evidence of ownership/purchase even if a private 2nd hand buy, then I cannot see a problem.

I suspect that the laptop will have to go to a repairer/assessment company that they use. If they can repair, they will do. But if the repair is less than the excess then no claim can be made or if only marginally more, then you might think it is not worth it. They will only replace with equivalent model, if the assessment comes up as being uneconomic to repair. From your description, it might be repairable.

Be very careful that the overall Contents value is enough. Some companies e.g Esure are voiding policies, where people have been found to be underinsured. You may be sent a form to assess the value of your Contents.

bitsnbytes

Thanks Huckster. My contents policy allows items up to £40,000 to be insured (each item not exceeding £1500) and since I paid £1000 I thought I should be fine and not list it as a special item. But what evidence of ownership would be sufficient? I had purchased this off a local classified listing and the only proof I have is the print out of the online purchase the seller made (which has his name and address)

The problem is that since it is a fancy designer laptop it has kind of spoiled the look on one side. So hopefully it should be repairable since they are not very easy to get hold of

vaio

Be very careful, it sounds like you have an almost new laptop which will cost £1800 to replace but you only have insurance for £1500.

Taking into account the possible grief that could cause together with excess, loss of NCB and future premium increases and I’d be seriously thinking about finding out what it would cost to repair myself.

InsideInsurance

If you have a new for old policy, which 99.9% of policies are, then what you paid for it is irrelevant unless it is a seconds type item.

The item should have been insured for its "new" price of £1,800 if that's what the list price is. The fact you have a £1,500 single item limit may cause you a problem because you're under insured. Depending on how the insurers choose to play it you may simply get a replacement, you may get £1,500, you may get £1,250 for under insured or you may get nothing (obviously excess to pay on all but the last)

TSx

InsideInsurance wrote: »

If you have a new for old policy, which 99.9% of policies are, then what you paid for it is irrelevant unless it is a seconds type item.

The item should have been insured for its "new" price of £1,800 if that's what the list price is. The fact you have a £1,500 single item limit may cause you a problem because you're under insured. Depending on how the insurers choose to play it you may simply get a replacement, you may get £1,500, you may get £1,250 for under insured or you may get nothing (obviously excess to pay on all but the last)

The way I've always dealt with single article limits (across many schemes) is to deduct any wear and tear, deduct the excess and then apply the limit.

So £1,800 laptop new for old (no wear and tear) deduct the excess of say £100 = £1,700 and then apply the limit of £1,500 = that's what you get (as cash because it cannot be replaced).

It does depend on policy wording but most I've seen say "the most we will pay for any single item is £1,500" - therefore if after any excess deduction it still comes to more than that, that is the amount that you get paid.

I've also never seen underinsurance applied on unspecified items - the wording usually just puts a limit on any payout, providing it's still within the overall sum insured.

We have no idea who the insurer is, so I can't comment on that specifically, although I do deal with some BISL policies (the lowest of the low!) and we would still deal with them as above. I've heard extraordinary bad things about esure through this site though.

edit: eg AA policy for unspecified cover (http://www.theaa.com/insurance/pdf/contents-insurance-policy-booklet-march-2011.pdf) says:

"The most we will pay for any item, collection or set is the amount shown as the single article limit on your Statement of Insurance." they also say they do not cover "The first £50 of each incident of loss or damage." so for a £1,700 claim they will not cover the first £50 - that leaves £1650 so they will only pay out at the single article limit of £1,500.

mikey72

But the "new" condition to the op was actually second hand, for £1000. I wouldn't expect any insurer to replace this with an actually new one for £1800. To be put back into the same position, surely it would be a payment of £1000, (less excess) to buy another used one. (If it can't be repaired with a new case).

TSx

mikey72 wrote: »

But the "new" condition to the op was actually second hand, for £1000. I wouldn't expect any insurer to replace this with an actually new one for £1800. To be put back into the same position, surely it would be a payment of £1000, (less excess) to buy another used one. (If it can't be repaired with a new case).

true on an indemnity policy - unfortunately (or fortunately), with a new for old policy the policy requires that you replace the old item with a new item of equivalent specification.

That applies even if the item was second hand originally.

eg - again with the AA as I had the policy booklet up

How we will settle your claim
Most insurance companies can get discounts on replacing items. This helps to control claim costs and therefore premiums charged. It is at our option that we will:
l pay the cost of repair;
l replace the item as new; or
l pay the cost of replacing the item as new. (This may be restricted to the discounted replacement price we would normally pay.)

There's no wiggle room, there's no exclusions for second hand items or quantifying statements saying they will be treated differently.

Sometimes the insurers aren't just there to screw people

huckster

Apologies if someone has already mentioned this.

Be careful to check that you have not exceeded the limit for high risk items. You may be asked for a breakdown of the Contents and if you show high risk items above the amount shown on the schedule/policy, this may cause you an issue. The definition of high risk items varies, so have a read through the policy.

vaio

mikey72 wrote: »

But the "new" condition to the op was actually second hand, for £1000. I wouldn't expect any insurer to replace this with an actually new one for £1800. To be put back into the same position, surely it would be a payment of £1000, (less excess) to buy another used one. (If it can't be repaired with a new case).

Mikey, think cars....if you got a real bargain on a car or your car went up in value after you got it then on a total loss pay out you’d get the money to replace it, all independent of what you actually paid for it.

TSx wrote: »

true on an indemnity policy - unfortunately (or fortunately), with a new for old policy the policy requires that you replace the old item with a new item of equivalent specification.

That applies even if the item was second hand originally.

eg - again with the AA as I had the policy booklet up

There's no wiggle room, there's no exclusions for second hand items or quantifying statements saying they will be treated differently.

Sometimes the insurers aren't just there to screw people

or maybe they just havn't spotted that yet

mikey72

vaio wrote: »

Mikey, think cars....if you got a real bargain on a car or your car went up in value after you got it then on a total loss pay out you’d get the money to replace it, all independent of what you actually paid for it.

But I wouldn't get a new car.