House Insurance Claim...New for Old Policy...Advice needed.

carolan78

We were burgled a few weeks ago and we have a new for old policy. In June I bought a second hand sub dye printer, this printer is now discontinued and you can't buy it new anywhere.

The replacement is model is over £1000 (almost 10 times what I paid second hand). The claims advisor said they may offer me money instead to get another second hand printer. I got it incredibly cheap and they do not come up on the market very often. Can they make me accept cash instead of a replacement?

InsideInsurance

It depends how materially different the new and old model is. Your policywording may contain a clause of how they deal with discontinued items, often it's a cash settlement based on the last known price of the old model by their supplier if the new one is too big a step up from your model.

dacouch

What is a sub dye printer?

Do you use it in anyway for business purposes?

jamhun

So! You had a second hand printer and now you want them to supply you with a new one. There will probably be a clause (which has already been mentioned) that the new for old will only apply to items that you bought new and not second hand.
Another clause that may be in your policy, could be that if they cannot find a comparable item then they would offer you the market value.

Spikey1

Hi,

The answer to your question will be in your policy booklet. There will be a section in your Contents cover named "How we Settle Claims" or words to that effect.

It will tell you that settlement will be on a new for old basis but will mention any situations where this is not the case. They are usually a straight forward read and its pretty much a case of "what you see is what you get".

For many people it will not seem fair to expect an Insurer to fund the replacement of a brand new item when the stolen one was purchased second hand at 1/10th of the new cost. However, Insurers are well aware that the situation occurs regularly, especially since the likes of EBay have been around. They have the option of changing their policy wordings if they like and, if they haven't done so, its because they are happy to pay 'new for old' even on items that were bought second hand.

If you think about it, you could have bought the printer brand new and, after say 5 years of use, it would be worth next to nowt on the second hand market......but there would be no question of the Insurer paying for a new one in that situation would there ? All household items have their 'market value' which is usually much lower then their cost as new.....but Insurers still commit to paying the replacement cost (new for old cost) of the item. It makes little difference to your Insurer whether you have owned the item from new, bought it second hand or even received it as a gift.

Like I say though, check the policy and you will find the answer.

Cheers