Fish Tank/Aquarium - covered by contents insurance?

K16TYA

My partner and I have just had our offer accepted on our first home and we are hoping to have the keys at the end of next month - I've been looking at quotes for buildings and contents insurance but I have noticed that there are only certain high risk items 'worth over £1000' that you can specifically list - fish tanks and equipment are not on this list. Now, our 8 foot marine tank, 2x 4ft LED light units and various sump equipment are all worth well in excess of £1,000 each not to mention the cost of the fish, rock and coral we keep. Should the tank burst or leak & 1000ltrs of salt water was to flood the lounge, I dread to think how much it would cost to replace the carpets, flooring, couches etc.....
Does anyone know of any insurance companies that cover fish tanks as standard? Or even any that allow you to add it at a reasonable cost? I doubt the fish, coral and live rock would be covered but would they replace the tank too, or just anything that was salt/water damaged? Our light units alone were £1,700 each but i would hate to think that because I could not 'list' them, i could not claim if anything happened to them....

Any advice would be appreciated!

TSx

The water damage should be covered under the accidental damage peril (some policies will cover it as an 'escape of water' but these are rare), so you will need to take out accidental damage.

The tank is unlikely to be covered if it just bursts or fails as your insurance will not cover general failure.

InsideInsurance

Did you buy it as a kit or as a series of parts? I know with my old tank it was a set of purchases that were used together and so the total cost is relevant only against the total sum insured and only the individual item values are relevant against the single item limits

Only the most budget policies want to know about items over £1,000 but if you are using an aggregator then they'll ask so they can quote for budget and full fat products. If you look at higher end but still mass market products then Axa is only interested in items over £10,000, M&S Premier is items over £12,0000. Mid net work providers like Hiscox 505 are items over £15,000 from memory

TSx

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Did you buy it as a kit or as a series of parts? I know with my old tank it was a set of purchases that were used together and so the total cost is relevant only against the total sum insured and only the individual item values are relevant against the single item limits

Only the most budget policies want to know about items over £1,000 but if you are using an aggregator then they'll ask so they can quote for budget and full fat products. If you look at higher end but still mass market products then Axa is only interested in items over £10,000, M&S Premier is items over £12,0000. Mid net work providers like Hiscox 505 are items over £15,000 from memory

I've not seen a policy with a general single article limit (thsts not to say they don't exist!) - are the limits above for valuables? If so a fish tank won't be considered a valuable.

InsideInsurance

TSx wrote: »

I've not seen a policy with a general single article limit (thsts not to say they don't exist!) - are the limits above for valuables? If so a fish tank won't be considered a valuable.

As things become more budget insurers are asking about more and more things. Valuables used to be just art, jewelry, watches etc. Many now ask about "high risk" items including TVs, computers, AV equipment etc. Some even wanted to note the Mrs' handbags etc

Havent seen anyone going as far as wanting furniture capped by the single article limit but could see there being the potential argument over a large marine fishtank with all its electronics etc.