Does contents insurance cover items purchased from Facebook?

ChrisW1989

Hi all, 

Not sure if I've posted in the right section but was wondering if I purchased a laptop second hand from Facebook, would this item then be covered under my house and contents insurance if I were to have issues?
The seller does not have a receipt, so I'm skeptical. 

How does it work when it comes to buying privately online and having them insured? Need receipts of original purchase? Then proof I bought it online and that it belongs to me etc?

Any info would be appreciated greatly 

Thanks! 

Aretnap

Yes it would be covered in the same way as any of your other possessions. Similarly it is perfectly possible to insure something that was a gift, even though you never paid a penny for it personally. 

Of course it depends on what you mean by "issues"; contents insurance will cover it for things like fire, flood and theft. It might also cover it for accidental damage (ie dropping it, or spilling liquid on it), which is an optional extra on some policies. It won't normally cover breakdown, wear and tear, or the fact that it's not as good as the seller's description. 

Were you to make a claim the insurer might ask for evidence that the laptop was yours and what it's specifications were, but that evidence can take many forms; you could use Emails from the seller, photos of the laptop, or the damaged laptop itself.

You don't need a receipt to prove the original purchase price as this is generally irrelevant. Most policies will value an item in terms of the cost or replacing it at the time you make a claim. This could be higher or lower than the original purchase price - usually lower in the case of electrical items, but sometimes higher for things like jewellery or antique furniture. 

TELLIT01

If I was buying from Facebook I would still want a receipt in order to prove ownership, and price, if it's a comparatively expensive item such as a laptop.  If the seller won't provide a receipt you have to wonder why?

Brewer20

I would have thought they would give you the market value if you have contents cover. You can also have new for old, or did do, depends what's written in the policy.
Worth taking photos of expensive items you have in the property, anything you really care about and want replacements for like for like.

Yahoo_Mail

Brewer20 said:

I would have thought they would give you the market value if you have contents cover. You can also have new for old, or did do, depends what's written in the policy.
Worth taking photos of expensive items you have in the property, anything you really care about and want replacements for like for like.

They probably will but this is more likely to prevent people claiming they've had items that they don't own stolen, like the Picasso they had hanging over the fireplace and the secret recipe for KFC that's in the kitchen drawer.

I suspect that unless you're claiming for something particularly high value or unusual or the total value of your contents was unusually high for the size of property you live in, you are unlikely to be asked for receipts and even if you are, they'll more often than not back down when you point out that you obviously don't have receipts for everything because (almost) nobody keeps receipts for everything they own for years and years.

macman

ChrisW1989 said:

Hi all, 

Not sure if I've posted in the right section but was wondering if I purchased a laptop second hand from Facebook, would this item then be covered under my house and contents insurance if I were to have issues?
The seller does not have a receipt, so I'm skeptical. 

How does it work when it comes to buying privately online and having them insured? Need receipts of original purchase? Then proof I bought it online and that it belongs to me etc?

Any info would be appreciated greatly 

Thanks! 

How do you know the seller 'doesn't have a receipt' if you haven't bought it yet? If payment is to be by bank transfer, you'll have evidence of a payment being made. If cash, and you are collecting in person, then print out your own receipt, take two copies with you and get the seller to sign both, you do the same. Each retain a copy.
Retain that and photos of the s/n for any potential insurance claim.

Grumpy_chap

ChrisW1989 said:

if I purchased a laptop second hand from Facebook, would this item then be covered under my house and contents insurance if I were to have issues?
The seller does not have a receipt, so I'm skeptical. 

What type of "issues" do you have concerns about?  If you can prove you had the item (legally) then it would be covered like anything else, though value for a laptop bought second hand would be lower than "new for old" cover of a brand new laptop.  You could keep screen shots of the online ad.  There is no reason the seller cannot give you a receipt even if they have misplaced the original receipt.

With regard to your being "skeptical" - if you think this laptop may be stolen and, therefore not the seller's to sell, you should steer well clear.  The worst outcome could be that you are pursued for handling stolen goods.

Aretnap

I took "the seller does not have a receipt" to mean that the seller does not have the receipt from the original purchase. Obviously if you buy something from a private seller over the Internet there will be an Email/WhatsApp trail for the purchase, whether or not you get an actual paper receipt. 

The lack of an original purchase receipt could be for an innocent reason (people don't keep paper receipts forever) or could be a cause for concern (don't most people have electronic receipts for things like laptops these days? And you really don't want to be buying a stolen laptop).

Worth pointing out that if you buy a stolen laptop and the original owner comes looking for it, that is not something that would be covered by home insurance, receipts or no receipts. 

Perhaps the OP could clarify exactly what his concerns are and what he is hoping his insurance will protect him from? 

TELLIT01

Aretnap said:

I took "the seller does not have a receipt" to mean that the seller does not have the receipt from the original purchase. Obviously if you buy something from a private seller over the Internet there will be an Email/WhatsApp trail for the purchase, whether or not you get an actual paper receipt. 

The lack of an original purchase receipt could be for an innocent reason (people don't keep paper receipts forever) or could be a cause for concern (don't most people have electronic receipts for things like laptops these days? And you really don't want to be buying a stolen laptop).

Worth pointing out that if you buy a stolen laptop and the original owner comes looking for it, that is not something that would be covered by home insurance, receipts or no receipts. 

Perhaps the OP could clarify exactly what his concerns are and what he is hoping his insurance will protect him from? 

I only have electronic receipts for items purchased in the past couple of years.  I suspect most electronics for sale on Facebook and similar will be older than that.  I did check the receipt I had for both a phone from Vodafone and a TV from Currys, purchased over 5 years ago and the till receipts are now unreadable they have faded so badly.

Sandtree

ChrisW1989 said:

would this item then be covered under my house and contents insurance if I were to have issues?
The seller does not have a receipt, so I'm skeptical. 

How does it work when it comes to buying privately online and having them insured? Need receipts of original purchase? Then proof I bought it online and that it belongs to me etc?

What sort of issues are you talking about? You buy it and then 9 months later it gets stolen from your home? Then yes.... it turns up and is faulty but the seller wont take it back etc then no.

You do not need the original proof of purchase, you just need the proof of purchase that brought into your ownership. Secondhand items are covered the same as anything else. The concerns insurers can have if a claim is put in soon after purchase of secondhand items are:

1) Did the purchase really happen before the claim event?
2) What was the condition of the item at time of purchase?

Seen more than one case where someone has a flood or fire event and they bulk out their claim by buying defective laptops/phones etc for peanuts and then claim they were damaged in the event.