Insuring dentures

stoneman

I've just had a partial denture fitted privately at a cot of £1800. I want to get them insured, I contacted my insurance company to see if they are covered under personal possessions and they are not. 
Anyone come across this and managed to get theirs insured? Suggestions on where I might go.

SiliconChip

This article suggests that some contents insurers do indeed cover dentures, the AA is mentioned as one.

https://www.themoneypages.com/insurance/false-teeth-spoiled-food-surprising-items-covered-contents-insurance/#:~:text=But%20many%20people%20do%20not,to%20select%20%27extra%20cover%27.

DullGreyGuy

stoneman said:
I contacted my insurance company to see if they are covered under personal possessions and they are not. 

Anyone come across this and managed to get theirs insured? Suggestions on where I might go.

Sounds like the usual unusual question that an agent doesn't know the answer to and so guesses an answer. If they state they aren't covered then ask them which clause excludes them.

Depending on your insurance then the £1,800 price tag may mean they need to be listed as a specified item both for the home and under the PP for out the home. 

They will naturally be only insured for the listed perils and so if they are stolen, no issues but if they wear out after 5 years (no idea on the lifespan of false teeth) then they wouldnt be.

user1977

Would replacing like-for-like be £1800? Or does that figure include the consultations etc, rather than just the dental lab fees for making them?

stoneman

SiliconChip said:

This article suggests that some contents insurers do indeed cover dentures, the AA is mentioned as one.

https://www.themoneypages.com/insurance/false-teeth-spoiled-food-surprising-items-covered-contents-insurance/#:~:text=But%20many%20people%20do%20not,to%20select%20%27extra%20cover%27.

I've seen that artificial and contacted AA, they say they don't cover them 

stoneman

DullGreyGuy said:

stoneman said:
I contacted my insurance company to see if they are covered under personal possessions and they are not. 

Anyone come across this and managed to get theirs insured? Suggestions on where I might go.

Sounds like the usual unusual question that an agent doesn't know the answer to and so guesses an answer. If they state they aren't covered then ask them which clause excludes them.

Depending on your insurance then the £1,800 price tag may mean they need to be listed as a specified item both for the home and under the PP for out the home. 

They will naturally be only insured for the listed perils and so if they are stolen, no issues but if they wear out after 5 years (no idea on the lifespan of false teeth) then they wouldnt be.

I phoned them yesterday, someone called me back after talking with the underwriters who said they had been asked this before. Good shout though on asking which clause they were exempt, I ring again today. 

stoneman

user1977 said:

Would replacing like-for-like be £1800? Or does that figure include the consultations etc, rather than just the dental lab fees for making them?

Probably just the cost of remaking them. They already have the molds

DullGreyGuy

stoneman said:

DullGreyGuy said:

stoneman said:
I contacted my insurance company to see if they are covered under personal possessions and they are not. 

Anyone come across this and managed to get theirs insured? Suggestions on where I might go.

Sounds like the usual unusual question that an agent doesn't know the answer to and so guesses an answer. If they state they aren't covered then ask them which clause excludes them.

Depending on your insurance then the £1,800 price tag may mean they need to be listed as a specified item both for the home and under the PP for out the home. 

They will naturally be only insured for the listed perils and so if they are stolen, no issues but if they wear out after 5 years (no idea on the lifespan of false teeth) then they wouldnt be.

I phoned them yesterday, someone called me back after talking with the underwriters who said they had been asked this before. Good shout though on asking which clause they were exempt, I ring again today. 

Looking randomly at LV= their definition of Personal Possessions is:

items you would normally wear or carry including money and credit cards belonging to you or your family or which you or your family are legally responsible for.
Personal belongings are not:
• motor vehicles (including motorbikes, quad bikes and motorised scooters), caravans, trailers, watercraft, aircraft and all their accessories;
• business stock, tools or materials used for business to any extent;
• animals;
• bicycles or their accessories;
• furniture, furnishings and household goods

Dentures are items that belong to you, are something you'd normally wear and presumably arent a bike accessory or animal therefore meet the definition. From a quick CTRL+F there are no mentions of dentures, prosthetics, spectacles etc for there to be any carve outs elsewhere in the document. 

TELLIT01

The AA website specifically states that dentures ARE covered.  https://www.theaa.com/home-insurance/advice/items-covered-by-home-insurance. 

 "As shown in our Cover to Cover game show, artificial body parts such as limbs and false teeth are included in our contents insurance. But you'll need to select extra cover if you want them covered away from home."

stoneman

TELLIT01 said:

The AA website specifically states that dentures ARE covered.  https://www.theaa.com/home-insurance/advice/items-covered-by-home-insurance. 

 "As shown in our Cover to Cover game show, artificial body parts such as limbs and false teeth are included in our contents insurance. But you'll need to select extra cover if you want them covered away from home."

Just goes to show the staff they have manning the CS helplines then

DullGreyGuy

stoneman said:

TELLIT01 said:

The AA website specifically states that dentures ARE covered.  https://www.theaa.com/home-insurance/advice/items-covered-by-home-insurance. 

 "As shown in our Cover to Cover game show, artificial body parts such as limbs and false teeth are included in our contents insurance. But you'll need to select extra cover if you want them covered away from home."

Just goes to show the staff they have manning the CS helplines then

Insurance, particularly home insurance, is a fairly complex product. They are trained to answer the 95% of questions that people commonly ask. They should have access to materials or seniors to help with the remaining 5% but always someone will be able to come up with a novel question. Some are really left field and you are basically asking for a legal opinion on a contract. 

In reality they should answer they dont know and come back to you, on this occasion it seems they did, but most contact centres are not massively better than sweat shops and staff are heavily targeted on metrics like average call handling time. This doesnt incentivise them to spend 5 minutes in a queue to talk to a senior if they are unsure of the answer. 

Sometimes questions are really hard to answer too... I once dealt with a class of insurance known as Key Asset, covered business interruption if a key piece of equipment broke down. Assets had to be broken down into electronic, mechanical or recycling with different terms and conditions depending on which it was. 

We sold a policy to a garage to cover a rolling road diagnostic machine thingy which had a ton of sensors measuring different things but also had the mechanical aspects of the rollers the car wheels went on with various resistances possible. When a claim came in it took the underwriters 3 months to device if it should be considered mechanical or electronic 

Similarly look at the 9/11 WTC... that one had to go to court and through appeal to determine if the fact two planes hit the building made it one or two incidents for the purposes of the per incident limits.