Workshop insurance

[Nick Gibbs]

I'm sure this has been covered on UKW before, but we've had a request from a reader about finding insurance for a workshop and its contents. He has about £12k worth of kit and is having difficulty with his current insurer (AXA) who won't insure the contents of his attached, brick-built garage.

Can members offer any advice? We'll credit UKW if we publish any suggestions.

Thanks

Nick

 

[tenpin]

Nick

iv'e had the same issues with my insurer.
As far as i can mnake out most if not all insureres will only cover the standard £2k for out buildings woefully inadequete for most members.
I would be interested in your findings

Nick

 

[kityuser]

my directline insurance covers house, garage and all outbuildings to the max strength of the contents cover.

no 2k kop-out for sheds, or 4k kop-out for garages.

I questioned it, again and again and eventually got a written confirmation that my contents cover covers all buildings on my property upto the underwritten value. (I think items over 2k in value have to be declared).

Its the 4th year I`ve re-newed the policy.



Steve

 

[Steve Maskery]

Try Zurich. They are expensive, yes, but on our policy we can't be underinsured, so you don't need you worry if you buy a new machine or two.

I've only had to claim once, when a cupboard-full of ironmongery fell off the wall and landed on my planer-thicknesser. I wanted someone to come out and set it all up again, but they wouldn't, they just sent me new P/T. I should have been delighted, except the machine was a Friday afternoon job! However, Kity did send an engineer round, and 16 hours of work later I had a perfect machine.. But that's another story.

Just one thing with Zurich though, and it might be the same with other insurers too - if you do claim they load your premium very heavily. We've had 5 claims in 16 years, but the trouble is that 3 were last year. We got burgled, then a week later we got hit by the rains, then the day that episode was signed off our washing machine inlet failed and flooded the kitchen. Now our premium has been loaded 30% for 2 years and no-one else will touch us. It was a big premium to start with, so now we are paying over £100 per month, house and contents.

So it is available if you can stand the price, and actually we can't fault their service.

S

 

[Waka]

I use the Norwich Union, have done for years, my workshop is insured for just over 10K as part of the household contents. I'm not sure whether I'm at the limit they'll insure, I'll know that later when I come to up it.

Hope this helps.

 

[Nigel]

I had the same problem with my insurer and after shopping around found Saga would insure workshop contents to the same value as house contents and still be competitive,

My garage/workshop is integral with the house,

Cheers Nigel

 

[woodbloke]

Waka wrote:

my workshop is insured for just over 10K

...that's not nearly enough :lol: :lol: - Rob

 

[gidon]

Yep Directline too - as Steve says covered under household max (£25k).
Cheers
Gidon

 

[Shultzy]

I'm with Rias. They cover my workshop in with the house contents as long as the value in the workshop is less than £10K

 

[Adam]

With Direct Line. I also queried it many times and got a statement added that I had "professional" tools, but they were for domestic use only. I didn't want to quibble with a loss adjuster about the "quality" of the tools I use.

Adam