House insurance with workshop cover...

[S-Rail]

My house insurance renewal quote with NFU has come in at nearly £1000!!!
This covers the house as well as my workshop/garage for everything but it's way to much to pay!
Does anyone know of a cheaper way to do it? According to my missus over half of that is just for my stuff, it's a seperate garage that's attached to the house by a wedge shaped add on built years ago. The normal house insurance doesn't cover my tools and equipment over about a grand or something

We are with NFU and they are the only we can use within reason as we were stupid and bought a thatched property ….

Yeses ago it was promoted to fit a wood burner as it is safer than an open fire … then they changed the goal posts and now open fires are safer W——rs…

We are now paying £1900 for a 2 bed mid terrace cottage . The new one that is compulsory set by the regulatory bodies is “garden” cover . No choice to opt out . There is only a mower with £50 and strimmer and a handful of hand tools . But we have to have 5k cover .. not negotiable .. robbing gits . Everyone has to pay it wether you like it or not .

They estimate our rebuild cost at £410k , which is double what it would cost , but we have the pleasure of paying of £250 for a surveyor to come and assess it if we wish to challenge it .

We reduced contents from 25 to 10k and it saved a whopping £85 . As I pointed out we dont have 10K worth of replaceable items . As they can’t replace family pics , jewellery , personal possessions , the important stuff . I’ve just always said if there is a fire , grab the laptops and hard drive … the rest is already gone .

It’s all just a legalised scam . License to print money . we are stuck cos she wanted a postcard cottage , can’t wait to move out .

My MIL pays 60% what we do , as she has 3 open fires and not a single wood burning stove like us , and her house is 4 times the size .

 

[addjunkie]

Many normal house policys have a very low limit for garage contents. Once you start adding up the cost of acdc tigs and lathes etc you accelerate past their allowance very quickly!

My NFU small holders policy allows 20 k in the shed. Tools etc. I added it up one day and its not enough really Especially if you go old for new!

 

[dobbslc]

We're with Direct Line, no idea what we pay but it isn't a lot, and I'm assured the garage full of tools is covered.

A garage full of tools to some people is a hammer and blunt wood saw...
Might be worth a check as my old policy would only just have covered the hand tools!

I’m assuming, wrongly maybe(?), that your workshop is a business? That’s what mine is and that’s what the comment I made earlier is based on.

If it’s just a hobby workshop then I’d assume it should be insured as such and therefore lower premium? You’ll be in it less and carry out less risky undertakings?

If it is insured as diy or whatever, be aware of the level of contents cover. It’s not very much.

I'm not a business it's just my accumulated 'stuff' that I need to be covered if anything happens.
Not sure about less risky undertakings, only this morning I melted a couple of croc clips on wires I'd lashed up to charge an RC car battery I didn't have the correct plugs for

 

[Maker]

I added it up one day and its not enough really Especially if you go old for new!

I wonder how they value tools that aren't made any more? A new Chipmaster for example, where do you even begin?

I had a little (Relatively speaking) toolkit I took to uni with me, a 15" toolbox stuffed full of screwdrivers and pliers mainly, things useful for very basic DIY, and maintaining bikes. I totted up the replacement cost for that once, well over five hundred quid, not including the Fluke 87V...

 

[Robotstar5]

A garage full of tools to some people is a hammer and blunt wood saw...
Might be worth a check as my old policy would only just have covered the hand tools!

I had the garage at my last house broken into, the insurance wouldn't pay out on an engine stand because "it's something you normally carry in a car" it took a few phone calls and photo's to sort that one out.

 

[addjunkie]

I wonder how they value tools that aren't made any more? A new Chipmaster for example, where do you even begin?

I had a little (Relatively speaking) toolkit I took to uni with me, a 15" toolbox stuffed full of screwdrivers and pliers mainly, things useful for very basic DIY, and maintaining bikes. I totted up the replacement cost for that once, well over five hundred quid, not including the Fluke 87V...

Youd index up an old price, or quote the modern equivalent, so in the case of a chip master the replacement would be a 600 group 250 or 300 machine. Look at the price of old uk chucks for example.

What I found really worrying is the cost all the little things like your bike tool kit. Imagine after afire trying to value all the melted crimps, multi meters, measuring tools, all the things never seen hidden away in a set of drawers somewhere.

 

[James1979]

Youd index up an old price, or quote the modern equivalent, so in the case of a chip master the replacement would be a 600 group 250 or 300 machine. Look at the price of old uk chucks for example.

What I found really worrying is the cost all the little things like your bike tool kit. Imagine after afire trying to value all the melted crimps, multi meters, measuring tools, all the things never seen hidden away in a set of drawers somewhere.

What I found most annoying when I had a box nicked was I missed all the weird special tools I had made for odd jobs.

 

[Stueeee]

Went down the home/garage/workshop insurance rabbit hole a few years ago. Again and again when I read through the policy wording these household policies covered all the garage/workshop contents right up to the insured limit. But then when the paperwork arrived there was a £1000 limit for claims where there is 'theft of any item located in an outbuilding' tucked away in the Schedule wording. You don't need to be an enthusiastic tinkerer to get caught out on this wizard wheeze. My garden tractor living in a garden shed with a strimmer, chainsaw etc. would cost north of a couple of grand to replace.
You don't get to see the Schedule until you've bought the policy, and I think a lot of people probably don't read all the paperwork once they've paid. As there is a 'cooling off period' on insurance policies, I cancelled and got my money back. Then I took out a basic household Contents policy and insured the garage/workshop contents separately.

 

[Barking Mat]

How does household workshop insurance work, if you haven't got receipts for stolen stuff ?

90% of my stuff was bought second hand for cash.

Be hard to steal most of it.

 

[Maker]

How does household workshop insurance work, if you haven't got receipts for stolen stuff ?

Insurance probably won't pay out on tools you've stolen in the first place.

 

[dobbslc]

Went down the home/garage/workshop insurance rabbit hole a few years ago. Again and again when I read through the policy wording these household policies covered all the garage/workshop contents right up to the insured limit. But then when the paperwork arrived there was a £1000 limit for claims where there is 'theft of any item located in an outbuilding' tucked away in the Schedule wording. You don't need to be an enthusiastic tinkerer to get caught out on this wizard wheeze. My garden tractor living in a garden shed with a strimmer, chainsaw etc. would cost north of a couple of grand to replace.
You don't get to see the Schedule until you've bought the policy, and I think a lot of people probably don't read all the paperwork once they've paid. As there is a 'cooling off period' on insurance policies, I cancelled and got my money back. Then I took out a basic household Contents policy and insured the garage/workshop contents separately.

Sneaky bastids insurance companies ALL of them.
After a bit of ringing round my wife found out that the NFU were charging loads for the buildings cover (£800+!) But not too much for the contents, the nice man on the phone said you can just insure the contents with us and get the buildings elsewhere. So it looks like I can have 12k of contents cover with the NFU and get the rest insured somewhere else for a bit over £400 in total, that's a saving of over £600!!!
Worth a phone call

 

[Morris]

We are with LV who assure me every year I ask that the limit on workshop contents is the same as the house. I've not seen anything in the schedule that then limits it to a lower figure.
The premium isn't huge but we are in a quiet village.