Home Insurance - Do you put your pins down as a 'Specialist Collection'! ?

[Lippy427]

Apologies for raising another home/pinball Insurance thread....

Insurance renewal time again and the missus is doing the usual price compare due to the usual premium increase from the current provider.

One of the 'Which?' recommended insurers refused to insure us as they class the pinballs as a 'Specialist Collection' that they don't deal with (and he reckoned most insurers wouldn't!) and suggested that we contact BIBA for specialist advice !
I have 9 machines in the house (not in a garage or out building), so wouldn't have thought it would be a problem and we've not heard this before, so don't know if it's something new?
Anyone else had this?
Have phoned BIBA and waiting for someone to call back - will update if they ever do!

Cheers
Geoff

 

[Marvello]

I have to declare any item over a £1000 so that's how mine are insured.

 

[Epotech]

Yes I do,also my watches how confident am I they pay out? Not very.

 

[Marvello]

With my previous insurance company they came under house contents which was great, but they stopped providing insurance so had to find another provider.

 

[HomerRamone]

Yhink it seems to vary from one to another. I declared mine explicitly with one company but another said no need to.

 

[mplayfield]

I’m with a aviva and they provide unlimited value and they don’t care unless it’s a valuable and they don’t class them as a valuable .even when pressed and told they are worth x and I have 8 they said no problem

 

[Lippy427]

Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated.

We've tried a few online quotes this evening, but there's either no way to say 'pinball' or when you do mention them it's a "no thank you".
Definitely get the impression that most insurances (even when you call) don't know how to treat pins. (We've got an old baby grand piano, and one of the insurances is insisting on it being insured away from home - I mean, it's not like we're going to take it down to the pub on open mic night!)

What do folks do for value? Do you make a best guess of your collection/pins, or do you (in the case of 'new for old') point at the price of new machines on the likes of Pinball Heaven and Direct Leisure ?
Have done unlimited in the past assuming that all would be covered - but that is starting to get expensive.

Will give a few a call tomorrow and see if we can get someone sensible to talk to - and try and get something in writing.

Thanks
Geoff

 

[Lippy427]

just to close this off....

having spoken to someone at LV, they told us that whilst they want you to declare (and value) any and all items over £5k, they don't need to you to declare any item that they don't deem as 'high risk' - and they don't deem pinball's (or baby grand's) as high risk items.

 

[thewool]

M&S prices (through Aviva) have skyrocketed this year, new quote is mnearly £2k per year. Even reducing the valuables cover (which pins are not) doesn't help. I really wish there were companies out there who could better serve our hobby and others like ours which mean you have a lot of expensive kit stored at home.

 

[ianw]

Being in the insurance for years.

The markets for this are Tesco Home Insurance and M&S Home insurance – my understanding is that both view pinballs as contents. M&S definitely include even if in an outbuilding. We simply do not have a competitive market at the moment.

 

[lukewells]

I have "Halifax Unlimited" home cover, though I am not sure if they take on new customers on that policy, so I have to pay whatever they ask every year to keep the policy going.

 

[Moonraker]

I have "Halifax Unlimited" home cover, though I am not sure if they take on new customers on that policy, so I have to pay whatever they ask every year to keep the policy going.

It may be unlimited but I suspect the small print will say that you have to declare any items over 1.5k...

 

[Kate Rothwell-Jackson]

Morning! Last year we took out home insurance with M&S, but I received a letter over the weekend to say that they are withdrawing the product, and therefore are unable to renew my policy. So i'm back to the drawing board trying to find an alternative. I'll have a look into Tesco and Halifax - has anyone found any others recently?

Thanks!

 

[Fantazia2]

No expert but if they dont specifically exclude them in their terms and conditions and they dont request you to individually name/value any item over a certain value I dont see how they could deny covering the replacement cost of them.

Just renewed my insurance and the only question about expensive items was for high risk items over £1000 that they wanted information for, and this was described as anything that could be easily taken in a burglary like jewellery, TVs etc.

 

[Diane B]

Renewed through Admiral with our multicar policy.
Explained about the pinballs and the cost (some in the house and some in the pinshed).
Was told that they didn’t consider them high risk items so didn’t need to list them individually.

 

[Paul R Owen]

Morning! Last year we took out home insurance with M&S, but I received a letter over the weekend to say that they are withdrawing the product, and therefore are unable to renew my policy. So i'm back to the drawing board trying to find an alternative. I'll have a look into Tesco and Halifax - has anyone found any others recently?

Thanks!

I use Aviva, like Diane says, they aren't interested in Pins. They are not classified as valuables but as contents. As long as your total contents cover is high enough that seems to be enough.