Adrian Garside

As the cold snap hits, people’s pipes will be bursting and they’ll be claiming on their buildings and contents insurance.

This reminds me of something.

If you underinsure your house and contents the insurer may decide to only pay out a proportion of your claim.   Now, you’d think that won’t happen, but an IFA friend of mine brought the point home to me a few years ago.

She went on holiday with her husband to Thailand one Christmas and all their stuff got lost. When she came back, she tried to claim. Now, they are fairly comfortably off and really did have Louis Vuitton Luggage and all the blingy things that people wish they had. The insurance company didn’t believe her and sent an assessor round to see if it was a reasonable claim or a fraudulent claim.

Now, the assessor went along with the claim, but the point that came up was that the contents insurance she needed was nearer £70,000 than the standard £40,000.  My friend later suggested to me that I should review my contents insurance – I was sceptical, I only had a bog standard house with pretty standard stuff inside, but she made me add up the value of my rooms.

It was very surprising!

So, my recommendation to you is:

Just pick a room and add up how much it would cost to create that room again if it was empty. Try the lounge first.

Now, do you think you have enough insurance?

Some of you know I do a bit of mountain biking, so the subject of bike insurance is something I have considered at length.

Most standard buildings and contents insurances cover bikes…usually with a standard limit of £200 – £250. This is fine, it covers your average bike.

But many people who are enthusiastic about cycling will have a dearer bike than £250, simply because dearer bikes have componants that last longer, lighter stronger frames and are just nicer to ride – there is a very noticeable difference – it’s not just being flash.

So, what about insurance…well, most insurance companies will rise the insured value of the bike up to £1000 or £1500 is asked, without too much of a quibble and that covers probably more than 95% of cyclists – you can buy a pretty awesome bike for £1500!

And then, for the other 5% Marks and Spencer insurance has an automatic limit of £4000 per bike.

So, that covers the value of the bike, but then you must check the limits of the cover. Many companies just don’t know about mountain bikes – so won’t cover damage while the bike is off road. Or maybe they would only cover theft if it’s stolen from your home. Or, and I’ve had this myself when I was shopping around – they wouldn’t cover the bike while it was locked to a wall anchor in my locked garage that was attached to my house. They suggested I keep it in my living room. Genuinely. Oh, and they were also happy to insure it if I kept it locked to the lamppost at the bottom of the drive. Incredible.

I ended up with Marks and Spencer – I decided thay were OK by phoning their claims line and having a chat to an underwriter about what was reasonable and what was not.

I suggest you adopt this technique if you use non specialist bike insurance.

If you are really looking for top notch cover for your bike – consider a specialist bike insurer – I’m sure there are many and google will help you out here – these people have come to my attention so get a mention – www.eta.co.uk/insurance/cycle – and I see they cover you for pretty much every eventuality, but for a price.

So, insuring your bike – take care if it’s your pride and joy – it would be easy to rely on common sense and often that is not the same rule of thumb that the insurers use. I don’t advise in this area of insurance.