New house: contents insurance for high-value guitars?

bermudianbrit

Hi all,

So my partner and I have completed on the new house today and are beginning to discuss practicalities. We will of course nee contents insurance. I have a few higher-value guitars (between 2-3k) and assorted gear which, together, would fetch a pretty penny (pedals, a Dr. Z amp eTC). So I'm wondering if any of you have found particularly good house insurance policies which include instruments, or have any tips on things which a policy must/must nove include.

All assistance thankfully received

ArchtopDave

I used Hiscox for a number of years (until they tried to jack up my annual premium for no good reason). The advantage was that they have no upper value limit for individual items. I’m currently with Direct Line Select, who offer the same terms in regards to the value of individual items.

shaunm

If you play outside of the house I would suggest insuring them on an instrument policy - I use Allianz. 

The above can also give you unattended cover in the car too.

Normal household insurance will cover them as listed items inside the home but unless you specify not outside. Also, if you are using them in a capacity which could be deemed professional use then it’s unlikely the home insurance will extend to this.

guitars4you

Congrats on the new home

Keeping the goods within the home and you should be fine on most good content policies - I don't have to list the actual content unless any item is over 5K - Therefore items are 'lumped' together with a value as per other items - However that policy only covers for £1500 worth of goods outside the house, so unsure if you are gigging or not - Chances are your mortgage company will have a partner they work with who should be pretty good and offer a good rate as well with house + contents

For a good policy outside the house then I'm not so sure today who is the best bet

bacchanalian

I found that it was cheaper to insure guitars on a separate policy. This would be even more so if you intend to have them anywhere other than your house.

I found New Moon to be really helpful, although I have not had to claim  

mort

I've got an Aviva house contents policy which covers my guitars.

Jalapeno

Allianz ended more and more expensive. Got another muso one, similar cover, can't remember where from.

You can use house insurance, but they don't cover car theft generally (IIRC)

Moleman

Again, congratulations on the new home. I currently use an insurance broker that has insured my high end guitar and amp collection as specified collections on a home contents policy on a new-for-old basis with Ecclesiastical. I supplied a list of the guitars and amps (plus I have a specialist guitar store valuation to back this up). When I plugged all my home contents details in to the Hiscox website, the premium was nearly double!! I should add that I never take my guitars out of the house so this policy suits me fine.

uncledick

Direct Line for me.  If you have a query, just phone them up and they're unusually helpful.  So far they've paid for a rebuild of my right leg (Skiing's harder than it looks!) and two emergency callouts.  They also reworded their policy to cover the flat roof on our dormer whereas a lot of companies won't cover you.

DiscoStu

Admiral have a seperate section for higher value items, I've got my acoustic and my mountain bike individually listed on it.

ArchtopDave

I've checked my Direct Line Select Premier Policy and it covers £10,000 loss from an unattended vehicle.

Eartrumpet

+1 for direct line for me too.

Also saved £220 quid compared to my previous insurer

Haych

+1 for Admiral. I took my policy out online after L&G started to hike my premiums. They allow you to add high value items to the policy and I have two guitars insured for £3k each including taking outside the house and accidental damage and the premium still blew legal and general away. I don’t even think I had the guitars insured with L&G either.