Insurance

[M99]

We have specialist insurance for the business with Clivertons (Lycetts) they cover the Kennels, the house and the contents, outbuildings, stables, shed(s) garages etc (Each outbuilding has a building and contents value) our cover includes firearms and other odd things we have - again you do pay a price - but peace of mind far outweighs this!

We even get a discount because there is someone on the premises 24/7 365/year

Mike

[Steve]

That is one bit I do wonder about as we have a few tubs of black powder and reloading powder in the house. I do wonder what the fire brigade would say if you mentioned your house was on fire and had 2500 loaded rounds and 10kgs of powder in it (Complete with certificates of course)

A fellow club member told me that when he first got into black powder years back he asked the Police what care should be taken and they told him to contact the fire brigade.They told him how to construct a wooden box and said in the event of a fire he was to smash the window in whatever room it is stored in and to throw out in this order-the box,wife,children,cat,dog and lastly himself!

The ammunition shouldnt be a problem because they proved it on Mythbusters when they placed a 50cal round inside an oven it had very little energy.Yes the glass in oven door broke,but that was the case-the bullet did nothing.

[Steve]

Uberrima fides applies to all contracts of insurance. This means that all parties to an insurance contract must deal in good faith, making a full declaration of all material facts in the insurance proposal.

Your cover from Barclays is voidable.

Oh crap.I'll check the small print.

[Dougan]

You definately need to let you home insurer know that you have firearms and/or ammunition and powder - Sorry to be lazy, but this is what I posted last time:

It just so happens that I work for a large well known insurance broker/intermediary, and one of my roles in the past was to listen to recorded phone calls to see if certain things were discussed/disclosed or not - so I may be able to give you some tips...

Firstly, you'd be suprised just how customer focused large insurance companies (don't know about small specialist insurers) are - they are heavily regulated by groups like the FSA, and the days of trying to 'weedle out' of a claim payout are long gone. Small print is also nothing to worry about (it's all standard) - it boils down to the fact that if you fail to disclose something it may affect your ability to claim. Disclosure IS important. However, non-diclosure doesn't allways stop you from claiming, sometimes it just affects the payout - for example: Say you didn't tell your insurer that you kept firearms, and then had to make a claim for flooding....as long as the firearms wouldn't have prevented the insurer from insuring you at all, then the extra cost that they should have charged you would be deducted - If your claim was worth £5000, and you should have been charged £100 more for the policy due to the firearms, then you would be payed £4900 (which is very fair). If however the claim was in any way connected to the firearms - then you have a problem.

The safest way to buy your insurance is over the phone (as opposed to online)- It is then the resposibility of the advisor to ask ALL the right questions to assess the risk (as long as you are not deceptive) - if there is anything more than standard (flood risk, high value items, firearms etc.) then it will be referred to underwriters. These calls are all recorded, so take note of the date, time and person you spoke to (if they won't give you their surname, ask for their employee number - they have to give you this) - then if there is a dispute you can request the call be listened to. The process is done fairly (not worth a company getting caught out) and it is not uncommon for a broker (note it is the broker, and not the underwriter that pays up) to pay out high value claims because an advisor forgot to ask a question. If you are not happy with the decision, you can have a copy of the call sent to you, and if the call didn't record (can happen due to server glitches), then the benefit of doubt is given to the customer. The time to be most careful is when you renew your policy - at this point you may only be asked, 'are all the details on your policy correct?' - if you say 'yes' to this, the onus may then be on you if there was still something undisclosed at inception (equally so if you renew automatically).

As for keeping firearms and ammunition in the home being an extra risk - most underwriters do consider them so. There are various reasons for this - the most common is that it can increase the risk of burglary (statistically proven); but also the fire risk. This is not the higher risk of there actually being a fire, but the fact that if there is a fire then it could make matters worse and increase the amount of damage, and there for the value of the claim. Before anyone 'poo poos' this - you may remember that when you got your FAC, there was a note in it advising you to let your local fire brigade know if you store ammunition in your home - Should your 'man cave' catch fire (God forbid ) , then the firefighters would most likely step back and wait for things to stop going bang, before dealing with at any close proximity. The fact that the flamables would make the fire much worse, and may prevent the fire being dealt with quickly, does increase the cost of the risk.

Hope this information is of use,

[Robin128]

Nice one Dougan.

[ovenpaa]

Good post Dougan, can be posted again separately as a new thread and made as sticky? Not sure where but a Mod will know

[Dougan]

Thank you, but probably better not as a 'sticky' - there are a couple of things that I shouldn't have said ( ) as I still work for them....

But if anyone raises the question...I can remember were it is :)

[bobbob]

I too posted on the other thread about http://www.hiscox.co.uk/

Virgin did to us what your company did to you. We were going to go with NFU but they wanted to send someone round to see what we had and take all the serial numbers. We didn't want a stranger rifling through our rifles :roll:

[Steve]

Dougan.

Does the amount of firearms or types make a difference with how much you pay or is there a certain flat percentage they put on extra? I currently have 2 shotguns,5 rifles and a pistol if that makes any difference.

If i get finished early tomorrow i'll give them a ring.

[Robin128]

Thank you, but probably better not as a 'sticky' - there are a couple of things that I shouldn't have said ( ) as I still work for them....

But if anyone raises the question...I can remember were it is :)

Too late...it's in The Library...let me know any changes you wish to make to initial post...ie to protect the guilty ... but you can still add new posts...again let me know and I'll unlock it.