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Frankly we could discuss this till we are blue in the face...despite what the insurance law says we will all have our own opinion.

Please call your insurance company and make sure they do not care about the rifles being disclosed.

Better safe than sorry.

Opinion is not the issue it is FACTS of LAW.

As you say, better safe than sorry..saying F-B forum said it was OK to keep quiet will NOT get you a result....!

NRA membership indeed does not insure houses, but do check how much additional "all risks" items cost on your household policy. 1.25% is quite common, which happens to be about what NRA membership costs as a percentage of £5000-00. If your gun suffers an accident outside your house (as club secretary I once made a claim for a member whose gun was hit, overseas, by a range danger sign that blew over in the wind while he was coaching - quote "that'll be f***ked then, another 2 left and go on") it probably isn't covered even if within the limit for general possessions unless you have declared it for all risks and paid the additional premium.

Other thoughts: if you have annual travel insurance it may cover unspecified personal possessions up to a certain limit within policy constraints. Read the policy. And you may have travel insurance as a "free" add-on to a sophisticated bank account or credit card.

Also, remember that if your gun is over the limit for general household possessions, it likely won't be covered at all by your household policy unless you have declared it, even if the damage costs less than the limit to fix. Observe ultima fides.

Finally, remember that the real purpose of insurance is to meet the cost of losses that you cannnot yourself afford to meet. If you can find the money to pay the bill, that may be cheaper in the long run than insuring your stuff. If that sounds odd, think back to when your car was an old banger and you insured it third party only. You took the risk on the few hundred quid the car was worth, that it might be stolen or you might park it in a ditch. Your insurer took the much less likely but potentially more expensive risk that you would do something monumentally stupid, have a head-on with a Roller and get sued for millions for slightly rearranging Lady Penelope's teeth and spilling champers on Parker's trousers. If you can afford the risk, consider explicitly excluding your guns from the policy. They tend to be cosseted and very secure, so the insurers with a non-specialist policy may be asking way over the odds for the bet (and all insurance is a bet).

Christel, Chuck and Iain are quite right... it is definitely better to be safe than sorry.

I work for a typical house hold insurance company, and regularly listen to past calls to see if various things were disclosed in the case of a dispute - As chuck said, there is a big element of common sense and honesty, and it is up to the underwriters to use their discression on a case by case basis....

...in practice, this means that you will rarely lose your whole claim if the non-disclosed item/s didn't have any effect in the incident - so if you claim £1000 for a spillage on the carpet, and it turns out you didn't disclose your guns...then it would be most likely that the insurance company would take a few hundred quid 'increased premium' away from the payout....

...however, if you had a fire, and your ammo or loading components contributed to the incident, then you may get nothing......just the same as if an artist's (you have to disclose working from home, and different occupations carry different risks) studio went up due to turps been left about...then they would be in the same position...

dougan & iain :cheers:

In this day and age when insurers are under pressure to keep premiums down and limit payouts they may well seize on your non disclosure as a way of avoiding (evading) your claim altogether..it is NOT worth the risk..you do not know what type of claim you will have..and if you are an RFD working from home you would be nuts not to tell them.

How is owning firearms any more material to the risk than having a nice vase or big telly. It isn't! In my professional opinion, you need not disclose firearm ownership to your insurer anymore than you have to tell them you own a dog that may eat your sofa.

However you should discuss with your insurer/broker if you have any doubts.

Mike357, CertCII & member of the Chartered Insurance Institute. razz

Chuck wrote:and if you are an RFD working from home you would be nuts not to tell them.

If you buy your insurance over the phone, you should (by law) be asked all the necessary questions - 'do you work from home?' is one of them...if you lie...then your policy will be invalid.

Also, beware when buying your policy online...there is a bigger temptation (when not being asked by a person) to 'leave out' information that should be disclosed...

Chuck wrote:..and if you are an RFD working from home you would be nuts not to tell them.

Very wise words Chuck, and being an RFD I have a very good understanding of exactly what the insurance premiums are for such a business and I do wonder how many RFD's are fully insured especially for third party liability. Also there are lots of little clauses and stipulations, even down to the number and weight/type of fire extinguishers we have to keep and either service or renew yearly.

Mike357 wrote:How is owning firearms any more material to the risk than having a nice vase or big telly

Statistically, and underwriters use statistics, keeping guns in your home makes you more likely to be burgled (and there's more to it than just a matter of you being targeted specifically for the guns) - It also increases your fire risk.....don't forget that you are meant to notify your local fire department if you keep ammunition.....if the firemen get there to find you loading room going up, they will hold back, making the total damage greater.....

....I know it sounds crazy, but millions of claims are made every year, and that provides some definite statistics.

John where does it tell us that we are obliged to notify the fire brigade if we store ammunition/

How does one know that is an obligation?

How many here have?

Where does the "obligation" to inform the insurance conpany stop? Do we need to tell our car insurance company that we transport guns and ammunition.

If I do not want my guns insured by the household insurance conpany, and am insuring elsewhere then that is nothing to do with them. Likewise, a woman who has large amounts of expensive jewellery which she insures separately, does she inform the insurance company of that?