Home insurance question

[GJUK]

Hi,

Does having a shotgun(s) stored in your home change the amount you pay for your home insurance? Obviously it depends on your insurer but im looking for a general yes or no!

Thanks :look:

 

Jon

 

(still fact finding!!! )

[bobt]

no but the fact we have a few dogs about the place makes the insurance happy.

[GJUK]

Cool

Thats interesting mine don't know (didnt ask) about my dogs. (3 boxers)

 

J

[Jimbo57]

You will probably find that your home insurance covers "Unspecified Valuables" up to a certain value, often £1000, so if your gun is worth less than that it would be covered while in the house. If it was worth more than that it would need to be registered as a "Specified Valuable" in the policy. Your policy also almost certainly has an option to cover items while outside the house and this may cost a small additional sum on the premium.

 

If your police have insisted upon an intruder alarm as part of your security this should actually lead to a reduction in your insurance premium (but be careful - if you accept the premium discount for having an alarm then you must activate it every time you leave the house unoccupied, even for 5 minutes. If you don't and your house is robbed then the insurance will pay nothing.

 

But check with your own insurance.

 

Jim

[David BASC]

Good replies here guys, but just for clarity, there are two types (or three if you like) of home insurance. There is buildings insurance which coverers the structure of the building for damage, liability cover , sometimes drainage, cover as well.

 

Then there is contents insurance- which covered loss or damage to the loose contents of the house.

 

Sometimes there are combined into one policy

 

As an indication to what is considered building and what is considered contents, imagine you could pick your house up, take of the roof and tip it upside down, Everything that falls out is contents (including carpets), everything that stays put is building.

 

Having guns in the house will not make any change to your building policy. As said there is a limit on the value of contents, and if there is anything over this limit you must tell the insurer or in the event of a loss you will not get a full payout. If the insurer thinks you were deliberately under insuring they can get very grumpy indeed! Depending on what the value of these ‘extra’s ‘ are the premium may change. Having said that insuring guns on a contents policy is often the cheapest way of insuring them for damage.

 

David

[Cushat]

No, in short!

 

We've got our guns covered on the contents policy as named items though as they're over the £1500 single item limit. That pushed the premium up a touch, not because they were guns, just because they were over £1500. Same happened when I added my camera.

[GJUK]

Interesting that the police might require a home alarm to be installed. I currently don't have one and rely on the dogs which have the run of the house.

 

Thanks for the info, learning new stuff all the time here

[Tricky]

No, in short!

 

We've got our guns covered on the contents policy as named items though as they're over the £1500 single item limit. That pushed the premium up a touch, not because they were guns, just because they were over £1500. Same happened when I added my camera.

 

Although, if your guns are each worth only a wee bit more than the £1,500 single-item limit, you don't have to name them on the contents policy. If they were to be stolen, the insurance would still pay out £1,500 for each gun. You'd have to fund the difference, yourself, to replace them.

 

It's a question I asked my insurer a few weeks ago.