Insurance (Or Not)

[Stealth]

Hi

Coming up to renewal time for insurance and checking the small print some interesting things pop up with Mu&£@*uard.

For damage claims your gear (if fragile what isn't) must be in a flight or semi flight case. And don't think something like a Hiscox will do as it has to be "formed to fit the instrument"

For theft from home you need a 5 lever mortice on all external doors AND the same on the internal door room where the equipment is stored,

If you leave you Ampeg 810 in the locked and alarmed vehicle on your drive when you get in from the dog and duck at 3am.......not covered as you could have "reasonably" removed to Fort Knox see above.

So thats £300 a year for cover and £3000 to flight case all the gear plus £5000 for a van as it won't fit in the car flight cased !!!!!

Does anyone know a policy which might actually pay out or have any experience of claiming ?

Stealth

[thepurpleblob]

The odd time I have looked into insurance I couldn't see any possible scenario where the insurance company would pay out.

The requirements are nuts - basically you can't leave the equipment alone unless it's in a building with hyper-security. Bit pointless. Anybody here actually had a policy pay out?

[mentalextra]

Insurance companies can make their products sound fantastic until you have to make a claim, then it goes downhill rapidly!

[BigRedX]

[quote name='thepurpleblob' timestamp='1330510450' post='1558441']
The odd time I have looked into insurance I couldn't see any possible scenario where the insurance company would pay out.
[/quote]

One policy I looked at seemed to cover me against theft only if it happened to me while I was playing the instrument on stage.

The others were less comprehensive...

[charic]

Check out the endsleigh music instrument insurance, seems to cover me for damn near everything at a ridiculously low cost (i think the only thing not covered is lending gear out)

[JTUK]

PLI though, Deffo

[spencer.b]

Hiya
yeah that sounds like a bit of a stitch up, have a look at hencilla which is the one you get free with MU membership there terms look pretty common sense and a mate of mine made a claim for a double bass that got smashed and they payed out

[Stealth]

Ta Muchly will look over Endsleigh

Where do you get your PLI JTUK

[Gust0o]

Plenty of insurance policies pay out... a quick look at the annual results from our GI colleagues confirms that.

However, unlike some of the more common markets, insurance for musical instruments appears to be a law unto itself. These are often high-value, easy to steal/damage items. And, let's face it, some of our muso colleagues are not the most distinguished of citizens.

I can only imagine that the underwriting is swingeing and caveated to hell and back.

[shizznit]

Musical gear insurance companies don't live in the real world when it comes down to the terms of their policies, especially theft and damage during transit claims. Accidental damage terms are a complete joke and don't ever think that you will be successful claiming for that.

I have only ever had to make a claim twice. Once for a smashed up Warwick that fell out of the gear trailer on the M6 and my Overwater that got stolen off the stage in Portugal. I could not claim on the Warwick because it was our fault that the shutter on the trailer was not fastened properly and most of the damage was done by cars running over it. The company wanted the drivers details to prove they did the damage (I found 4 pieces...2 still unaccounted for!), which of course was going to be impossible...so they did not pay out. Luckily, the claim on my Overwater was successful (thank the Lord!). We were playing a festival and the person that stole it did it during our performance and managed to get pass the stage security as well as the back stage security. I managed to get a written statement from the stage manager and 4 weeks later I got the payout and immediately called Mike Tobias!!

On the same tour my guitar player got stitched up big time. All 6 of his guitars got damaged in Frankfurt airport. He couldn't claim through the insurers for some stupidly complicated reason and had to pursue compensation through the airport. After 12 months of legal action it led to a stalemate and gave up. During that time he got sponsored by a guitar company and all of his damaged guitars (a couple were repairable) were gradually replaced. To this day he still bitches about the whole saga

[Big_Stu]

[quote name='Stealth' timestamp='1330509897' post='1558426']Mu&£@*uard.[/quote]

I had them recommended to me by Sound Control (RIP). When I phoned them they couldn't get their head around a custom bass not having a S/N. They also insisted that they wanted an "official" valuation from a "recognised authority" but wouldn't say what they considered to be a good enough authority. I tried Vintage & Rare but they declined.
The case wouldn't be a problem, the locked internal door would be.

Previously I'd been with E&L, but they were impossible to get in touch with to renew, which I took as a bad sign for if I ever needed to claim.

[flyfisher]

[quote name='Stealth' timestamp='1330509897' post='1558426']
For theft from home you need a 5 lever mortice on all external doors AND the same on the internal door room where the equipment is stored,
[/quote]

Ludicrous. Even the police don't advise locking internal doors because once inside the[s] thieves [/s]bastards will just break down the door and cause more damage.

Anyway, surely a normal home policy will cover music gear when indoors?

[yorks5stringer]

I used to insure my gear and PA but to be honest only so we got the Public Liability Cover as basically if there was a "d" in the name of the day, you were not covered!

I was always tempted to leave my gear in the car, in my locked garage when we had 2 consecutive gigs but always moved it inside, just in case....!

[Stealth]

Endsleigh looks surprisingly simple and the full policy is only a few pages long with no nasties. I must be dreaming ?

Re valuations Vinta=ge and rare did one for mt pre EB Stingray and charged £25 for the pleasure so maybe its just customs. I have a Sei so I guess The Gallery would be "An Authority"

[Monckyman]

How about permanent rehearsal/storage rooms,anyone have any experience insuring one of those?

[fretmeister]

I use Allianz

Biggest insurance company in the world.

Also in my day job in the law I use their litigation insurance policies all the time. Very confident in them indeed.

Fill the form in and you get charged a sum per amount insured. It covers locked vehicles if the item is out of sight. They have 2 main products. Electric insturments and acoustic.

I can't remember if they include PLI or not. I'm a member of Equity so I'm covered for that anyway.

[JTUK]

[quote name='Stealth' timestamp='1330513261' post='1558525']
Ta Muchly will look over Endsleigh

Where do you get your PLI JTUK
[/quote]

I'll get back to you on this as it is an ongoing thing brought about by us playing more private functions..and some of those are in people's gardens or grounds.
Regular venues should have it as a matter of course, but the problem is the one-off gig where it becomes very expensive to put on over the costs of that one date.

[lollington]

Had my guitar, amp, cabs and pedals named individually on my contents policy with Co-op. Told them that it wouldn't be used for business/professional purpose, as there is little income involved and my playing is more of a hobby.

Called today to add a new pedal to the existing policy and the lass on the phone informs me that if we are performing in a venue that benefits financially from the band playing, then this is classified as professional use.

Removed all the equipment from my home insurance and got a policy with Endsleigh this evening for about £80 a year. Totally fumed that I've been paying for insurance that was utterly useless.

[chaypup]

[quote name='Stealth' timestamp='1330509897' post='1558426']
Coming up to renewal time for insurance and checking the small print some interesting things pop up with Mu&£@*uard.


For theft from home you need a 5 lever mortice on all external doors AND the same on the internal door room where the equipment is stored,

[/quote]

......IF the equipment is worth over £15,000. Under that and NO security arrangements are required.

[charic]

[quote name='Stealth' timestamp='1330517905' post='1558645']
Endsleigh looks surprisingly simple and the full policy is only a few pages long with no nasties. I must be dreaming ?

Re valuations Vinta=ge and rare did one for mt pre EB Stingray and charged £25 for the pleasure so maybe its just customs. I have a Sei so I guess The Gallery would be "An Authority"
[/quote]

When I done my ACG I just valued it at what I value it at (which is a bit more than I paid due to the wait) and how hard it would be to replace (very f***ing hard).

[steve-bbb]

all insurance is a legalised scam

i had kitty insurance - it was costing me 25 per month - thats £300 per year - you either cant claim for small things or its not worth the hassle if you can - my avergae annual vets bills for kitty were about 200 ish - is better off using the 300 you would have sepnt on insurance to give kitty a healthy diet which leads to less trips to the vet and save a wee bit for any vet emergencies

to translate into musical terms - if you did decide to go down the insurance route - just work out how many monthly installments it would take before you could have bought a complete new rig!

and then have a gas attack

[TheRev]

Has anyone got experience of claiming on the Musicians Union instrument insurance?

[charic]

[quote name='steve-bbb' timestamp='1330590143' post='1559719']
all insurance is a legalised scam

i had kitty insurance - it was costing me 25 per month - thats £300 per year - you either cant claim for small things or its not worth the hassle if you can - my avergae annual vets bills for kitty were about 200 ish - is better off using the 300 you would have sepnt on insurance to give kitty a healthy diet which leads to less trips to the vet and save a wee bit for any vet emergencies

to translate into musical terms - if you did decide to go down the insurance route - just work out how many monthly installments it would take before you could have bought a complete new rig!

and then have a gas attack
[/quote]

My lots insured (other instruments too, around the £8k mark) for IIRC just over £100 a year

[Gust0o]

[quote name='steve-bbb' timestamp='1330590143' post='1559719']
all insurance is a legalised scam

i had kitty insurance - it was costing me 25 per month - thats £300 per year - you either cant claim for small things or its not worth the hassle if you can - my avergae annual vets bills for kitty were about 200 ish - is better off using the 300 you would have sepnt on insurance to give kitty a healthy diet which leads to less trips to the vet and save a wee bit for any vet emergencies
[/quote]

That sounds like you bought a product which didn't suit your apparent needs, rather than insurance being a legalised scam. Many people do self-insure, in term of putting aside what they would pay in premiums as a fund should the risk the insurance would have covered be realised.

[skej21]

I use Endsleigh and it's great. They give you the option to cite the exact details of your instruments (including mods) and you tell them the rough value. The protection covers all sorts of outcomes and my annual premium was just £45 for the year

I know a friend who once claimed as his snare was stolen from the back of his open car boot when packing away after a gig and they paid out no problem. They used online comparison to find the cheapest price for the item based on his description in the documentation and gave him a cheque for the amount.

Pretty straight forward really. However, he had paid 5 years of premiums at £50 without claiming, and I had paid for 4 years at £45 without claiming, so between us we'd pretty much paid for his new snare, so it was nice to see our money back when we needed it.

Edited March 1, 2012 by skej21