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Concertina's Damaged By Flooded House


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Hello, I just got back from a month long trip to find my house had been flooded by a water heater leak. Two of my Lachenals sat in water and are coming apart.

My question is has anyone had to deal with there insurance co. on the replacement of a concertina before? If so how did you prove the value of your instrument. Mine were two 26 button Lachenals.

Thank you!

Lee Bryant

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I've had my instruments destroyed in a fire once - and learned a lot about how homeowner's insurance works. I'm sure that there are variations of coverage from company to company, but the essence seems to be:

 

Many HO's explicitly DO NOT cover musical instruments unless they are "listed" items. To be listed you have to have written appraisals from a reputable company specializing in musical instruments. Read the fine print and find out what your case is.

 

Sometimes you can make a case for your instruments being "non consequential" which puts it into the realm of "other household items", but don't expect to get much for them as without an appraisal as you can't prove what condition they were in prior to the disaster. The insurance companies point of view is "if it was important/valuable, you would have "listed" it."

 

I'm afraid the best you'll be able to do is to get an informational letter stating that your instruments may have be worth xxx if they were in good condition and present that together with a copy of the sales receipt you kept when you bought the instruments. How the insurance company responds to that will be entirely up to them.

 

I was shocked (and majorly bummed) when I was presented with the settlement value for my destroyed instruments - at about 1/10th their value! Their position was that they were all very old, that old things depreciate, that I couldn't offer any proof of their condition or value, and that I must not have thought of them as valuable as their policy expressly stated that musical instruments are a special clause and that I had evidently not thought them valuable as I didn't "list" them.

 

This is a good time for everyone to check their policies! Another item to look for is "off-premises coverage". Many policies DO NOT cover "household items" when taken off your property. Some won't even cover "listed" items taken off the property. Usually "listed" property IS allowed/covered off-premises, but there is usually a cap amount of off-premises value which is typcially pretty low (my HO was pretty standard and the limit was only $5000).

 

Oh, and another thing.... If your occupation has anything to do with "music", your instruments will be seen as a business asset and you'll have to pay appreciably more as they will be no longer covered by HO policies.

 

When getting my new policy I made sure everything was listed AND I had a special clause to up the off-premises value.

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Although as yet I have not had any disasters, I'm pretty sure the setup is the same with UK insurers. Anne and I insure our most costly instruments (the Jeffries, the Dipper and the Aeola) with British Reserve, who specialise in musical instruments and offer good cover at (relatively!) low rates, and put the less valuable boxen on the household insurance. Our household insurance company have recently given up listing individual items, so that's one chore saved.

 

Chris

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Rich's hard experience includes important info for all of us.

 

When I upgraded concertinas, I check closely with my insurance provider and found that my instruments would not be covered.

 

The reason: I make some money playing. Not MUCH money -- but it doesn't take much.

 

The solution: I took out a separate "business" policy on my instruments. That provides full coverage, regardless of whther I make money playing music, regardless of the type of loss.

 

Not super expensive, and a very worthwhile investment.

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One does have to make choices, though. When I lived in The States, the best instrument insurance I could find without belonging to the Musicians Union cost each year 1/6 the covered amount of the instruments. Gambling that the instruments wouldn't all be lost within the first six years, it made more sense to put an equivalent amount in the bank, just in case.

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Based on this thread, I called Clarion, and while they are sending me the detailed application, the ball park price to cover all instruments in the house came to about 3% of the value (with the caveat that they may choose not to cover the Harp, and instead refer us elsewhere).

 

--Dave

Edited by Dave Weinstein
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  • 2 weeks later...

I recently contacted my HO insurance company about my concertinas. Under our policy, there was a maximum payout of $1,000 for any and all musical instruments.

 

I was told if I had my 3 concertinas appraised, or had original receipts, I could have them insured for the full amount for around $22.00 a year. It's worth it - it would be depressing enough to have a disaster, and even more depressing to try and replace my concertinas for $1,000.00!

Edited by Pam Berardino
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GEICO (that is to say, Traveller's Group, who do Homeowner's insurance for GEICO) just sold me a $10,000 multi-instrument, no deductible policy, for an addition $52/yr.

 

Now, admittedly, I'd prefer to have the policy on something other than my Homeowners (since in America, they seem to want to cancel people the moment they make a claim), but it's better than no insurance at all. And a lot cheaper than anything else I've found.

 

And while the $10,000 wouldn't cover replacement costs on all the instruments, given that the other policies had a $250 deductible, it will cover more than they would have.

 

--Dave

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I have all my instruments insured seperately for replacement value with a company that specialises in the music industry and gives me world wide coverage for theft or damage.

 

The company even gave me a cover note on the spot when I rang them from Ireland the day I bought my Norman. I consider the very reasonable cost money well spent and definitely piece of mind.

 

Cheers

Morgana :)

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