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After a very muddy ride about two months ago, I stupidly left all my gear in the boot of my car as it was absolutely caked and I didn't have the energy to clean it. I thought I'd leave it until the following day to sort out and it would be safe enough hidden in the boot. The car was parked off-road and I live in the middle of nowhere.
Obviously that night my car got nicked. I'm really not bothered about the car it's more my biking stuff (helmet, knee-pads, jacket, shorts, fivetens, gloves, lights, camelback, go pro, multi-tools, pump). Luckily I took my bike out.
My car insurance have paid out for the car after about two weeks after it was stolen. The contents they would only cover up-to £150 and advised me to go through my house insurance. The car has since been recovered and I've been waiting for a while to see if any of my stuff has been recovered, which I still don't know because the police and insurance company aren't really interested. Due to our baby arriving and life in general, I never got around to claiming for my stuff.
I have never claimed on house insurance before, does it massively increase your premium for the following year?
And has too much time passed (roughly, about two months) to make a claim?
How much was the kit worth and whats your house insurance excess?
Think my excess is £250 and therefore, based on my kit, they'd be little point claiming
Yes depends on your excess and the value of said stuff after the excess is paid, generally I think youre ok time wise as the car has been recovered but youre waiting to here if the contents are gone, get the police crime number, tot up the amount less excess and make a decision, depending on how long youve been with your present company and the number of claims youve made before i.e if this is the very first time youve claimed it shouldnt be too bad. I had to claim for escaped water from burst pipes and it didnt go up massively IIRC I think it was less than 20 quid.
One thing to watch is valuation of clothes. One policy we had did cover items on a new for old except clothes where they applied a proportional wear and tear reduction based on age.
I have never claimed on house insurance before, does it massively increase your premium for the following year?
I've only claimed once (for a bike) - it didn't make too much difference in premiums afterwards.
As Aidy says. But you don't stay with the same insurance company do you?
I claimed for a mobile phone as we had extra cover for items like that outside of the house. It was coming up to renewal time (we'd had a renewal quote) and we'd been with them for a good few years without any claims. Renewal came through and they put the annual premium up by approx 2/3 the value of the claim, clawing nearly all of it back immediately. Told them to shove it and shopped around, Direct Line beat my original premium and I fully disclosed the phone claim so they knew about it. So claim if its worth it but be prepared to move insurers. It's daft having insurance if you don't use it when you legitimately can.