Unusual Home Insurance Items

Confused.com have some interesting stories of unusual items being insured under home and contents insurance policies. If you have individual items worth £1,000 or over in your home, we all know it’s a good idea to make sure that they are listed on your home insurance.

Usual suspects include such things as plasma TVs, laptops, expensive furniture and costly jewellery.....but the more unusual suspects include the following bizarre valuables:

Peculiar paintings covered by home insurance

• If he’s good enough for the queen, he’s good enough to be displayed in your homes: yes, that’s right, a Rolf Harris original was one of the items declared under the High-Risk Item – Picture category.
  
  With Rolf’s artwork valued at up to £55,000, it’s no wonder that householders feel the need to protect his carefully-crafted kangaroo cartoons on their home insurance.
  
  
• Some of you seem to have a little problem with providing adequate details of your valuables. One applicant thought that ‘it’s a picture’ would suffice to describe their precious work of art. Another declined to give any more information than ‘Painting of Boots’. What we’d like to know is: which branch?
  
  
  
• Similarly, the single phrase ‘John Farnham’ was also listed in this category. Underwriters were left to puzzle over whether the picture was by John Farnham, of John Farnham, or whether the person seeking insurance actually owned Aussie singer John Farnham himself.
  
  If the latter is the case, Mr Farnham may be offended to learn that he is only worth £4,500.

Curious clothing added to contents insurance policies

• We could understand someone being keen to insure their extensive Manolo shoe collection, or some vintage Westwood creations, but listing a ‘work uniform’ for a massive five grand is a little less comprehensible. Exactly what job could this outfit be for? Deep-sea diving? Jet-packing off to work? Or do we have evidence of Robocop’s meticulous attitude to home insurance?
  
  
• The High-Risk Item - Fur category makes for some interesting reading. We’re guessing that people used this as a catch-all for miscellaneous items, and that furry grandfather clocks, furry desks, furry oil paintings or furry barracudas aren’t really present in UK homes. We could be mistaken though: for instance, a furry desk would be invaluable for a comfy lunch-time nap at work.
  
  
• Another entry in the fur category is a ‘mint and ocelot’ coat. We’re not sure whether the ocelot spent his last moments enjoying a pack of Polos, or if the mint part was a later addition by an original fur-coat manufacturer. Or perhaps people just don’t proof-read their home insurance documents properly.
  
  
• A ‘disco-dancing costume’ worth £1,200 is lurking in the wardrobe of an applicant with a particularly bad case of Saturday Night Fever.
  

Other surprising home insurance items

• An ‘Ann Summers demonstration kit’ was considered worthy of protection from, no doubt, the kind of burglar who is desperate to host their own underwear party.
  
  
  
• Someone owns their very own crocodile skull. Could this be a trophy belonging to Britain’s answer to Crocodile Dundee, or merely the possession of a keen osteologist (that’s bone expert to you and me)?
  
  
  
• A £10,000 collection of meteorites is listed as part of one person’s contents insurance policy; perhaps they were worried that these rocks, which survived sun-like temperatures as they fell through our atmosphere, might be damaged by a house fire.
  
  
  
• Someone wished to cover their ‘lace bobbins’ for £3,000 on their home insurance – that’s a lot of bobbins!
  
  
• We’re impressed by the person who’s managed to build up a £4,500 Scalextric collection: Santa must have been very generous last Christmas.
  
  
• A ‘James Bond cheque from a film’, listed for £8,000, is one of the most intriguing items we’ve come across. Was this written by James Bond to cover a particularly long night on the martinis? Or to him? And what movie did it appear in? Dr. No Cash? The Credit Card is Not Enough? From RSB With Love?

Protect both unusual and standard high-risk items on your home insurance

So whether you have the type of expensive possession that will raise a smile in the underwriting department, or the more usual stash of computers and pricey rings or watches, you need to make sure that your home insurance provider is made aware of these valuables as they may not be covered under standard home insurance policies.

Source: Who Would Want to Steal a Crocodile Skull? - Strange Items Listed on Contents Insurance Policies