Thread: Insurance Value of your tools / equipment

From what I recall provided the tools are not for commercial use then they can be claimed under the usual contents insurance. I know that I have advised my insurance company that I have an extensive range of tools and they are for hobby use only. After being questioned on it I think they noted this on the policy.

As a must do one day I plan on taking photos of all tools, including serial numbers if they have them, and lodging this with the insurance company as well so there is no issues should a claim be made. I have been planning to do this for some time and I recall finding a good inventory program free on the net once which was perfect as you could create a page for each tool with a description and it had a place for photos and receipts if you had them. I put the program onto a 3 1/4 floppy to keep it safe ...... that shows how long ago I had the idea. Now I need to find a computer to read a 3 1/4 floppy and hope the program still runs!

Originally Posted by Sir Stinkalot

As a must do one day I plan on taking photos of all tools, including serial numbers if they have them, and lodging this with the insurance company as well so there is no issues should a claim be made. I have been planning to do this for some time and I recall finding a good inventory program free on the net once which was perfect as you could create a page for each tool with a description and it had a place for photos and receipts if you had them. I put the program onto a 3 1/4 floppy to keep it safe ...... that shows how long ago I had the idea. Now I need to find a computer to read a 3 1/4 floppy and hope the program still runs!

Funny you say this, I started off doing this last year, I downloaded software called WYO Home Inventory.

Free Home Inventory Software - What You Own

It allows you to inlclude photos, receipts, information etc about all of the items. I am going to use it to do the entire house, firstly I have gone out to the shed and have taken photos of all my tools.

So I will start with one room at a time.

That way there hopefully will be no problem if they are damaged or stolen etc. Big issue for me is receipts but hopefully they can track them via serial number etc.

Yes! I did a workshop inventory with images etc. about 2 months ago. Wow was I surprised when I did an estimate of replacement value. The secret is to keep it up-to-date.

An interesting topic this about insurance whether you can get replacement cost or agreed/estimated value with consideration to those tools no longer marketed or produced .

There is no doubt many would be well under insured given the updates and with replacement of tools without further thought given to upgrading insurance.

Arry your considerations are well grounded as I am also aware of the house fires that seem to be manifest at this time of the year that is always a concern for all.

Cheers

I've added a "specific item" on my "home contents" insurance policy of woodwork workshop tools at replacement value to re-setup the whole shop [$25000.00].
It didn't add much extra to the policy but great peace of mind.
I have a number of reasonably detailed photos of the whole shed as proof of them.
So far we haven't had any issues.
Cheers, crowie

Originally Posted by Arry

Funny you say this, I started off doing this last year, I downloaded software called WYO Home Inventory.
Free Home Inventory Software - What You Own
It allows you to inlclude photos, receipts, information etc about all of the items. I am going to use it to do the entire house, firstly I have gone out to the shed and have taken photos of all my tools.

What a great idea! I have just renewed my contents insurance and included a guess for the total value of my tools, which was probably too low.

Anyway, I've now downloaded the above software which seems excellent for the purpose; by about next year when the renewal is due, I should have it completed .

G'Day "GoGuppy",
My computer didn't like the software saying it could be harmful.
Please could you tell us how it goes so I know whether to ignore the warning or not, thank you.
Cheers, crowie

I specifically like the report function, although they could have made it a bit easy to find.

Go to the PRINT option, then choose PDF or similar and you can save it as a file, fantastic.

Crowie the software is perfectly fine.

Cheers

We learned our lesson after the Cyclone last year.
We always thought we were well and truly over insured.
Thank goodness we were.
We had planned on new furniture. Thank goodness we didn't.
To replace the complete workshop came to around $50.000 plus around $30.000 for the shed.
It was covered under our general contents insurance.
However, anything that is bolted to the floor goes on the building insurance.
Never settle for agreed/estimated value, replacement value means the cost of replacing a similar item regardless of the cost.
Total loss means a payout of the sum total, which is what we ended up with.
Another thing is to remember that demolition and removal also comes out of the insured sum, so make sure you are well and truly covered for that.
What we didn't know was that a certain percentage of the sum insured covers temporary accomodation. That was an added benefit with our insurance company and did not come out of the sum insured
We, of course, lost all proof of purchase together with the house.
We discovered that damaged items are proof enough, as long as you keep it until the assessor has been there.
We were so lucky to have an assessor who was also a woodworker so he knew the value of the gear when the insurance company queried it
This time, however, all receipts are kept in the fireproof safe. More important than jewellery
Cheers
Wolffie

Crowie
I had no probs with down loading or using the software. Mind you, I have Kaspersky Internet Security installed and it didn't raise any alarms (I have been using KIS for about 3 years and find it very reliable and secure).
But as usual, no guarantees on the internet .
Cheers

Woolffie

All good points, agree that cheapest is not necessarily best with insurance and read the fine print!
Cheers

My brother had his shed emptied, ($20,000 worth) he had some receipts but not all. What he had as proof was several steel cupboards with the tools marked on the shelves and peg board panels with shadow boards. They even took his Eskies 3 and his Engel to take the small stuff away in. You could see the dust spots where they had been.
That was enough proof for the assessor.
Kryn

What I did years ago was go around the house making a list of items and value and serial number and then entered the lot onto a spread sheet program. Where possible I also entered the date of purchase. The workshop is a lot harder due to the number of not tools but things like drill and router bits which are hard to list individually. They also change frequently due to wear and buying replacements.
As power tools and more expensive items are bought they are listed, as items disposed of removed.
My current list shows over 15k of tools of which over 4k is just one brand.

Doing the initial survey is time consuming - it may take the best part of a day. Keeping it up to date is easy.