Home/Condo Insurance: More coverage?

[Verbal]

I figure this is a good question since all of us have some kind of studio here.

I just bought a condo and I'm shopping around for insurance. Some of you have a ton of expensive equipment. Did you guys get more coverage on your home/condo since you have a studio or did you just stick with standard coverage?

[nuxnamon]

i think most of the studios here on the forum don't need extra coverage.. as long as you have documentation, receipts, etc of all your stuff, you should be fine.. it's only when you have like CBentley's (look for him in that thread with the cat studio) stuff that I would get additional coverage cuz he has ton's of high end hardware.. whereas most users here are usually a computer, a synth or two, and controllers.. just my opinion though..

[Ed J]

I'm always surprised that more people don't have seperate musician's insurance.

My mate's sister was in a signed band, touring, and after they got their stuff nicked for the 3rd time they had a massive whinge, which got passed to me via my mate. When I was like, "man, that's shit, all the keyboards nicked out of the car? Ah well, least they'll have musician's insurance" he explained that they'd never heard of it and actually just had a couple of grands worth of stuff nicked which they then had to buy again.

Depends if you go out a lot though I guess.

[RCUS]

hi Verbal. it is my understanding that most renters and home owners insurance do not cover anything deemed "musical instruments". I would ask specifics about the policy you are interested in, as to whether or not your gear is covered. talk to your agent and go through a bunch of "what if" scenarios. there should be no grey areas. you either know your stuff is covered, and what they require to cover it (receipts, serial #'s, pictures etc..), or it's NOT covered!

currently I rent an apartment and found it was cheaper to get insurance through a place called musicproinsurance.com, than it was to get a regular insurance policy. music pro insurance will also cover your stuff for gigging out, and they even have an optional "touring" package i remember looking at, but i don't travel alot (yet). I pay about $120.00 a YEAR to cover about $14,000 worth of stuff from fire, theft, vandalism, and water damage (including dumbasses spilling shit on my computer). i have yet to use it, so I can't comment on actually claiming something though.

the other thing to note, is music pro insurance is a GROUP policy that renews June / July every year. so if you buy it now, you will still pay the full premium (starts at $100). Then in June / July you will pay another full premium that will be good for the whole year.

the hardest part about getting the insurance was taking the hour or so to document ALL your stuff and get model #'s and serial #'s for everything. it's also a good idea to keep all your receipts in a safe place in case a claim comes up (mine are in a fireproof box).

I'm guessing there are other options out there so you might want to research further, but I have nothing bad to say about musicproinsurance.com so far. hope that helps!

[beats me]

hi Verbal. it is my understanding that most renters and home owners insurance do not cover anything deemed "musical instruments".

That doesn't make much sense. So if your place gets broken into they'll pay for everything except for your guitar?

If you're talking about taking your gear outside the house then that is a different kind of insurance as has been mentioned. But he didn't say he's looking to insure his gear on the go.

And I'm by no means an insurance expert, but I thought you just pick a coverage amount and you are covered for that amount. So if your coverage is $30,000 then you are covered for that amount of stuff regardless of what it is.

[RCUS]

its all in the the "Exclusions" section and varies from policy to policy. thats why rich people have separate insurances for things like expensive Art or jewelery. so you may be correct that you are covered, and you may not be correct too. it's all in the fine print as usual.

obviously there are ways around it. so if you're covered for $30,000 total and you have a fire and all your stuff burns, then you would just claim a total loss and take your $30,000. BUT, if someone comes to your house and pees on your Virus TI, and you try to claim it, it might be excluded.

[Tarekith]

Talk to your insurance salesman about it, they're the best ones to ask. Here in the US, State Farm covers all my music gear as part of my home owner's insurance. Always keep your receipts, serial numbers, and pictures of your gear in your studio handy, preferably someplace other than at home too! Not going to help you there if you have a fire or something.

[LancelotHB]

The best person that can be asked and talk to is the insurance man or any expert on that field. He can help you with the queries you have.