AXA home insurance

[StickyWickett]

Anyone with these? I've just had my shed cleaned out of £2k of equipment and on claiming have been told that anything "being used for automotive purposes" is not covered by them and won't be replaced.

I'm not the policy holder and have lived on my own here for 5 months so I've never read or discussed any policy details such as this. Is this a common thing for insurers to do? If so, why? It really doesn't make any sense to me. What difference does it make to the claim if a welder was being used to make an exhaust pipe rather than a workbench? Or a spanner to tighten a calliper bolt rather than a nut on a lawnmower?

[Veg]

Standard clause to remove payment for very expensive tools. The insurers have been fleeced in shed deals. However identifying something that is an automotive tool is purely subjective and therefore it is hard to say what is and what isn't. The latter point is where we fall down as the insurer will say the welder is automotive and you've got to prove it isn't - hard work and will result in having to get a judge to see whose argument stands. like all UK law the richest opponent will win and that isn't us! However if you say there are several bikes in the shed they have to prove there weren't. That's why they ask for receipts but beyond 2 odd years you can say I haven't got the receipt and the value was below the insurers notification level for a single item.
You can understand their point of view but then again if you have loads of equipment stolen you wAnt
recompense

[Ian_C]

Insurance is unfortunately very much a case of small print, I'm just going through this as part of a house move, will need to put a policy in place before I complete, its a bit of a minefield!

As long as you are not running a business from home / receiving payment or reward to service peoples cars, the insurer would have a hard time wriggling out of paying out for a generic welder or generic spanners as long as 'shed contents' is included in your policy imo.

Garages and sheds and outbuildings would almost certainly have a max claim limit, and normally you can add specific items to the policy (pushbikes etc) if you think you have more than the limit in the said shed etc

edit - outbuildings not 'outbounds'!

[StickyWickett]

Like you say Veg I guess if you put yourself in their shoes it starts to make a bit of sense, but the term is so vague I don't see how it can stand up. If I was to make a bracket for something around the house and then realise that it could be used on my car would that be classed as automotive use? etc... My speculation was like Ian C's in the sense that if income or any monetary gain was being garnered from the tools' use they would be exempt.

On the bright side the company dealing with the replacements has received approval for them and was only advised about this clause. However as a result they've now asked if any of the lost equipment was for automotive use so I'm not sure how to answer. I don't want to risk having to start over from nothing in the tools dept. but I also don't really want to tell porkies to the insurer. In your words Ian what a minefield!

[Error404]

**** them. Say no, I am not qualified to work on cars, they are for domestic use. EOTD you paid for insurance fair & square, don't let the C U N T S squirm

[StickyWickett]

Yeah when you put it that way! Thankfully the handler's had the list of stuff approved already so I can't see them wanting to lose out on the dough and prying for more details, after all they are making a sale essentially. Good words there Error, almost my exact thoughts. Reassuring to see I'm not the only one with my mindset.

Cheers

[TimE-J]

**** them. Say no, I am not qualified to work on cars, they are for domestic use. EOTD you paid for insurance fair & square, don't let the C U N T S squirm

Just like Alex said, always worth trying to push them as far as you can don't just let them push you around! same really goes for claiming on car insurance.

[geneandbolly]

tell them that it was all gold plated gardening equipment appointed to you by Her Majesty, The Queen...