Anyone have their HT insured?

[ht_addict]

I was taking to a friend about my HT setup the other day when he mentioned I spend a lot of money on it. That got me to thinking. How much would it cost to replace everything in the event of fire/flood/theft. To get full replacement value I was looking at $16K:banghead: for equipment and videos. So I contacted my insurance company to see if I needed additional home insurance. Was told I was already covered, just take pictures and drop them off to be put in my file.

[Danbry39]

I thought the same thing this summer after reading an article focusing on the things that might not be covered. We're covered for up to $100,000 on electronics. I took pictures right away of things all over the house.




Keith

[Chris D]

Yup, this all crossed my mind. Something my wife and I do as well is record the serial numbers of the important equipment in the house. Good for theft protection as well as damage insurance.




CHRIS
Luke: "Hey, I'm not such a bad pilot myself, you know"

[Sonnie Parker]

A good reason to take those HT pics and upload them to a gallery or start your own webpage. There are lots of free ones available.

Our HT is covered under our contents coverage of our homeowners policy but we have a $500 deductible. We had an older RPTV that quit on us many years ago (struck by lightning supposedly) and our insurance company opted to replace it instead of repair it ($4200 at the time).






SONNIE

Cedar Creek Cinema

DVD Collection

BFD Comprehensive Setup Guide

[brucek]

I have a spreadsheet where I keep track of all my equipment models, serial numbers, price paid, full price etc. When I added my last piece of equipment to it, the sum for my two systems was over $57K not including media. This got me concerned, so I phoned my insurance company and they said exactly what you guys are saying..

As long as I take some pictures to prove it, they had no problem. I did that and also made a photcopy of all my receipts along with the pictures and put them in my files at work.

I guess that's all you can do.....

brucek

[Robbie]

Great topic. I never thought of my HT in regards to insured value. Just figured it would be covered by the general home ins. The value of mine is probably in the 8K range so it's not a problem but I do need to take some pictures.

Thanks guys

Robbie

[Clive]

Extremely great idea to take some pictures, but keeping a copy away from home is equally important. I learnt this a few years back when we went through that experienced of a house fire. Luckily I had all my reciepts in my office away from home especially for my software. Something everyone here should do.




CLIVE




HEY!! Why buy movie tickets when you can own a Theater?

[David Meek]

Last month, after one of our neighbors' houses burned down due to a lightning strike, I found out that there are different standards of payment between fire and theft incidents. In case of the house burning to the point of being a complete loss, our default content value is 75% of the "value" of the house. We decided that wasn't quite enough and bumped it past that to accommodate the HT/music equipment and media. It would be a straight payment based on those constraints. BUT, if things are lost in a burglary or if fire damage wasn't total, we have to have individual receipts and photos to guarantee recovery of cost. FYI, we are insured through one of the major companies in America

However, the fact that we're in Texas and have had such interesting times with homeowner's insurance lately may mean that your coverage is different and hopefully better. Just to be safe, I strongly recommend checking in detail with your insurance company.




David - HTGuide flunky
Our "Theater"
Our DVDs on DVD Tracker

[George Bellefontaine]

Good idea, Tex. Seems as if insurance practices are different everywhere.




My Homepage!

[Clive]

However, the fact that we're in Texas and have had such interesting times with homeowner's insurance lately may mean that your coverage is different and hopefully better. Just to be safe, I strongly recommend checking in detail with your insurance company.

It's everywhere Tex!! For example, when we had the blackout the other day, a customer of ours had a house fire from the surge when the lights were turned back on. The surge blew up most of his equipment which started the fire. The Insurance company he was dealing with told him (after a weeks of phone calls) that the surge was "Artificial" and "Not an act of God" So he was not covered :evil:

So be very careful guys.




CLIVE




HEY!! Why buy movie tickets when you can own a Theater?

[David Meek]

Oh sh**, Clive, that's scary. We have occasional power outages (caused by thunderstorms mainly) here in H-town. Guess I'll be calling my insurance guy for another round of questions.

Thanks for the heads-up. . . . :hb




David - HTGuide flunky
Our "Theater"
Our DVDs on DVD Tracker

[Burke Strickland]

I found out that there are different standards of payment between fire and theft incidents.

Reminds me of the Saturday Night Live skit where someone's house burned down and they called the insurance company to file a claim and the insurance company rep said they weren't covered. The home owner said "but my policy covers fire and theft". the insurance rep said "did anyone steal anything?" And the home owner said "no -- we lost everything in a fire" and the insuranc e rep said "your policy says fire AND theft -- you should have had a policy for fire OR theft."

After the experience I had with my homeowner insurance company after Tropical Storm Allison, where they disallowed my claim due to what they claimed was "shoddy workmanship" on the area where bricks were displaced by the winds and extraordinarily heavy rains, despite there having been no previous damage to it in over 20 years, I am convinced that the only reason I have the insurance is because it is required by the mortgage company, not because I will ever collect a cent in case of any calamity. (Adding injury to insult, I just got my renewal notice and their rates went up another 15% -- despite the state government's recent actions to supposedly reduce rates.)

[Whistler]

Yes I have an extra insurance for it:

damage caused by:

- fire
- water
- theft
- lightning

Whistler




The Mainframe

[Bill Blank]

That was the first thing I did, checked to make sure my homeowners ins. covered it, at full replacement value, not some magic number they came up with. I keep a handwritten list of model #, serial #, and $ in a fire-safe box with other important documents. I've also got pictures of the gear + serial #s on my home computer, work computer, and on CD. I also keep a spreadsheet of all CD's and DVD's, one copy on home computer, one at work, one on floppy.

Bill




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