Hmmm, checking my insurance, there doesn't seem to be too many "backdoors" really. There is a provision in here that says the maximum payment for audio- video and computer equipment (I guess studio equipment would fall into this category) is 15.000 euro unless you have certain security measures in your house and it is only insured if it's in a permantly inhabited house (which in my case it is)
This doesn't really matter for me since my studio is not nearly worth 15000 euro.
furthermore, the worth of your belongings is based in the new-worth, not the time-corrected worth, unless the time-corrected worth is less than 40% of the new worth. I guess this would vary from item to item.
there doesn't seem to be any provision saying the "pro equipment" is not included in the insurance. The only thing it says is that for company equipment the payment is based on the current value and not the new price. It would be strange, since the insurance is for the total contents of the house, not only for specific items (nor is it just for burglary, but also fire and other damages).
then it the case of damage you have to be insured for the absolute correct value, any deviation upwards or downwards yields a penalty and less refund.
I can't find anything about this in my insurance conditions to be honest. Of course, you have to be able to prove that you actually owned the stuff that was stolen (or destroyed in a fire for instance) and what it's worth so it's a good idea to keep receipts and maybe even take some detailed pictures of your studio and other expensive belongings.
The true value is difficult to fix (let alone measure) so this requires (as was planned...) a dedicated negotiation.
I'm no expert in this domain, but the fee would be more likely 30 Euro/month than per year for an insurance that reliably regulates such a case - the others will have their backdoors and attorneys...
well, I don't see why the true value is difficult to measure. If you have a list of the stuff you own it should be easy enough to calculate it's total worth pretty accurately, be it based on new price or time-corrected price (just look up regular second hand prices). As for dedicated negotiations, I can see how this could be neccesary in the case of very expensive and professional studios. But for a normal home studio I don't see why this would be the case. As far as I can see, I am insured for a total worth of 15.000 and nowhere does it say that an expert should come in and determine this value for you, or that it should be "negotiated". This is just a normal insurance that everyone has and it should reliably cover any damages by theft, fire, water etc...
As for attorneys, why would they need those? Unless they have good reason to suspect you of insurance fraud.
Of course, since I (thankfully) have not needed the insurence yet, I can't speak from personal experience. I'm just reading and interpreting the insurance conditions. (i've looked for fine print but it's not there. Or maybe it's too fine for me too see
)
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: King of Snake on 2005-05-01 05:48 ]</font>
