insurance

Financial, legal, advertising, pricing, marketing, accountancy, bookkeeping, employment, taxation, etc.
Post Reply
Mrs C
Posts: 76
Joined: Fri 06 Feb, 2009 5:34 pm
Location: Wadebridge, Cornwall
Organisation: Carol Coulter Framing
Interests: Eating, cooking, walking, football (watching), recycling, the great outdoors, dogs (esp jack russells).
Contact:

insurance

Post by Mrs C »

hello, wonder if someone can advise me about insurance.

I have a policy which it turns out (unbeknown to me!) does not provide cover for damage to artwork in my possession. I obviously thought it did but some rather ambiguous wording in the schedule excludes that. I am in the process of making a complaint re my claim, but am not overly optimistic. Can anyone suggest insurers whose policies would provide the necessary level of cover.
simoonez
Posts: 159
Joined: Sat 09 Jul, 2011 4:09 pm
Location: North Dorset
Organisation: Dorset Framing
Interests: pasties

Re: insurance

Post by simoonez »

Do you mean accidental damage or destroyed through fire or break in?
Our insurance doesn't cover accidental damage as it's possible to mitigate against this - eg. proper training, workshop rules of not having liquids near work etc. According to our broker no insurers will cover against accidental damage, even if they suggest they do.
I think we're with Aviva, but I'll have to check that. I'm covered against pretty much everything I could be and it's not cheap. Each work is covered to £1000 without evidence required, everything over that value needs a valuation or other proof. That's in the case of theft or destruction through fire etc.
I have heard of insurers giving the material value of works, which in most cases won't add up to much.
I really recommend going through a broker, ours really took the time to understand what we do and what we can be covered for. If we need to make alterations as we go they do it pretty much immediately. It's a little more money but we found our previous policies weren't worth anything.
Justintime
Posts: 1868
Joined: Sat 26 Sep, 2015 8:48 am
Location: West Wales
Organisation: George The Framer LLP
Interests: Gardening, design, electronic music, good food and beverages.
Contact:

Re: insurance

Post by Justintime »

Its called process cover. I started with NFU, who advised that i could raise this cover if and when necessary, only to find that they didnt want to lower it again afterwards.
I then moved to Besso, (discounted through the fine art trade guild) aroung £1k a year. I then met a framer who uses Direct Line, has millions in cover for a third less than i was paying for £10k cover.
They all seem to have some incredible stipulations like removing all waste at the end of each day. I have never quite understood what they would and, wouldn't class as waste in my workplace. Having a specialist policy like Besso helped me understand what i needed. Once i had a list of terminology it was a case of building a policy with an agent to include all of the areas of cover that i required.
Justin George GCF(APF)
Insta: georgetheframer
User avatar
prospero
Posts: 11492
Joined: Tue 05 Jun, 2007 4:16 pm
Location: Lincolnshire

Re: insurance

Post by prospero »

It's a knotty conundrum, but from the insurers point of veiw.......

If you were working on an artwork and you spilled coffee on it or the dog eats it, that would be taken as 'negligence' on
your part for allowing liquids near the art and letting the dog in the workshop.

If a pipe burst in the ceiling or a bus crashed though the wall and ruined the work then that was essentially something you
could not foresee or prevent.

Fair dos. :roll:

But then there is a question of value. If you want to claim what you think the artwork was worth then you have to prove that it
is actually worth that. Which isn't always clear. They aren't going to pay an arbitrary figure that you dreamed up.


A friend of mine with a gallery had the misfortune of having his window smashed which destroyed a painting on display. The painting
was priced at £75, but the assessor would not accept that and asked what the cost of a blank canvas and an estimate of the cost
of the paint on it. :evil: Sounds bonkers, but you can see their point. Supposing he had priced it at £75000. :lol: Nice little earner.
Watch Out. There's A Humphrey About
Post Reply