Hurricane Harvey Tool Loss

[slip knot]

I've been thru a couple of flood and suggest you take a trash can and fill it with oil/atf/diesel/ etc... and dump all the tools in it. clean them up as you get time.

As far as insurance coverage, if you didn't carry insurance on your tools, most likely the dealership wont re-imburse. its an act of god and they're not liable for what mother nature throws out. but they do need mechanics that can get the work out so they have a interest in you getting back on your tools ASAP.

Good luck to you and hope things work out ok. Floods ****.

 

[ken w.]

I wouldn't think that the owners would be liable to pay for your damaged tools. They are your tools and you should have your own policy for your tools. I had to do this for my tools. I had to make an inventory with receipts and update it yearly. I've never had to put in a claim. Now that I work at home , it's covered under my homeowners. I hope it all works out for you. Good luck.

 

[tonyciambrone]

Unfortunately things do rust while submerged. Water has a certain content of dissolved oxygen. That's the only component of the atmosphere necessary to create rust. Practically all natural water has plenty of oxygen to rust metal.

If you really are at risk of losing 12 or 15k and think there's a reasonable chance of legal or insurance action I would pay a competent attorney $500 for a couple hours time. YMMV

 

[James-W]

A flood event like this is in 'act of God' territory as far as the courts are concerned. The only chance you'd have is if you are in a federal flood relief area and they don't carry flood insurance- but in that case the tools are your personal property and should be covered by you at the end of the day.

You may be correct, I am not an attorney so I have no special knowledge in this area, but just talking out loud here, I have some doubts about it.

My thinking is, your tools are necessary for your employment. As such I would think the employer must provide a safe place for each technician to store the tools. I would have to say that the tools are in the shop in the care of the business owner, as are the customer vehicles being worked on.

Is the business owner going to tell the customers their vehicle is ruined so come get it and by the way, we aren't covering any damage done to it? The vehicle was in the care of the dealership, how can they not be responsible for it while it is in their possession? By the same token, the tools were in the possession of the business at the time of loss so how can they not be responsible for the loss?

 

[jessesandy]

Four feet of water in my dad's shop when the Napa River flooded back in '85.
(Never occurred to me how well air compressors float. )

It's not just the water damage, everything was covered/packed full of the finest mud/silt you can imagine.
First we used a garden hose to spray off the mud. Then, buckets of hot soapy water. Air dry in the sun. WD40

As already said, lots of WD40.


*Hopes and prayers*

 

[VRStrickland]

As a shop owner and tech I can tell you this much. My Garage Keeper policy will pay the amount I selected when I bought the policy for tools that belong to my guys and are damaged through fire or thefts. Acts of God are specifically NOT covered. I tell all my guys that they should carry their own ins on their tools. Their are a couple of places that will cover huge tool collection for about $500 a year. I will even pay the policy and take it out of their pay if they want. Even though I own the shop and take care of the business policy, I carry additional personal ins on "My" as apposed to "Shop" tools. I am sorry to say that I think you can expect exactly zero help from your employer in covering your loss. Sure hope I am wrong, but I would bet money on it.


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[Fcvapor05]

My thinking is, your tools are necessary for your employment. As such I would think the employer must provide a safe place for each technician to store the tools. I would have to say that the tools are in the shop in the care of the business owner, as are the customer vehicles being worked on.

This isn't correct.

What it comes down to is liability. The only scenario where the employer would be liable is if you could prove to a legal standard of proof that the employer caused the loss through their own negligence.

For example- if the building is in a flood zone, and they carry no flood insurance, that would be negligent of them.

The employer is not responsible for acts of God, and if there is no insurance coverage, any money spent pursuing legal action against them will be money wasted.

Also, depending on what state the OP is in, suing his employer may result in losing his job.

 

[kctyphoon]

Don't know if this is relevant. Friends of mine lost their houses from Sandy. While one friend had some items in a storage locker, someone broke into the locker.. nothing was taken, but his home owner's ins said the policy's covers his items regardless of where they are.

Prob too late, but anything like that of considerable value should probably be insured by yourself in the future.

I can probably predict your jobs ins will not be much help. They will likely not say "sure no problem, here's an xtra 10 grand for your stuff that doesn't belong to the policy holder" more that likely, your boss will need to fight for every nickel and dime, and still NOT get what he will be owed.

This is ALL a game by the way.. one reason they do this is because ins companies know the government will step in, and give out grants. The LESS they give you, the more likely you'll qualify for a government grant.

Even Verizon played this game.. I won't even type online the dirty deeds they had people doing so they could claim more loss and get federal money.. we removed entire networks in some areas that were working and usable so they could claim losses. That's just one of many things that went on.

It's a horrible situation, but 2-3 years after the fact, the flood was the best thing that happened to some people. SOO much money was thrown at them with little oversight. My one friend had a house built, prob 3 times the size of what was damaged( his old home was tiny) all paid for.. they basically replaced his home, all his belongings, enabled him to wipe out his personal debt, and still wound up with a good 30grand or more in the bank. All this for someone who struggled to keep 2-3,000 in his personal account every month after bills..

Trust me when I tell you, money will be pouring in for a lot of people. A week after Sandy, $10,000 grants were handed out to everyone with major loss in some towns.- "to do with as you please, no strings attached"

Like always though, the more poor neighborhoods will get the most attention, and the working middle class will be left waiting since " they can". It's been what, 5 years?, more since Sandy hit, and some people are still waiting for their houses to be fixed, and people to buy up the lots from all the ones just abandoned.. it'll be 10 years at least before Texas fully recovers from this.

 

[kctyphoon]

This isn't correct.

What it comes down to is liability. The only scenario where the employer would be liable is if you could prove to a legal standard of proof that the employer caused the loss through their own negligence.

For example- if the building is in a flood zone, and they carry no flood insurance, that would be negligent of them.

The employer is not responsible for acts of God, and if there is no insurance coverage, any money spent pursuing legal action against them will be money wasted.

Also, depending on what state the OP is in, suing his employer may result in losing his job.

If they had 5 to 7 feet of water in the neighborhood, there will not be a job waiting for him for some time.. also, the insurance companies will argue what degree of damage was caused by wind, and what was caused by flood.. those are two different policies.. anything that wasn't considered a flood zone in the past, will be one now.. all those homes will be required to be raised, or suffer insane flood ins prices after this

If his employer isn't in a flood zone that required flood ins, NONE of this water damage will be covered.

Do not count on his ins company to "help you out" with this., they are not going to.

It's fucked up to say this, but probably one of the best thing people can do if their homes were destroyed is to have them burn down.. there were a lot of mysterious fires after Sandy, cause as luck would have it, fire is covered by insurance with houses damaged by flood, that were not in flood zones.

 

[wrenchr]

OP,

If you can't get your tools replaced for any reason, we can send a call tag for your air tools and repair and clean up all of them. Any parts that need replacement we'll replace, any tools that need to be replaced we'll replace with ours if we make a comparable and send you back your original as well.

Good luck out there,

- Astro

That is awesome!!!

 

[PCMusicGuy]

I think what most have been saying is unfortunately true. Your employer would not be liable for your possessions or the customer cars that were there at the time. If you have a good relationship with your employer, you may be able to get somewhere with some help on tool replacement. What you cannot get replaced, perhaps you could start a go fund me campaign and get family/friends/forum strangers to help out. Personally, I'd be willing to throw a few bucks your way. I've seen the devastation around here and know it will be a long road to recovery.

Where at in the Houston area was your place of work?

 

[Codenforcer]

 

[bigdav160]

Did you bring some tool oil? I cannot fathom why you think the car dealer is on the hook for your tools. You could have picked them up before the storm.

 

[mrbillh]

Don't forget FEMA. Yes it will be a pain to submit for losses and you may be out the money for replacement initially. This type of issue might be covered by federal assistance. Every little bit will help

 

[Sticky Grips]

Get there as soon as the flood water recedes. Exposure to oxygen is what will cause rust.

If you can disassemble ratchet heads and soak...i think you'll be ok. Electronics are probably screwed though.

Good Luck.

 

[pcmeiners]

Don't forget FEMA. Yes it will be a pain to submit for losses and you may be out the money for replacement initially. This type of issue might be covered by federal assistance. Every little bit will help

Obviously you have never dealt with FEMA. Tool loss is not covered by Federal assistance; you might get 30k for a home rehab and a high interest rate loan. Now if your lucky, your state funding covered by FEMA might rebuild a dump of a house worth 10k at a cost of 500k- 1million, at this very moment it is happening here. By the time FEMA gets through in Houston, it would be cheaper to hand everyone a check for >$500k, but FEMA is bent on throwing money away, seems to be the main objective, aside from paper work... again It should go into the lemonade stand business, something not too demanding to manage.

 

[Davefr]

I would also talk to your SO dealer to see if SO corp. is offering any help to their Harvey affected customers. (like free rebuilds of electronics)

 

[Tummler]

I have a significant amount of experience with this type of thing. It pains me to say this, but you are likely **** out of luck. As for your employer's liability, you will need to establish that their negligence caused your tool loss or that a bailment relationship existed between you and your employer, the terms of which your employer breached.

The bailment theory is likely out of the question. Assuming you are responsible for the day-to-day care and maintenance of your tools, and you are free to take your tools home at your discretion (e.g., the dealership does not prohibit you from taking your tools home on the weekend to work on your personal car), a bailment relationship almost certainly does not exist.

A couple people mentioned the dealership is also not responsible for the customers' vehicles. This may not be a true on account of a possible bailment relationship and will depend heavily on the details of Texas law the specific facts of why the customers' vehicles were present at the dealership when the flooding occurred. If the vehicle was inoperable and in the shop for a couple weeks prior to the flood waiting for parts, the customer may have a good liability claim against the dealership. If, on the other hand, the customer dropped their car off at the dealership a couple hours before the hurricane made landfall, maybe not.

As for negligence, you would have to prove that your tools were damaged due to the dealership's failure to exercise the requisite standard of car impose by law, which usually amounts to "reasonableness." Arguing that the dealership's negligence caused the damage to your tools is a long shot at best. Was it really unreasonable for the dealership to not build levies around their building to keep flood waters out? Was it unreasonable to not build the shop on 10 ft pilings above grade? Those arguments would be a tough sell. I note this is why mechanics may be able to recover from their employers for lost tools in other situations. For example, if the shop is located in an area with a known crime problem and the shop fails to exercise reasonable care in securing its facility, that would be a good argument that the shop is liable under a negligence theory.

While my analysis has been gloomy up to this point, there is one narrow theory of liability that may have some legs if the facts of your situation, and particularly what the dealership told you, if anything, in days leading up to the hurricane, specifically, and about the possibility of flooding at the dealership, generally. If someone in the dealership's management represented to you in the course of the dealership's business to not worry about flooding, you may have a claim for negligent misrepresentation. Further, if the dealership told you during the days leading up to the hurricane that you could not or should not take your tools home, you may have a claim for breach of a bailment or negligent misrepresentation.

As for a first-party insurance claim (i.e., a claim for compensation for property loss without respect to a third-party's liability), again, you are likely facing an uphill battle. However, the final answer on whether any insurance provides coverage for your tools will depend on the terms of the policy at issue and Texas law. To know for absolutely certain whether a policy provides coverage, YOU MUST READ THE POLICY AND CONSULT SOMEONE KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT TEXAS LAW.

Most homeowners policies contains a business pursuits exclusion, but many policies with this type of exclusion contain various types of exceptions. Read your homeowners policy to know for sure.

As for the dealership's policy, there are simply too many different types of commercial policies to speculate with any reasonable degree of certainty whether there is coverage. This is especially true once we venture outside the realm of standard commercial form policies, as is almost always the case with garage operations. It is not uncommon for these policies to require that a third-party "entrust" their property to the insured in order for the insured's policy to provide coverage for damage to the property. For the reasons discussed above, you may face an uphill battle establishing that you entrusted your tools to the dealership. However, these policies can vary widely, and it is impossible to predict the precise contours of the coverage afforded by the dealership's policy.

As for a general strategy going forward, a good approach is to try and foster a sense of common purpose with your immediate supervisors and the dealership's management on persuading the insurance the company to pay out on the mechanics' tool loss. Even the most hard-*** employers tend to develop a sense of camaraderie with their employees immediately following a major catastrophe, and if the dealership is advocating on your behalf to its insurance company, that will go a long way toward possibly realizing compensation of some sort for your tools. This is especially true in a mass catastrophe situation. Insurance companies have drastically different strategies for handling claims resulting form such situations, but some of them can be very liberal on paying out on claims where there is no question there was a loss but coverage is questionable. They reason it is simply impossible to litigate all of the coverage issues that arise from something like this, so they make the economic decision to pay whether or not there are questions of coverage. though you usually still need a somewhat plausible basis for coverage. If the dealership's insurer decides to open its purse strings, it will be very beneficial to you and your fellow mechanics to have the dealership advocating on your behalf with its insurer.

If there are a couple mechanics that (1) have a good head on their shoulders, (2) have a good relationship with management, and (3) are trusted by the other mechanics, it may be a good idea to "informally" designate them to handle discussions with management and the insurance company. If all of you bastards are constantly raising hell about this at the same time, the dealership management's patience may wear thin.

Last, THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, YOU SHOULD SEEK THE ADVICE OF A TEXAS ATTORNEY.

 

[Cummins_Tech]

So sorry for your loss... I live in N Texas which is extremely tornado prone, this has had me seriously contemplating taking out an insurance policy on my tools. If they were lost or damaged, I would go bankrupt in a matter of weeks... scary.


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[GTO]

OP,

If you can't get your tools replaced for any reason, we can send a call tag for your air tools and repair and clean up all of them. Any parts that need replacement we'll replace, any tools that need to be replaced we'll replace with ours if we make a comparable and send you back your original as well.

Good luck out there,

- Astro

This is why I will continue to support AP tools...I love my AP 1822.

 

[shepherd]

By no means an expert on US tax law, but if the tools are a requirement for your employment, they should be deductible as a cost on your income taxes...if you havent claimed any related expenses/depreciation values on prior year's returns, that may help ease the pain a bit...but i agree with a lot of these posts that insurance most likely wont cover much.

You'd be better off leaving the door unlocked when you leave with a sign that says Free Tools, and claim them as stolen....

 

[gungatim]

Since a lot of you have tool sets worth more than all three of my cars, is it not common practice to have some kind of insurance, even high deductible?

Sorry for the OP's predicament, but I agree. If it was my livelihood, I would have a personal policy on my tools against theft, acts of God, etc.

I'm curious how many techs (if any) out there have insurance on their tools (not their employers policy, their own personal one).

It's been all over the news how only 20% of people even had flood insurance on their homes...

 

[Fcvapor05]

By no means an expert on US tax law, but if the tools are a requirement for your employment, they should be deductible as a cost on your income taxes...if you havent claimed any related expenses/depreciation values on prior year's returns, that may help ease the pain a bit...but i agree with a lot of these posts that insurance most likely wont cover much.

Tools are deductible under US tax law, when purchased new.

Replacements for damaged personal property is also deductible, but under a different scheme- OP would need to file his taxes with a Casualty Deduction. The way this works is not too bad to calculate:

Determine tax basis for the damaged or lost property (basically, what you paid to acquire it)

Determine the fair market value (what you could sell it for right now)

The lesser of those two values is the number you start with.

Determine if the property still has any value. If so, subtract from the number above.

This is Casualty Loss amount.

Take this amount and subtract $100 (because of some weird IRS rule.. it's always $100, whether the loss is $1000 or $10,000,000. $100.)

Take this amount and subtract 10% of your adjusted gross income.

Take this amount and subtract the value of any damage award (insurance payout, court judgement, etc)

If this number is greater than zero, you can deduct that amount from your taxes for the year.

For example:

Let's say I own a two year old car that was $50,000 new and my adjusted gross income is $100,000

Hurricane hits and my car is destroyed. I did not have full coverage so my insurance company tells me to go pound sand, but FEMA gives me $10,000 to compensate me for my damaged vehicle.

Tax basis for the car is $50,000
Fair market value for the car is $35,000 (it's two years old)

So I start with $35,000.

The car has a salvage value of $2,000, so I subtract that.

$33,000

Subtract $100 for the weird IRS rule

$32,900

Subtract 10% of my adjusted gross income ($10,000)

$22,900

Subtract any compensatory award- that's the $10,000 that FEMA gave me.

$12,900

$12,900 would be the amount I can deduct from my taxes for 2017,

This gets REALLY complicated if the lost property has been claimed with depreciation, but most people don't do that for tools, even if they should.

For the value of tools that OP is talking about, I suspect that is loss is less than 10% of his yearly income, meaning that no tax deduction is available.

You'd be better off leaving the door unlocked when you leave with a sign that says Free Tools, and claim them as stolen....

Better hope no one takes a picture of your sign, since you'd be committing fraud.

 

[Fcvapor05]

I'm curious how many techs (if any) out there have insurance on their tools (not their employers policy, their own personal one).

I'm NOT a tech, and I have insurance on my tools. Blanket policy with $50,000 of coverage is like $10 a month. No brainer.

 

[shepherd]

Tools are deductible under US tax law, when purchased new.

Replacements for damaged personal property is also deductible, but under a different scheme- OP would need to file his taxes with a Casualty Deduction. The way this works is not too bad to calculate:

Determine tax basis for the damaged or lost property (basically, what you paid to acquire it)

Determine the fair market value (what you could sell it for right now)

The lesser of those two values is the number you start with.

Determine if the property still has any value. If so, subtract from the number above.

This is Casualty Loss amount.

Take this amount and subtract $100 (because of some weird IRS rule.. it's always $100, whether the loss is $1000 or $10,000,000. $100.)

Take this amount and subtract 10% of your adjusted gross income.

Take this amount and subtract the value of any damage award (insurance payout, court judgement, etc)

If this number is greater than zero, you can deduct that amount from your taxes for the year.

For example:

Let's say I own a two year old car that was $50,000 new and my adjusted gross income is $100,000

Hurricane hits and my car is destroyed. I did not have full coverage so my insurance company tells me to go pound sand, but FEMA gives me $10,000 to compensate me for my damaged vehicle.

Tax basis for the car is $50,000
Fair market value for the car is $35,000 (it's two years old)

So I start with $35,000.

The car has a salvage value of $2,000, so I subtract that.

$33,000

Subtract $100 for the weird IRS rule

$32,900

Subtract 10% of my adjusted gross income ($10,000)

$22,900

Subtract any compensatory award- that's the $10,000 that FEMA gave me.

$12,900

$12,900 would be the amount I can deduct from my taxes.

For the value of tools that OP is talking about, I suspect that is loss is less than 10% of his yearly income, meaning that no tax deduction is available.

Interesting...seems biased toward higher value assets relative to income, which certainly limits the applicability to the wider income base.


Better hope no one takes a picture of your sign, since you'd be committing fraud.

'twas a joke, m'friend...I'd never recommend leaving a sign...

 

[Codenforcer]

I'm NOT a tech, and I have insurance on my tools. Blanket policy with $50,000 of coverage is like $10 a month. No brainer.

Where did you get this insurance? I'm still cleaning guys, real bad situation here. I'll update what I've learned later

 

[Fcvapor05]

Where did you get this insurance? I'm still cleaning guys, real bad situation here. I'll update what I've learned later

Pretty much any insurance company will sell you a blanket policy on personal property.

You can either add a rider to your homeowners (which is what I did) or purchase a policy separately.

 

[gnpenning]

My tools and equipment are on my home owners as well. Agent did a walk through with me this spring. I was way under insured. He took pictures as well. I don't recall the cost per 10,000 but it's cheap.

 

[Gittgo]

I wouldn't remove anything until insurance can have a look at it. Maybe try to dry things out but I'd leave them on site. Take lots of pictures as you initially open each drawer to show insurance. I wouldn't bank on ratchets and air tools being usable, eventually they will internally rust. Try to get them covered and possibly buy them back and rebuild.

30 gal drum of diesel or mineral spirits for the stuff that's hard to replace.
Wait for the tie boiz to bring their ego over for the rest.
These clowns have 20-30K in stock and consider the company " theirs".
Get them by the throat.

 

[kctyphoon]

Don't forget FEMA. Yes it will be a pain to submit for losses and you may be out the money for replacement initially. This type of issue might be covered by federal assistance. Every little bit will help

FEMA will be busy for years trying to get people homes.. they will not be concerned about his pliers..

And as the other guy from Staten Island commented, if your home was affected, get ready to fill out the same paperwork 3 or 4 times at least. Keep copies of everything, and keep it all organized, because all the assistance will NOT be..

This will be a time when you get to see people for who they really are.. who is gonna scam every dollar they can, and who is gonna try and be honest.. I honestly cannot tell you who the idiot in that situation would be anymore..

 

[Codenforcer]

I think what most have been saying is unfortunately true. Your employer would not be liable for your possessions or the customer cars that were there at the time. If you have a good relationship with your employer, you may be able to get somewhere with some help on tool replacement. What you cannot get replaced, perhaps you could start a go fund me campaign and get family/friends/forum strangers to help out. Personally, I'd be willing to throw a few bucks your way. I've seen the devastation around here and know it will be a long road to recovery.

Where at in the Houston area was your place of work?

I'm not the go fund me kind of guy but thank you. I have spent at least 6hrs today at work cleaning and saving my stuff along with helping here and there with the demo at our shop.

Word is our employer has flood insurance but directly from the co owner I was told that I needed to take pictures and document my losses with receipts and pictures and hold on too all damaged items.

When arriving today it was madness, complete destruction. A couple guys I work with have much greater losses than myself. Hopefully our employer steps up and helps us out, so far my feelings about the situation are negative from the reaction I got from the co owner. I'm actually worried about being let go because there is absolutely nothing to do but clean until the store reopens. All straight time, no commission

 

[SuzukiGS750EZ]

that's beyond unfortunate. I'm sorry to hear what's happened out there and I can't imagine how you feel about your tool losses. Is the majority of the dirtiness just silt? I would soak anything that ratchets in ATF. Even run it through your air tools. Surface rusted tools in white vinegar.

 

[Codenforcer]

that's beyond unfortunate. I'm sorry to hear what's happened out there and I can't imagine how you feel about your tool losses. Is the majority of the dirtiness just silt? I would soak anything that ratchets in ATF. Even run it through your air tools. Surface rusted tools in white vinegar.

Yes a lot was just silt but rust has already embedded in many pieces. I've got everything soaking in diesel/atf mixed 1/3. I'm surprisingly not as bad off as I thought. I'll need to spend a few hours behind a brass wire brush to finish things off.

 

[4 Ever-Fish N]

I believe Dave is exactly right. If the company has flood insurance, you may be OK. You'd be wasting your money on an attorney. If your company is large enough and cares about their employees, they should help you replace your tools. What area is the business in?

I would definitely start cleaning things up to minimize your loss/salvage what you can. (in the event there is no insurance recourse). Most insurance policies even require the party incurring the loss to make every reasonable attempt to abate the situation/prevent future damage.

You'll have a hard time convincing a judge that your employer was liable for the flooding/damage. Plus the attorney will likely cost a ton in fees.

That's why I think you and the other techs should have a meeting with management at the appropriate time. I think the dealership will get a ton of service work as a result of this flooding and they'll want their techs ready to go.

 

[Codenforcer]

We are a John Deere dealer, I'm not so upset anymore now that I've configured my losses around 1,000. A co worker of mine is looking at around 8k, he had a lot of electronic stuff, scope, scanner and everything electric, ratchets, impacts and so on.

Another bad deal is we are not exactly in a great part of town, two shop doors are completely destroyed fences are down and the security system is down so anyone wanting to loot would have damn near free will. I got all my stuff out of there to cover my *** from here until the place gets fixed.

Still hoping the dealer/employer has got our backs on this. I advise everyone to get tool insurance with a high asset in tools. I'm looking into it as soon as I get back to work.

 

[OccupantRJ]

I have many power tools that were underwater 18 years ago. I turned them by hand every day for a month after blowing them out with air. Zip tied triggers and plugged them in. They ran and spewed water out the cooling slots. Cleaned them up and they are still running to this day. I do have a couple of tools that are just needing new bearings after all this time. If the water is from a fairly clean source, things do much better. If acidic water is involved, not so good.

 

[d.mcfarland]

Very sorry for the situation you have been put it. I'm sure it was not your top choice, but stay strong and keep pushing yourself and you will be fine.

 

[tom-ky]

As a shop owner and tech I can tell you this much. My Garage Keeper policy will pay the amount I selected when I bought the policy for tools that belong to my guys and are damaged through fire or thefts. Acts of God are specifically NOT covered. I tell all my guys that they should carry their own ins on their tools. Their are a couple of places that will cover huge tool collection for about $500 a year. I will even pay the policy and take it out of their pay if they want. Even though I own the shop and take care of the business policy, I carry additional personal ins on "My" as apposed to "Shop" tools. I am sorry to say that I think you can expect exactly zero help from your employer in covering your loss. Sure hope I am wrong, but I would bet money on it.


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Would you mind sharing the name of the company that will issue those policies?

 

[tom-ky]

Pretty much any insurance company will sell you a blanket policy on personal property.

You can either add a rider to your homeowners (which is what I did) or purchase a policy separately.

As a professional technician my employer only provide $2000 or 2500 with of tool coverage. I would have to look it up to be sure. It has been several years since I priced insurance on mine but it was very high. I could have bought all my tools back plus more by now at the rates I was quoted, at the time I priced it over 20 years ago I had about $25,000 in tools. I would like to know where everyone is finding these cheap insurance rates. I personally have my home, vehicles and all our farm stuff on a commercial policy, but I doubt it would cover my tools on my work service van.

 

[StingRay]

For anything that is just rusty Evaporust is your friend. It will however remove any black oxide coatings from impact sockets, hex, torx, etc type bits.