Insurance for tools

[jrobb316]

I want to start this thread to ask how you insure your tools at home and at work. My homeowners policy does not cover tools and if you take a policy on them its crazy expensive (thousands per year). At work they are covered under their insurance, but i've seen places that don't offer insurance at all, or its so small its insignificant. I've seen places where tool boxes were stolen and the owner had no recourse.

I have a feeling my homeowners insurance ***** for coverage anyways, so switching wouldn't be a hard thing. Who do you use if any?

 

[LeeG]

I am in the process of switching to The Hartford. They will cover tools for non-commercial purposes.

 

[97tbird]

No clue if my tools are covered under my home insurance... suppose I should look into that.

At previous jobs, the employer would want a list of every single tool you have (every size socket and all) and take pics. If you were to bring something from home or buy something off a truck you would have to update your list.

I guess I should also find out if the current shop I work at has insurance for my tools :tard:

 

[colin39]

My tools arnt insured by my employer, well £350.0 so as good as nothing. But I have put them on an extension to my home policy, wasnt too bad but they will only cover what I have receipts for and I havent got all receipts for last 25years of working, but then again I prob dont have all the tools neither lol.

 

[Stuart in MN]

I had my tool box stolen years ago, and my homeowners insurance covered the loss. However, I'm not a professional mechanic and it was taken from my home garage; if you're a pro and have your tools at your place of business that will be a different situation.

There have been a number of discussions here over the years about tool insurance - you can probably find some of them with the search function at the top of the page.

 

[emeraldcoupe]

you may want to ask your homeowners again about your tools. as long as they are for "hobby" and you don't use them professionally they should be covered. mine were. my house burnt down in 2005 and all my tools were covered , no questions asked.

 

[panknuckshovel]

Yah tools werent covered on my homeowners when the garage got robbed. New policy does cover them, but only with a receipt.

 

[K-Dog]

At work my employer has a policy covering the box and all its contents.

At home..... *shrugs* I guess I should look into that.

 

[scrapdaddy]

I just had the agent out to my farm. everything in my shop is covered and we took pictures of all the tools, equipment, etc. Good enough for American Family. I will have to put a dollar value to everything.

 

[rice rocket]

Nationwide covers $3k max, and was told I need to buy a rider policy if I wanted coverage beyond that.

 

[tdkkart]

Yah tools werent covered on my homeowners when the garage got robbed. New policy does cover them, but only with a receipt.

So I'm supposed to have receipts for tools I bought 35 years ago??

 

[ZRX61]

Look into Inland Marine insurance.

 

[chard98]

State Farm came out, Looked at the collection, And I have a rider to cover all of it. Not too expensive, just added to the home owners coverage!

 

[jimindm]

I would bet that many of the tools owned by techs are not covered in shops. The shop owners tools maybe covered on a garage keepers policy. I would be very concerned about insurance on my tools if there was a sign posted about customer cars not being insured for fire and theft.

You tools at home are likely covered to a certain amount. Many times that amount is a percentage of the structure. No different from your home. House valued at 300K and contents 100K.

This is where a good agent comes in. Maybe its best just to get a rider. Maybe is best to insure the building for a little more to cover the contents. Maybe you can just raise the contents portion.

I does not matter what you do, you are walking a fine line to expect insurance to cover many thousands in tools and equipment, for personnel use.

IMO the people that have problems with insurance payoffs in the event of a loss, are the same ones that are not really up front and paying what they should. For the coverage they want.

 

[RedneckWelder]

I need to know this too. At the dealership my tools are not covered by their insurance. I "only" have about 8k worth of tools right now, but i expect that to increase to 20k within the next few years easily.

 

[quattroJoe]

My job covers my tools... provided I give them an itemized list of every tool in my box or retain receipts. Keeping an up to date list, considering how often I'm buying new stuff and retiring old or infrequently used tools to my home box, would be impractical to say the least. Luckily I have receipts in my email for everything I buy online as well as many of the big box stores, and can get access to receipts from anywhere I have an account. That's probably 90%+ of my tools, I'll take the risk on the rest as it gets to a point where it's not worth the time to maintain an updated list of everything.

 

[kblazer87]

I just updated my policy to cover my tools. Insurance will cover up to 2500. Above that you will need a rider.
Full replacement value of 15,000 is costing me an extra 165.00 per year on my policy, so basically 14.00 per month. I did have to supply an inventory list.