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-   -   Insuring the shipping of home contents (https://britishexpats.com/forum/australia-54/insuring-shipping-home-contents-112679/)

etlniwd Oct 10th 2002 2:05 pm

Insuring the shipping of home contents
 
Hi,

I'm sure many of you have shipped your home contents to/from UK-Australia. I wonder if someone could give me any advice on the issue of insurance - especially any lawyers out there.

Why is it that the removals companies expect people to insure their belongings ? Surely I am paying the removal company to transport my belongings from the UK to Australia in a responsible manner. How, in law, can they absolve themselves from any responsibility for looking after my stuff ?

Surely if anything got lost or damaged I could just sue the removals company. Why should I take out an insurance policy for this (which by the way is bloody expensive at £1,200 !!!) ?

I've just come back from shopping at Sainsburys. If one of the shelves had fallen over and injured me I would have claimed compensation from Sainsburys. I would not be expected to insure myself before I went into the store.

Oh, and one more thing. It appears that shipping insurers will not insure against 'vermin', 'damp', or 'mould'. Surely these are the most likely enemies of a shipping container.

Is it just a big rip off ?

etlniwd Oct 10th 2002 4:07 pm

Re: Insuring the shipping of home contents
 
Oh yes, I forgot to add this bit ....


They also want me to insure myself against their employess damaging my home while they are here doing the packing ?

Have you ever heard anything so daft in all your life ?

Anybody want to invite me round to dinner tonight cos I'd love to come. Just make sure you insure yourself against me smashing your place up cos if I do it will be your fault.

Watt Dabney Oct 10th 2002 7:24 pm

Re: Insuring the shipping of home contents
 

Originally posted by etlniwd:
Oh yes, I forgot to add this bit ....


They also want me to insure myself against their employess damaging my home while they are here doing the packing ?

Have you ever heard anything so daft in all your life ?

Anybody want to invite me round to dinner tonight cos I'd love to come. Just make sure you insure yourself against me smashing your place up cos if I do it will be your fault.


Good to see someonelse having the same conversation that my husband and I had last night!
I am at the moment wading through the marine ins form for PSS (coming to pack he house up on 21/22/10/02) if I ever finish the form :rolleyes:
Working out replacement cost in like condition and age is a nightmare. Also stunned to find that we are expected to insure the shipping and packing cost! Surley if the ship sinks then they have not provided the service we paid for and we should just get our money back, so therefore they should be insuring themselves for that and not expecting us to pay for it.
Our stuff is quite old and not worth a lot but we decided to ship it as we couldn't stand the hassle of having to buy everything when we got there as well everything else that needs doing on arrival. Also it still works out cheaper to ship at £3000 if you think of the cost of replacing everything (PC,stereo,furniture,kitchenware etc). As for this stupid bloody ins form, as with all ins if you bother to read the small print they have excluded themselves from responsibility for the most common reasons for a likley claim. I honestly think that taking into account excess & small print you are only likley to get any pay out in the event of a major problem ie ship sinking.

Paula

onlyme Oct 10th 2002 9:46 pm

Re: Insuring the shipping of home contents
 
'tis strange indeed. I packed my own stuff when I came out here , so didn't have any strange people in my house. I was told to get insurance for my container because

1) someone might break into it and nick my stuff while it's hanging around the docks

2) the container might fall off the ship. Apparently if the containers were chained to the ship and the sea got very rough the ship could possibly capsize. So, instead they let the containers fall off.

dunno how true that is though.

Cath Oct 11th 2002 4:11 am

Re: Insuring the shipping of home contents
 
On Thu, 10 Oct 2002 21:46:08 +0000, onlyme
wrote:

    >'tis strange indeed. I packed my own stuff when I came out here , so
    >didn't have any strange people in my house. I was told to get insurance
    >for my container because
    >1) someone might break into it and nick my stuff while it's hanging
    > around the docks

Yes, it does happen!

    >2) the container might fall off the ship. Apparently if the containers
    > were chained to the ship and the sea got very rough the ship could
    > possibly capsize. So, instead they let the containers fall off.

True. If a captain has to make the choice between loosing the ship
and cutting loose containers in an effort to save it, he/she will
chose the latter. It doesn't happen very often but the risk is
always there.
    >dunno how true that is though.
    >--

Cath

Ceri Oct 11th 2002 4:18 am

Re: Insuring the shipping of home contents
 

Originally posted by onlyme:
'tis strange indeed. I packed my own stuff when I came out here , so didn't have any strange people in my house. I was told to get insurance for my container because

1) someone might break into it and nick my stuff while it's hanging around the docks

2) the container might fall off the ship. Apparently if the containers were chained to the ship and the sea got very rough the ship could possibly capsize. So, instead they let the containers fall off.

dunno how true that is though.

Same here, I packed my own stuff too, it was cheaper and at least I knew all my breakables were packed properly :)
I paid around $1000 Sing dollars for insurance. Which is/was about 400 pounds.

cheers

deteo Oct 11th 2002 4:37 am

Re: Insuring the shipping of home contents
 
Hi, were you shipping from Singapore? If you were, which mover were you using?

How much did you pay excluding insurance? How big was the container?

Which part of Australia are you now?

Originally posted by Ceri:


Same here, I packed my own stuff too, it was cheaper and at least I knew all my breakables were packed properly :)
I paid around $1000 Sing dollars for insurance. Which is/was about 400 pounds.

cheers


Nicki Oct 11th 2002 10:56 am

Re: Insuring the shipping of home contents
 
On Thu, 10 Oct 2002 19:24:11 +0000, Watt Dabney
wrote:
    >Good to see someonelse having the same conversation that my husband and
    >I had last night!
    >I am at the moment wading through the marine ins form for PSS (coming to
    >pack he house up on 21/22/10/02) if I ever finish the form :rolleyes:
    >Working out replacement cost in like condition and age is a nightmare.
    >Also stunned to find that we are expected to insure the shipping and
    >packing cost! Surley if the ship sinks then they have not provided the
    >service we paid for and we should just get our money back, so therefore
    >they should be insuring themselves for that and not expecting us to pay
    >for it.
    >Our stuff is quite old and not worth a lot but we decided to ship it as
    >we couldn't stand the hassle of having to buy everything when we got
    >there as well everything else that needs doing on arrival. Also it still
    >works out cheaper to ship at £3000 if you think of the cost of replacing
    >everything (PC,stereo,furniture,kitchenware etc). As for this stupid
    >bloody ins form, as with all ins if you bother to read the small print
    >they have excluded themselves from responsibility for the most common
    >reasons for a likley claim. I honestly think that taking into account
    >excess & small print you are only likley to get any pay out in the event
    >of a major problem ie ship sinking.
    >Paula

Just a thought.... Given all this, has anyone considered Not insuring
at all??

Nicki

etlniwd Oct 11th 2002 1:08 pm

Re: Insuring the shipping of home contents
 
Just come off the phone to Pickfords.

Basically you insure to save yourself the hassle (and possible high cost) of sueing the removals company. Basically, if they or their agents are negligent (which is the most likely reason for something getting lost or damaged) then they are responsible in law but you would have to prove it and take them to court.

Despite the ridiculous exclusions I mentioned above, most policies insure you against things outside the shipper's control such as piracy or certain aspects of war. I don't think you'd be able to sue Mad Man Bush if he took out your container with one of his weapons of mass destruction.

I am trying to get the insurance company to include vermin and mildew in exchange for a higher excess. Failing that I am going to search for insurance company that will actually insure against all risks.

Mike G Oct 11th 2002 4:55 pm

Re: Insuring the shipping of home contents
 
On Fri, 11 Oct 2002 13:08:08 +0000, etlniwd
wrote:

    >Just come off the phone to Pickfords.
    >Basically you insure to save yourself the hassle (and possible high
    >cost) of sueing the removals company.

It's been my experience that you will be unable to claim for the loss
or damage to an item or two and probably only able to claim in the
event of a major disaster.

I suspect that this insurance is the most profitable part of the
removal companies business. A bit like Dixons and their extended
warranties.

It seems a necessary evil that has to be paid.

Good Luck

Mike G

P.S. Not sure if war etc is excluded ?

yafm Feb 3rd 2003 3:25 pm

Re: Insuring the shipping of home contents
 
I am trying to get the insurance company to include vermin and mildew in exchange for a higher excess. Failing that I am going to search for insurance company that will actually insure against all risks.


__________________

I have had three quotations and they all specified getting me to value the property for insurance purposes but ALL said NO EXCESS ever!!!

One of the possible problems is the chain breaking when unloading the whole container and this has happened in NZ and landed on another container lots of damage!!!!!!!!!

Loopy Feb 4th 2003 9:13 am

This is all so reassuring isn't it - just another worry we need at a time like this. I am thinking about starting the insurance list as we will have only two weeks notice before we move (help!), but there are so many little things it's not worth including them, like children's small toys, but added together they would cost a bit to replace. Can you lump together and say "box of toys £30" or similar? Also, how on earth do you value photos etc which are priceless as can't be replaced. Am thinking about scanning favourites but time is a factor and half are already boxed up.

Rep from one of the removals companies tried to reassure me, he said our container would be in the middle of the ship not at the edge as they quite often fall overboard! He said when loading they'll put say a container of bananas on the edge and simply replace it with another if they drop it over the side. What a relief - not!

Mandy Bale Feb 4th 2003 9:41 am

oohhhh, don't talk to me about shipping insurance!! Just be careful as the marine insurance only covers your stuff when it is actually in the container. We found this out the hard way, our stuff was nicked before it got to the container. We are currently sueing the shipping company as it was their fault the stuff wasn't loaded, this included a car, stereo equipment, computers ect. And the box they had to take, out of all the boxes they could of taken it had to be the one with my wedding dress in and various other personal, extremely priceless items. We had underpriced a lot of items to keep the cost of the marine insurance down, how dumb was that, as now we are only going to get what we priced on the insurance form, even though we could prove the real value of most of the items.

anyway, now my blood is boiling so I'd better stop talking about it! incidently a friend of mine had her stuff shipped over by a company that packed it all etc (we packed our own),I think it was pickfords, not sure, she had a couple of things broken, fancy bowls and stuff, the insurance paid the cost to get it repaired. She had a piano shipped over, the customs here ripped the back open to check inside and her insurance company paid to have that repaired so I think it does pay to have good insurance and to go with a reputable company.

Mandy


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