marvinc

Just in process of signing up with a shipper, was always planning to go with Leetons insurance as about half the price of the one offered by the removal shippers

It's just worrying me that Leetons aren't door to door - anyone got some advice, may just be me panicking about everything

theelliotts

Do you mean Letton (Letton Percival) insurance? A lot of people on here have used Letton Percival - we did and with no problems - some damage and breakages found upon unpacking which has been sorted with no problems.

HTH
Nina

BATS666

I posted this on another thread last week .......

I'd be careful with LP insurance. I thought we'd save a few hundred quid by insuring with them but I'm now having 2nd thoughts. (LP - 1.6%, D Bonner 2.7%, all other remover - 3%).
Firstly, this company only does Marine Insurance, so you are insured from the moment you load the container to the moment it is delivered the other end. It does not cover breakages/theft when packing and unpacking, even by a professional removals company. You would have to rely on your own house contents insurance to cover these eventualities. I checked mine and the policy only covers me for DOMESTIC removals, not intl ones. I phoned my home insurance company to check and they confirmed this. I cannot pay extra and get the international cover. So no cover this end sheds a completely different light on LP insurance. If you DO have sufficient insurance this end, you would have to make sure you had sufficient cover the other end too, to cover an intl arrival.
Secondly, I have some antique ceramics I want to take with me. They will only insure these at 3% rather than 1.6% (more cost). I have to get these professionally valued (more cost); professionally packed (NOT by the removals company - more cost) and the removals company has to build a special crate for the boxes (more cost).
Thirdly, LP have an excess of 1% of total value. For us that's about £500. D Bonner are quoting 2.7%, with no excess. So, if stuff is broken or stolen, you have to stomach the first £500.
Finally, there are some exclusions in the LP policy that may not be in your removals company's policy. They aren't in D Bonner's. Basically, we weren't comparing similar policies.
Even if we were covered in the UK for packing on international removals, there's not alot in it. About £1,200 (LP) to £1,485 (DB). Certainly bumps up the container costs of £3,600!!
Always pays to read to small print and, if in doubt, ASK!
....and check that whoever is "selling" you insurance is allowed to do so. Check the FSA website. Not all removals companies are FSA authorised (even if they say they are).
In the end we had no option but to go with Bonner's, but there was only £285 difference.
that is all....phew !!

flodsfive

We too had a problem with lettons insurance. Britannia (our chosen removal company) wanted lettons to agree that they would cover for breakages (because they were aware of previous issues)and asked for a letter of assurance to this effect (cannot remember correct name).

Lettons would'nt do this because they said if we give this assurance how do we know youre packers (britannia) will do a good job.(which seemed reasonable). Britannia said ok then, but before we agree to let our customer use you're insurance (they will not ship uninsured goods because of marine salvage insurance) could we have a full copy of you're insurance schedule. At this point Lettons who had been reasonable were quite aggressive and refused to give Britannia a copy. I guess if I had the time I could of asked for the schedule myself and sent it on,but time was running out and generally, I began to feel uneasy and like the poster above said by the time you add the extras there was not so much in it.

Time will tell if I made the right decision.

And i guess my advice is make sure you read the fine print, and check you,re shippers are also happy.

theelliotts

To be honest, we have had no problems with Letton Percival and I don't think we set up anything different. We had some damage to our table and a unit which has all been repaired by a French Polisher and the other breakages have all been covered with no problems. Some damage was listed by the removals company but we reported most of the breakages ourselves as we ended up unpacking most of the boxes ourselves over a few weeks as we weren't ready to have everything unpacked by the removals company. This was in December.

BATS666

What was LP's excess on your policy? It's now £500.