Insurance valuations

[Tranona]

In these volatile times it is important to ensure your boat is insured correctly. Most insurers recognise the rising values of boats and are prepared raise values on request - but usually limit the %age without supporting evidence - often up to 20% or heard recently of 30%.

As many know I have been renovating an old GH31 that I bought for little money (£12.5k) just about one year ago. I had a survey and valuation which led to an agreed valuation of £14k, but laid up for work. In April this year I got that changed to in water to cover motoring round to its marina berth. I submitted a report of work done based on the surveyors recommendations, but no change in value.

As the major expenditure is now just about complete and the boat is ready for use, plus renewal coming up I wanted to raise the value to £35k to reflect the increase in value from the expenditure (not that I am expecting to get the whole lot back if I sold). I was somewhat surprised that they just asked for a broker valuation, duly submitted, not the detailed costed list of expenditure. Anyway, £35k agreed with a less than 15% increase in premium.

The important thing about agreed values is not necessarily the payoff if the vessel is lost. but the limit for repairs before they decide not to fund them but to offer a payment.

Hope this is useful.

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

In these volatile times it is important to ensure your boat is insured correctly. Most insurers recognise the rising values of boats and are prepared raise values on request - but usually limit the %age without supporting evidence - often up to 20% or heard recently of 30%.

As many know I have been renovating an old GH31 that I bought for little money (£12.5k) just about one year ago. I had a survey and valuation which led to an agreed valuation of £14k, but laid up for work. In April this year I got that changed to in water to cover motoring round to its marina berth. I submitted a report of work done based on the surveyors recommendations, but no change in value.

As the major expenditure is now just about complete and the boat is ready for use, plus renewal coming up I wanted to raise the value to £35k to reflect the increase in value from the expenditure (not that I am expecting to get the whole lot back if I sold). I was somewhat surprised that they just asked for a broker valuation, duly submitted, not the detailed costed list of expenditure. Anyway, £35k agreed with a less than 15% increase in premium.

The important thing about agreed values is not necessarily the payoff if the vessel is lost. but the limit for repairs before they decide not to fund them but to offer a payment.

Hope this is useful.

The value of a boat ( or anything), is what someone is prepared to pay for it. The insurer will accept a surveyor's, or in your case, a broker's opinion on this. You often see on this forum that someone might do a lot of work on a boat, and add a considerable amount of kit, but will be told by other forumites that they will never get back the value of this work and extra kit when selling.

 

[steve yates]

I think his point is not so much about the resale value, but that if something happened to it, and repairs were, say £25k for example, then his insurers would now pay up. Whereas before they would have written it off and paid out, if he was lucky, the much lower sum.

 

[Concerto]

Last year I wanted to increase the agreed value on Concerto, but Navigators and General would only increase it by 10%. For more than this then I needed a broker valuation, but the local broker declined to do this for me by saying other "similar" boats had not sold for what I was wanting as a valuation. He was standing alongside Concerto and never even looked closely at the condition or level of equipment. In the long term it means I would never use this agent. Not that would be likely as I expect it would be sold privately to someone who understands exactly what has been done in improvements.

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

I think his point is not so much about the resale value, but that if something happened to it, and repairs were, say £25k for example, then his insurers would now pay up. Whereas before they would have written it off and paid out, if he was lucky, the much lower sum.

True, but the figure would logically be what the boat was worth on the open market.
I had a protracted battle with a car insurance company when I crashed a Ford Focus, and their recovery service recovered it to their designated repair garage. The loss adjuster/ assessor came along and valued the car at a sum considerably less than the valuation on the policy and considerably less than I would have had to pay for a replacement. I submitted numerous examples of ads for similar cars and eventually had to buy a car that was the exact same model and registered in the same month as the written-off one, to prove my point. They paid up!

 

[mrming]

Good point this thanks. Looked at my own policy and realised my boat is now undervalued, so I’ve asked to have it raised. It’s not a huge rise, and I will hopefully never have to make a claim, but it’s still worth bringing up to date just in case.

 

[Tranona]

True, but the figure would logically be what the boat was worth on the open market.

No. That is the whole point about agreed value insurance. It is not like normal car insurance which is based on market values - partly because it is easy to establish a market value for most cars. You can, however get agreed value car insurance, usually for "classic" cars and based on alternative valuations such as from clubs. I have this type of insurance for my Morgan.

My broker valuation included a list of all the new equipment in support of the valuation. If necessary we could also have included a range of known sale prices showing the wide variation and why the "value" was pitched where it was. Fortunately did not need this.

 

[Graham376]

True, but the figure would logically be what the boat was worth on the open market.

Not so. It's what it would cost to replace the boat, equipped to the current level. When we bought the 376, it didn't have dinghy, outboard, electric windlass, radar, chart plotter, bimini, gantry, cockpit tent, etc., all of which and more have been added since so, the current "agreed" insured value bears no resemblance to what a bare 376 can be purchased for.

 

[dgadee]

I had a 10 year survey for insurance and the surveyor asked me what I had it valued at for insurance purposes. He put that value down - the price I paid 10 years before. Looking around at rising prices and the amount of work I had done on the boat (it is in very much better condition now) it struck me it was too low and if something happened I would not be able to get a similar standard of boat from the claim. When re-insuring I put a higher value down; they phoned me and I explained why that value seemed appropriate. They accepted it.

 

[russ]

I recently changed to GJW after they had excepted a brokers valuation for my S38. Their max original valuation only allowed for 30% above the purchase price. This was still well below many others on the market with a lot less spec or updates as mine.
Obviously the premium rose but I have peace of mind that I am fully covered.