Hi Paul, Bit of a long story, I was insured with the Prudential (had been for years) and when I joined the RMI I got details about their insurance, a bloke came from Bowrings (brokers) and assessed the garage and quoted a price with all terms and conditions etc in writing. I then changed cover to them on 12th Feb and was insured with Aegon, on March 7th I was broken into and had the claim. The insurance company said I was not covered for A, B and C and only half covered for D and E etc. That is why they only offered about £12,000. They said I only had a "proposal to insure" (although they had taken my money) and as such they could alter any terms etc they wanted until I received a policy. I had to effectively claim from Bowings for all under insured losses. Two and half years it took, during which time I had to finish the 5 employees I had and have been on my own since. Never really recovered. Also the two lads that did the job were out of prison before the claim was settled - who has the longer sentence me or them?

The next problem was I received a letter saying they wished me to take my business elsewhere, nobody and I repeat NOBODY would insure me. I traded with out insurance for weeks but eventually managed to get insured again with the Prudential. Cost before claim was £1800, after claim - quote was around £12,000. Paid my own claim over the next few years. Prudential was bought out by Provincial and then a few years later by Axa and that is how I became an Axa customer.

I recently looked at a lot of companies but when they came to assess me they all wanted toolboxes chained to walls, secure rooms building for hand tools, etc etc and I was not prepared to have all the exclusions that came with them so I stayed with Axa.

You just have to look at everything to do with insurance as a "Contract" and get everything clearly stated and explained. I found out about one term commonly used called "Reinstatement of sums insured following a loss" which simply put - if you paid £1000 for cover of £100,000 of stock and then after 1 month you had a claim for £50,000 worth of stock then the remaining stock is covered for the remainder of the year but any new stock bought to replace the missing is not insured for the remaining 11 month of that year. You can't really claim again and if you do you would only be paid a proportion in relation to the original claim unless there is Automatic "reinstatement of sums insured" or you pay to cover the new stock.

Last claim I had with Axa about five years ago was a car I was driving with trailer behind and a car on trailer, all wrote off. Although values were low they settled claim very quickly - as in days not even weeks. To be fair you could go out and buy replacements at the price they paid but the condition was not as good so I did feel a little bit robbed.

Graham