I've just discovered my Naish Nalu when taking it off the roof of my car before a surf has copped a large crease in the deck. I'm assuming that I've tied it down to my roof racks a little too hard or gone over a speed hump a bit too hard causing it to crack over the roof racks. It's a six month old board so I'm feeling a bit gutted. Can anyone advise me wether I can claim this on either my car or home insurance? and which would be the better option? My house and car are insured with the same company so I only get one shot at it. I've heard of people doing this. Just wondering what the best thing to say to the insurance company would be? So that they don't try to screw me out of it.

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mrsdc78 said..

So that they don't try to screw me out of it.

So you want us to tell you what to say so you can screw them...

If its cause you tied it down to tight you should pay yourself, insurance isn't to cover negligence on the users part..

Sounds to me like you might be trying to screw them!
In my past experience you can only claim for stolen boards and then only if the boards are listed and detailed on your policy.
How can you logically claim for damage that you may have caused? I would guess that if your boards are listed and covered for damage then you maybe able to claim for that damage.
If you look in past SUP posts you will find lots of comments on tying down your SUP.
DJ in particular makes several references to this.

Just my thoughts.

ET.

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SP said...

mrsdc78 said..

So that they don't try to screw me out of it.

So you want us to tell you what to say so you can screw them...

If its cause you tied it down to tight you should pay yourself, insurance isn't to cover negligence on the users part..

Mate, the reason that most people have insurance is so that if they have an accident they can make a claim. Otherwise what's the point of having insurance? The insurance company's will do anything not to honour a claim because it is in their best interests to do so. I didn't go out and run over my board with the intention of getting a new one. I accidentally damaged it and would now like to try and make a claim if possible.

So your trying to tell me that if you went for a drive in your car today and you had an accident but it was your fault, that you wouldn't make a claim on the damage? Because I bet you would... So what's the difference with this situation?

Cheers

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SP said...
Ones an accident the other is stupidity...

Cheers..

Most accidents are caused by stupidity... And once again I'm going to state that I'm not completely sure how it happened as I am carefull with my equpment! I am shocked that I have tied it down too hard if that was the cause, but that is the only logical explanation I can come up with.

I don't see what the issue is, a lot of 'house and contents' policies cover 'accidental damage', sometimes at additional cost and some only cover accidents at home. I guess if you have damaged it tying it down then presumably it has been done at home.
I doubt it could be claimed on your car's insurance, but I may be wrong.

The problem may arise though if they only want to repair the board as opposed to replacement, I imagine you may need something in writing from a repairer/agent that says the board is a write off.

Hey MrSDC,
Don't think the term 'Screwed' needed to be used in this case but it is a forum open for all opinions I guess. I don't think your insurance would cover it but I would be interested to know how you go. Really sucks creasing a board whether new or old and especially these expensive ones we all use on this forum but be assured that a professional ding repairer will be able to fix her up with probably not much extra (If at all) noticeable weight increase and if they are anything like my local guy they will blend in the paint really well also.
I'd be asking on this forum for ding repair options in your area too.
All the best

Don't think you'd have any chance to claim it on the car insurance... I'm pretty sure the only way you can claim 'extras' on your car insurance is if you are making a claim for something thats happened to the car so pretty much limited to: belongings that are in your car when its stolen; theft of items if the car is broken into, or items that were damaged as a result of the car being damaged (so if a tree fell on the car when the sup was on the roof, you might have a fighting chance). Most insurance companies will have a tight limit on the total value of extras, usually around $300-500. They would expect you to have personal effects insurance for more valuable personal items.

If you've got it specifically listed as a personal effect on your contents policy then you should be ok. But as others have said, chances are that if you haven't specifically listed it as a personal effect (or have a nominal personal effects allowance to cover new items not yet listed), then it won't be covered.

Playing the devil's advocate here, but even though the damage may have happened in the driveway at home, it was clearly in the course of you taking the item away from the house - they could quite easily say that you had already taken it out of the house/garage (even if you hadn't made it very far) and therefore its not covered. You've also got no way of proving it happened at home - not really in your favour.

If they are prepared to cover it, they may decide that they want to repair it instead, in which case your excess would be much higher than the cost of the repair.

You can try to make a claim if you want, but I wouldn't get your hopes up too much.

Its fair enough to get on here if you want advice on which policy to try to claim it on... but the fact that you are asking people here "what you should say" to the insurance company to have a better chance of the claim being processed makes it sound like your trying to find a way to claim something you may not actually be entitled to, and your happy to lie about what happened to get what you want (I'm pretty sure you'll find that this comment is why people on here have responded negatively).

IMHO, if you can't be honest with them, then don't bother wasting the insurance company's time. The more you push the limits of the insurance to try to find a way to claim something you may not be entitled to, the more it costs us all in higher premiums in the long run.

As much as it sucks creasing a board, if we all tried to claim for every little mistake we made then none of us would be able to afford insurance at all.

Hi all and thanks for your replies. I had no idea I was opening such a can of worms with this topic. I think I might try the home and contents insurance as the board was strapped on whilst at home. I have no intention of lying about anything, nor was I trying to suggest that I wanted to. This is the first claim I've ever made on my contents insurance. Was just hoping others who had been through the same thing could suggest weather it was better to claim on home or car. Hopefully all of your premiums don't go up because I make a claim. Cheers guys.

No way will they pay for a new board if it's just damaged they wiill pay for the repair of the board. Unless it's deemed unrepairable. I once got broken into and had wakeboards stolen and some just damaged they payed for replacement stolen ones and insisted on payment for repairing the damaged ones.. Also I had them listed on my cover as I had close to 5k worth of boards. Was pretty much told if they weren't on the cover I wouldn't of got anything