Full replacement value is what it would cost, at today’s prices, to replace everything you’re storing with new equivalents. It is not what you originally paid, and not what your things would sell for second-hand.
At Wigwam
Everything stored with us needs to be insured, and we ask every customer to tell us the total replacement value of what they’re storing, whether they take our contents protection or use their own insurance. We call it your maximum replacement value. With our cover, it’s also what the charge is based on.
For most things, the figure is the cost of buying the same thing, or the nearest equivalent, new today. So a sofa you bought ten years ago counts at the price of a similar new sofa. A few things are valued differently:
- clothing and household linen, and any motorbike or other motorised vehicle, allow for age, quality, use and any existing damage, so they’re valued nearer to what they’re worth now;
- things you can’t buy new, such as antiques or works of art, are valued at their current market value;
- documents are valued at the cost of replacing or reprinting the paper, not the value of the information in them.
If you’re storing business stock, use what it would cost you to replace it today, not its selling price.
Why it matters
If the figure you declare is lower than the true replacement value, a claim is settled in proportion: declare half of what your things are worth, and you’d get back half of the loss. Going room by room, pricing each item new, then adding it up and rounding up, avoids that. Keep your list and a few photos, as they’ll help if you ever need to claim.
If you add more to your unit, call us on 0800 2545585 before the extra things go in and we’ll talk you through raising your figure.
Related terms
Related questions