[jaffab]

Hi all,

Can I ask for your (collective) advice on insurance - what I need, and the best split between say house, smallholding v equipment specific insurance?

Setup and considerations....

* Smallholding, in wales (in case it changes things)
* Run as a hobby farm - so not a company or anything
* Will have a mix of animals and veg
* House (so I assume just buildings and contents for this) - with the usual mix of oil heating, septic tank
* Outbuildings - storage, sheds, garages etc - (I assume these go on the house insurance?)
* Small mini tractor
* Trailer
* Sit on lawn mower
* Truck (currently standard D&P car insurance)

So, what do I need to think about in terms of insurance in addition to the car (D&P) insurance and house insurance?

Advice please.

And thanks, in advance.

[chrismahon]

From memory we had a limit of £1500 for what they called 'unsecured property', which was anything outside and not in a locked building. Our sit-on mower was covered by the house contents insurance, which had a limit.


Expect your mini-tractor will need full road insurance, as does anything you sit on does here in France. Nothing is insured if the keys are left in it, even if it is in a locked building.


I expect all insurances to be slightly different. Ours here has a 200m2 limit on outbuildings and a €30,000 limit on the contents. We can't claim here without a photo of the item, but that wasn't necessary in the UK, although some items did need a valuation certificate. Of course you always have an excess, so if someone pinches your animals and veg you may not be able to claim?

[jaffab]

Expect your mini-tractor will need full road insurance, as does anything you sit on does here in France. Nothing is insured if the keys are left in it, even if it is in a locked building.

Neither will be taken on the road (or outside our property).

[Anke]

We have changed recently from NFU to Greenlands - the quotes I was getting from NFU werte getting higher and higher.


Our tractor is not insured as it doesn't go on the road, but we do have public liability for smallholding activities and my livestock (goats and sheep). It depends on the make/size/value of your tractor if you want to insure it for theft.


With NFU we found it impossible to insure our one and only farm building (goats shed), as it wasn't built to building regs (we did it ourselves). Others may differ, but we found the rebuilding costs are manageable without insurance. Impossible to insure polytunnels in general. I also have insurance if I get injured during my work on the holding. Other than that we just have normal home insurance (which covers the garage as it is attached to the house).


I would speak to both the NFU and Greenlands (and there are others), they have fairly standard packages and see what is covered.


Public liability is the one to include definitely, esp if any of your livestock get out onto public roads etc etc.


Our trailer is classified as livestock trailer and is insured (comprehensive) as part of my vehicle/van insurance (for which NFU is still quite competitive and I kept mine with them).


We do not have any othe pieces of kit that we decided to insure (too expensive) as it is more financially sensible to put that money into a savings account and have it for if/when the need arises. We only have a basic petrol push along lawn mower, plus a couple that go behind the tractor.

[Buttermilk]

We are with NFU.  House, buildings and contents, the contents are not itemised in either (except for one painting which was over the £10,000 single item limit) things like welders, hay making machinery, hedgers, post knockers ect.  The tractor is on a seperate policy.  Livestock are covered for public liability but not death.  The cars are a seperate policy and covers trailers ect.

It helps me that I deal with one office for all types of insurance.