If you’ve just purchased a particularly high-priced, valuable piece of equipment and you’re thinking: ‘I wonder if there’s a way to get this covered…’ There’s a strong likelihood that there is.
Whether you are a home or business owner, anything valuable in your property is likely to be covered under an insurance contract, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you know about it yet.
One of the most important protections that you need to be aware of is equipment breakdown insurance. Also known as Appliance Coverage, this is the kind of insurance that will not only make your business more secure but also create a stronger existing homeowners and renters insurance contract, helping to cut out unnecessary stress from your home life.
What Does Equipment Breakdown Insurance Cover?
Equipment breakdown insurance will protect your mechanical, electrical and computer-based products if anything goes wrong. In a home, this means that anything from a television, computer, washing machine, tumble dryer, air tanks, security systems and just about anything electronic and mechanical you can think of will be covered under the EBC policy.
If, for instance, your refrigerator underwent some damage, then the insurance will not only cover the cost to repair or replace it (including the labour and time which goes into repair), but it will also cover any spoiled inventory and income that may have been lost by its absence.
Importantly, however, equipment breakdown insurance will not protect equipment which has been damaged due to poor management. If you have not taken care of your refrigerator then, as with most policies, this will most likely not be covered. Namely, the EBC is there to protect against internal damage which you cannot prepare for, such as mechanical or software failure.
Why Would I Need Equipment Breakdown Cover?
There are many reasons why you should look into getting equipment breakdown cover, especially when it comes to your business. Let’s say you run a coffee shop on the local highstreet. Although you may feel in complete control, your coffee shop actually depends on very simple areas of equipment to keep itself afloat. Even something as simple as a dishwasher could affect how your business operates.
Say, for instance, you use a couple of large dishwashers to wash up the crockery due to the fact you only have a tiny sink in the back of the kitchen. If these dishwashers are damaged during a power surge, you suddenly have no means of adequately washing the dishes and mugs that your customers use, which means you do not have a way to serve your customers safely and hygienically. You can take hours washing up everything one-by-one, but this will only eat up time that should have been spent elsewhere, and you will be serving far fewer customers, as the wait to be served will be longer.
Like a domino effect, a couple of broken dishwashers can cause mass disruption to your business, and that’s just one example. With equipment breakdown cover, however, you can ensure that not only the cost of repair is covered, but the business income that you would have lost due to its breakage is also covered too.
What About Warranties And Homeowner Insurance?
While most equipment will have a warranty of its own, you cannot rely on that warranty to help you out if there’s a sudden power outage. Similarly, if you have bought your first home, then there are differences between your homeowners insurance and ECB, which you need to know about. While homeowners insurance may cover the cost of fires, storms or vandalism, it will not cover the cost of an unexpected electronic or mechanical failure.
This means that, if your newly bought television suddenly frys due to a fan failure, you would not only have to go without your favourite shows for a while, but you will have to pay the full costs of reparation or even replacement. EBC ensures that you are not financially affected by something that has been damaged by internal forces, allowing you to use any equipment in your home without the stress of having to deal with the consequences of a breakdown.
No matter if you’re a business or a homeowner, it is important to look into equipment breakdown coverage and prepare yourself fully for the unavoidable. You don’t have to be caught out by something out of your control, so do a bit of research and seriously consider if this coverage might be right for you.