Laptop house-car insurance

[MrPstv]

Scenario: Teacher brings laptop to me saying "it dont work the screen has cracked ,all i did was open it!" All you did was open it and it cracked ,looks like it was dropped!!! well anyway to the point: if the laptop was stolen from house or toasted in a fire it will be up to them to claim off the house insurance?

so when it is damaged then what? stolen from car? need help on this as this is a bit of a grey area concerning laptops and members of staff. help needed please!

[Hightower]

What about people who don't have home insurance?

[MrPstv]

if they have no insurance no laptop!!

[Mcshammer_dj]

If the device is owned by the school then they may not be able to claim on their household insurance!!

 

When I borrowed my brothers laptop and then damaged it I called my insurance who siad it was not covered as I didn't actually own it.

[localzuk]

All staff in our school sign a form saying that their laptop must be covered by their insurance outside school, and any damage occurred outside school would be charged to them.

 

If it isn't covered by default under their house insurance, they can take out separate insurance.

 

There's no excuses really - they cost a fortune, so they should treat it with respect and as if it were theirs.

[MrPstv]

Any guidelines so i can show the boss. need it in black and white or is it up to the school how they deal with it?

[Ric_]

If it isn't covered by default under their house insurance, they can take out separate insurance.

 

How do you insure something that isn't yours though?

[MrPstv]

How do you insure something that isn't yours though?

 

This is why i need advice.

[AngryTechnician]

We solved this by simply insuring them when they are out of school. I couldn't comment on the cost implication as it wasn't funded from the IT budget (since it was an add-on to the general school insurance). Our rationale was that if we were providing the resource and expecting them to use it at home then we should provide the same level of cover as equipment we provide in school.

 

We do have a form that staff have to sign informing them of the exclusions to the insurance, chiefly that any theft from a vehicle is not covered (even the boot) and that walk-in theft is not covered.

[kpms123]

There is a Laptopsafe box available of which fastens in the boot of the car, this is a good way of getting around the problem when the laptop is in thew car, it isnt all that expensive. My only concern though is if people will always use it once installed.

 

With regards to home insurance i dont think you will be covered although if you report this to the home insurance company they may do a seperate policy for this area.

 

Phil

[kylewilliamson]

The first principle of any insurance product is the necessity for the person or organisation insuring to have 'insurable interest', which effectively means that the insurance must be taken out by the person or organisation who has a financial interest in the piece of kit (in this case a laptop). Insurance exists to put you back in the same position as you were before the loss happened, and if a staff members WORK laptop has been stolen, they have suffered no loss.

 

If it isn't covered by default under their house insurance, they can take out separate insurance.

 

With regards to the above principle, they cannot take out seperate insurance as they do not have an interest in the laptop in the first place - the school has to take the insurance. However, the school could hold them liable.. but I'm not sure if the unions wouldn't take major offence to this.

 

Kyle

[brooker101]

Guess any school insurance would have an excess that would be higher than the cost of the laptop. Also you would probably need to have AD specifically covered for contents on a household policy, and again with computer equipment you may need to specify the product.

This is always a grey area, and I have found that even when it is clearly AD, people tend to go into denial.

[plexer]

Our school insurance excess is £100

[jimmckenna]

Our auditors advise that if the item is signed out on a loan register(temporary) or recorded as a permanent issued laptop on our asset register. Then the school insurance will cover. Having said that our excess will not cover the cost of entry level laptops <500.

[GrumbleDook]

IIRC a high value object that is not the property of the house owner may still be covered as long as the house owner informs the insurance company that it will be stored in the property.

 

The issue with home insurance comes back to how the Laptops for Teachers program was set up.

 

In some areas the laptop was regarded as the property of the teacher for the period of whilst the teacher was at that particular school. They had full admin rights and it was a *cheap* way of getting a mobile device in to the hands of a teacher for them to use away from school rather than them cough up for a home computer. As such it was the responsibility of the teacher to insure it as it was expected to be at home more than in school.

 

Now we are in the reverse position, where teacher have a machine at home but don't want to use it for school work and so take a school machine home (with the required software on too). It is used for work purposes and teh personal use is negligable and HMRC are happy to let personal use go by without taxing it.

 

It cannot be insured by the school with some hefty charges ... unless it is taken on a case by case basis. Each school would have to tell their insurer where each device is held when off-site ... so they would have to share all teacher home addresses. I can see that going down well.

 

It should be insured by the teacher or the school should accept the risk of damage and loss. If insured by the teacher it should be done on an 'old for new' basis rather than an 'equivalent' scheme. This stops the insurance company giving you a refurbished or naff laptop.

 

Selling this to staff is quite simple. If you insure it at home it means that you can take the laptop home. If you don't take teh laptop home then it is presumed that you will remain onsite to use it to complete whatever tasks you need to do. The school does not dictate where you complete your work, only that should you wish to use school equipment offsite rather than remain in school you need to make sure it is insured.

 

It is a similar thing to when you get parents to sign when students are taking equipment (eg camcorders) out of school ... if anything is damaged then the parents are liable. You are compromising by allowing equipment out of the schools, they have to compromise by making sure it is covered.

[MrPstv]

The situation is that teachers will have to sign it out, will have to show proof of home insurance, but what is the point if it is damaged by them or someone else in the household then the school will foot the bill!

It will be covered by theft and fire but not by accidental damage on house insurance?

Damaged laptops due to liquid spills faulty due to it being dropped will not be covered by insurance unless specified.

I have had more damaged laptops in 5 years and 1 stolen from the house of a staff member which they claimed off house insurance.Still need some more info to work on.

[antoeknee]

Very much depends what local arrangements are. Our LA provide insurance for laptops (£200 excess). There are some conditions like; reasonable care to secure, so stolen from home when the doors are unlocked wouldn't count. Left in an unattended car also doesn't count. In either case staff know that they are then responsible and replacemnet would be at their cost.

[Sylv3r]

We insure all of our staff laptops on the school insurance, unless as stated in the AUP that if left in an unattended car, then it must be claim on the staffs insurance.

 

We have only made one claim for a laptop on our insurance when it was stolen, from a teachers house. The excess was £350, but it allowed us to get her a better laptop then I would have done if we were paying for it brand new.

[Ex-MGSTech]

i raised this recently and was told that the LA cover laptops for damage with a £200 excess, apparently the teachers unions have addressed this as they said it was unreasonable to expect a teacher to insure a school issued laptop

 

Another "get out of jail free2 card from the Teachers Unions! wish the support staff had such influential unions!