Is your new 2020 hobby insured?

For many 2020 has been the year of discovering and embracing new hobbies, from cooking up a storm to learning how to sew. Inside homes across the world, people have been doing workouts, practising musical instruments and, of course, baking banana bread.

Some of us have even gone pro with these newfound hobbies, purchasing actual equipment and tools. In fact, eBay reported a 774% increase in the sale of strength training equipment and a 285% increase in piano sales!

These items could cost a bit or at least add up to a sizeable chunk of change. So our question is, is your 2020 hobby adequately insured? We’ve put together a quick rundown of some popular items to see whether or not insurance will actually cover your new hobby.

Musical instruments

It would seem sharing songs on balconies while in lockdown isn’t the only way people have been getting musical this year. Indeed, not only did eBay report a high interest in pianos, it also calculated a 202% increase in DJ turntable sales.

Now, contents insurance will usually cover musical instruments, but only if they are used as a hobby. So, for instance, if you are part of a band or you give piano lessons, your contents insurance probably won’t cover your instruments. In other words, if you use your musical instrument(s) to earn money. For this you may need to take out specialised musical instrument cover.

Home gym equipment

With gyms shutting all across the world, many took to social media and YouTube for their daily workouts. So much that eBay recorded a whopping 774% increase in weights and other strength training equipment sales, and a 446% increase in cardio workout equipment sales.

If you have really splashed cash on stuff like exercise bikes, treadmills and dumbbells, you may want to check what your cover limit is for sporting equipment. You can do this by looking through the product disclosure statement (PDS) that goes with your policy. Although it should be noted that contents insurance may only insure your equipment against fire and theft, not while in use. 

Plant power

Caring for ‘plant children’ can be very therapeutic, so it’s totally understandable if you’ve adopted some ‘green gurls’, as plant kween Christopher Griffin would say. If this is the case, it is important to know that while contents insurance won’t cover actual planted trees or shrubs in your garden, it may cover potted plants in your home. That’s because pot plants can actually be considered contents.

Of course, to make sure your pet plants are covered in your policy, you could give your insurer a ring or look through the PDS documents. If you have a particularly pricey plant, you may even want to list it separately under specified contents.

Kitchen equipment

You only have to pop on social media to see that 2020 has inspired a whole new generation of home bakers. Honestly, it’s safe to say that if you didn’t know what a sourdough starter was before this year, you probably do now.

If this includes you and you’ve been baking up a storm over the past 10 or so months, then you may even have invested in some fancy equipment. So, you’ll be happy to hear that most contents insurance policies include cover for ‘kitchenware’. Some policies will even give you the option to add ‘motor burnout’ cover to your policy. This is in case a power surge burns out the motor in your electrical appliance. Although it should be noted that this only covers certain types of electrical appliances and may not cover older items.

Finally, people have been so busy this year learning new skills, it’s hard for us to cover every hobby. If you have a new passion project that you’ve invested money in, why not call up your insurer to check whether or not it’s insured.

Or if you don’t have contents insurance, head to Mozo’s compare contents insurance page to look at policies, or have a scroll of the options below.

Happy hobbying and here’s to a fruitful 2021!