Equipment breakdown insurance

Equipment breakdown cover is a type of business insurance. It’s available as an add-on to your office or contents policy. You can also pair it with portable equipment insurance.

This product covers the mechanical or electrical breakdown of machinery or equipment. It’s also known as machinery breakdown insurance.

Note that equipment breakdown insurance does not cover breakdowns due to wear and tear. Nor does it cover cases where a machine breaks down due to an inherent defect or any gradually operating cause.

Instead, equipment breakdown insurance can step in if your equipment’s internal mechanical or electrical systems suddenly malfunction.

Examples include:

• Computer power surges
• Plant machinery malfunctions
• Broken components in construction tools.

Replacing machinery can be expensive. Our insurance can safeguard against electrical or mechanical equipment breakdown costs at insured premises.

This cover can provide up to £1,000,000 towards repairing or replacing equipment. That includes IT kit like computers.

You can tailor a policy to your requirements. What if a malfunction causes an incident or the loss of electronic records? We can help to restore lost or damaged data provided you’ve completed weekly back-ups.

Insurance for equipment breakdown can step in when kit becomes unusable. It can help pay for repairs, or fund replacements if an item cannot be repaired.

Whatever your industry, you’ll likely need equipment. Whether that’s a computer or server hardware.

So, any business that relies on equipment may find it useful to insure against breakdowns.

An unexpected power surge may leave a graphic designer’s laptop out of action. You may need to repair or replace quickly. Or perhaps you’re an estate agent. What if your printer, scanner and photocopier malfunctions.

Including equipment breakdown cover in your policy guards against the unpredictable.

The amount of equipment breakdown cover you need could depend on:

• Your sector
• The types of assets to insure
• The nature of your business.

We can insure your equipment for up to £1m. You can base cover limits on how much it’d cost to repair or replace valuable kit.

Tell us about your business and assets. We’ll help you calculate how much cover would be appropriate.

We’ll then build a policy to meet your needs. To see what’s available and how much cover you need, get a quote.

Equipment breakdown insurance includes:

• Up to £1,000,000 for equipment repairs or replacements
• Standard cover of £5,000 towards reconstitution of data. If your network server is impacted by equipment failure
• Machinery and equipment damage resulting from electrical arcing, explosion or building collapse
• Cover for computer equipment while at your business premises
• Cover for computers while temporarily elsewhere in the UK.

Cover applies if: 

• You’ve properly maintained insured equipment and machinery according to supplier guidance 
• Electronic records and data are backed up at least once a week.

We will not make any payment for:

• Damage caused by wear and tear, inherent defect, rot, fungus, mould, vermin or infestation. Or any gradually operating cause
• The value to you of any lost or damaged data or information
• Equipment breakdown caused by a computer virus
• Amount of the excess.

Please refer to the policy documents for the full details of inclusions and exclusions of this cover. Policy documents are available when purchasing online. You can also contact our customer services team for more information.

Hiscox equipment breakdown insurance is an add-on cover. Buy it alongside your business contents insurance or property away and in transit cover.