The answer may be blindingly obvious here..

Say I insure something for £3000 on my home insurance policy, and it appreciates in value (or, the cost of a new replacement item is now more than I paid..bloody brexit!), should I let the policy know so that the item value is higher when I renew?

I never really thought about it, but I suppose, the answer would be ‘yes’? Right?

DrP

Yes, if its individually listed/valued. If its say a watch and watches are covered up to £X and don’t need an individual value then no.

In your example depends if you have new for old cover of course

depends on policy wording — are you insuring new for old item (in which case their problem) or a depreciating (sharply) asset that you’ll get a used valuation for (your problem). I think!

Whenever my policy comes up for renewal they have normally upped the amounts for the individual items to keep in line with inflation, or are you thinking of a higher rate of appreciation?

Well it’s a watch – omega seamaster.
I paid £2190, usually £2700. Currently £2920ish from most retailers..

Insured at £2700 value, but at this rate I’ll be vastly underinsured..

DrP

Nice watch, last week i dropped my uninsured watch in the gym changing room and landed glass down. Needs a new glass and a polish.

Lesson learnt…make sure your excess allows such a repair.

I only insure things i have to, still gutted tbh.

Yup, tell ’em the value’s gone up, usually an agreed value is an upper ceiling, that’s your lot. Worth checking the wording, or calling to ask about value changes between one renewal and the next. There might be some leeway, but I doubt it.

Edit: might not be agreed value basis, just a market value you declared to help them work out terms. Cover is probably new for old, but you should check.

Agreed value is usually for unique items which are hard to value, or can only be valued by sale at auction – very rare classic cars, works of art.

You don’t need to agree a value for you watch, because you can look up replacement cost very easily – like you just did.