You are mixing two elements here-Policy Proposal and Claiming.

When you take out insurance you can pick any amount you want and with exception your insurer will not ask for evidence.

However when you claim I am not saying they will always ask for evidence I am saying that they may and have the right under the policy and my knowledge of the industry confirms this.

Clearly the value is a factor and in your example, no they are not likely to ask for a receipt/photo evidence of a phone and something like furniture but if you claimed for an expensive book/ ring/ watch etc they will ask for evidence of its existance and ownership and thus my recommendation best be safe than sorry.

I am afraid in the world we live there is every reason an insurer would ask for evidence when we suffer £millions of fraud every year. That is the reason why they should - to protect all us honest folks premiums.

I basically agree with you laurel, but if your house burnt down, what evidence are you likely to have for 99% of your contents? None, as any evidence probably went up with the rest of your life! I just don't think you wouldn't get a payout in this situation.

But getting back to books, I've often wondered if you could get your "collection" itself insured. I wonder what these specialist book insurers actually do. You know, I have that flyer somewhere --I'll look it out & find out who they are etc.

BH