Do you need a valuation for a safe?
Yes, you need a valuation to determine which safe insurance rating is appropriate for your needs.
The process involves calculating the total replacement cost of your valuables, adding 30% to that figure for inflation, and rounding up to the nearest £10,000. This valuation is essential because it directly determines which safe will provide adequate insurance coverage for your belongings.
Understanding safe insurance ratings
Safes are tested by engineers who bolt them down, lock them, and attempt to open them using tools a burglar might use, such as drills, hammers, and crowbars. Based on how well the safe holds up, they determine its resistive strength and translate this into an insurance rating.
Insurance ratings are expressed as either a "cash rating" or a "valuables rating" (also called jewellery rating). The cash rating is a throwback to banking days, but since most people store valuables like jewellery or tech rather than cash, the valuables rating is calculated by multiplying the cash rating by 10. For example, a safe with a £1,000 cash rating would be approved by insurance companies for storing up to £1,000 in cash or £10,000 in valuables.
| Cash Rating | Valuables Rating | Standard that should apply | Our Opinion |
|---|---|---|---|
| £6,000 | £60,000 | EN1143-1 Eurograde 0 (Eurograde Zero) | A large leap forward, heavier and stronger safes. |
| £10,000 | £100,000 | EN1143-1 Eurograde 1 (Eurograde One) | Getting even heaver, lightest models circa 70kg+. |
| £17,500 | £175,000 | EN1143-1 Eurograde 2 (Eurograde Two) | Significantly resistive and heavy safes, 180kg minimum. |
| £35,000 | £350,000 | EN1143-1 Eurograde 3 (Eurograde Three) | The start of the monsters, very strong and heavy, 230kg+. |
| £60,000 | £600,000 | EN1143-1 Eurograde 4 (Eurograde Four) | The next stage in monster strong safes, 300kg+. |
| £100,000 | £1,000,000 | EN1143-1 Eurograde 5 (Eurograde Five) | Very heavy and strong 675kg+. |
| £150,000 | £1,500,000 | EN1143-1 Eurograde 6 (Eurograde Six) | Enormous, jeweller's grade safes over 1000g. |
| £250,000 | £2,500,000 | EN1143-1 Eurograde 7 (Eurograde Seven) | The heaviest safes, beyond this there are only built-in vaults. |
| £400,000 | £4,000,000 | EN1143-1 Eurograde 8 (Eurograde Eight) | Vaults for high end luxury homes or gem dealers. |
| £650,000 | £6,500,000 | EN1143-1 Eurograde 9 (Eurograde Nine) | Vaults for high end luxury homes or gem dealers. |
| £1,000,000 | £10,000,000 | EN1143-1 Eurograde 10 (Eurograde Ten) | Vaults for high end luxury homes or gem dealers. |
| £1,500,000 | £15,000,000 | EN1143-1 Eurograde 11 (Eurograde Eleven) | Vaults for high end luxury homes or gem dealers. |
| £2,250,000 | £22,500,000 | EN1143-1 Eurograde 12 (Eurograde Twelve) | Vaults for high end luxury homes or gem dealers. |
| £3,500,000 | £35,000,000 | EN1143-1 Eurograde 13 (Eurograde Thirteen) | Vaults for high end luxury homes or gem dealers. |
How to calculate your valuation requirements
To determine which rating you need, add up the total replacement cost of your valuables, add 30% to that figure, and round up to the nearest £10,000. For instance, if you have two watches and some bracelets that would cost £28,000 to replace, you would add 30% for inflation (bringing the total to £36,400), then round up to the nearest £10,000, meaning you would need a safe rated at £40,000 for valuables.
Types of safe certifications
Some safes have Eurograde certification, meaning they have been tested with results documented and certified. Eurograde safes have undisputed ratings that are universally accepted at the quoted rating, with sub-grades on a sliding scale of increasingly higher ratings. Another certification method is EN14450, which is also universally accepted at the quoted rating.
Safes assessed by the AiS (Association of Insurance Surveyors) and bearing the AiS logo are generally undisputed and universally accepted at the quoted rating.
Insurance rating levels explained
The ratings range from basic protection to high-security vaults:
Entry-level protection: The entry-level rating is £1,000 cash or £10,000 valuables, which provides only superficial protection with no real resistive strength. At £1,500 cash/£15,000 valuables, safes can be opened with basic burglar tools.
Mid-range security: At £2,000 cash/£20,000 valuables with EN14450-S1 certification, safes show improvement and are a little harder to open. The £4,000 cash/£40,000 valuables level with EN14450-S2 certification represents a significant improvement in security.
High-security safes: At £6,000 cash/£60,000 valuables with EN1143-1 Eurograde 0 certification, there is a large leap forward with heavier and stronger safes. Eurograde 1 safes (£10,000 cash/£100,000 valuables) are even heavier, with the lightest models weighing approximately 70kg or more. Eurograde 2 safes (£17,500 cash/£175,000 valuables) are significantly resistive and heavy, with a minimum weight of 180kg.
Ultra-high security: Eurograde 3 safes (£35,000 cash/£350,000 valuables) are described as "the start of the monsters," being very strong and heavy at 230kg or more. The ratings continue up through Eurograde 13 for specialized vault applications.
Critical Installation Requirements
For the insurance rating to apply, the safe needs to be installed correctly. Installing a safe requires experience, understanding the various anchors that can be used to fasten the safe to walls or floors, and knowledge of the different materials that walls or floors are made from.
Insurance companies will not recognize safes that are DIY fitted or installed by builders or handy people - it's best left to experts who have both the experience and range of anchors required to tackle different materials. Professional installers issue a certificate of installation which details both where and how the safe was installed. In the event of an insurance claim, you will rely on this certificate to prove to your insurer that your safe was compliant and approved for your risk.
Clearly you cannot issue such a certificate yourself, nor can a builder or handyman. Many online retailers of safes do not install safes themselves but merely subcontract to whoever they can find locally, which almost certainly will not lead to having the vital certificate of installation.
Additional considerations
Multiple safes in one home or business can increase the insurance rating to the cumulative total. This is important where it's physically not possible to install one larger safe in a building - for example, two or three smaller Eurograde 1 safes could be installed to achieve a cumulative rating.
Why cheap safes don't provide real security
The industry needs a method of quantifying the difference between various safes and the relative security they provide. Not all safes are equal - some safes are stronger and more secure than others. For example, a safe purchased for £35 in a supermarket cannot be expected to be secure at all.