10 March 2025
Rural machinery and tools: theft prevention and insurance
4 minutes
If you live in a rural location and rely on machinery to maintain your land it is important to give some thought to how you are insured.
Theft of garden machinery is a considerable problem in the UK and is sometimes the result or organised crime. As well as knowing how to protect your machinery against theft, you should also know the correct insurance cover to have in place should you injure someone, cause damage to property or use machinery near to public footpaths or crossing a public road.
Items at particular risk are garden tools, sit-on-mowers, quad bikes, ATV’s right the way up to tractors and trailers. Stealing tools and machinery is viewed as low risk, high gain by thieves.
Enhance your security
Upfront investment in security can pay dividends in the long run and below are some steps you can take that are practical ways of rapidly enhancing your security.
- Location. Keep items in enclosed sheds and outbuildings. Consider anti climb paint on walls, fences and drain pipes. Don’t leave ladders lying around.
- Lock it. Invest in high quality locks and deadbolts, without exposed screws. Use steering locks or wheel clamps or chain vehicles to ground anchors. Always remove the keys and store in a secure key cabinet in a different building.
- Alarm it. Install an alarm that will respond to movement or door contact. Ideally with a very loud siren so that you and your neighbours can hear it from indoors. You can consider an alarm that is interlinked to your house alarm or connected to a monitoring company.
- Record it. Installing CCTV cameras can further help deter thieves, these can be costly so even investing in some dummy cameras can help.
- Light it up. Use motion sensor dusk to dawn lights. Passive infrared sensors linked to lights around entry points will discourage intruders. Timers on lights inside your home create the illusion of occupancy.
- Mark it. There are companies that provide forensic marking kits. Using this and registering your items not only acts as a deterrent but can help recover them and aid Police investigations. Forensic marking can also reduce the resale value making them less attractive to thieves.
- Track it. GPS trackers can be fitted to most vehicles including tractors, quad bikes and farm vehicles.
- Sign it. Simple signs like “CCTV in operation” or “Forensic Marking” can be effective.
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Insuring for the right valueWhen agreeing your contents insurance cover with your broker you must remember to include your garden equipment and machinery, this is often overlooked. Keeping on top of current replacement costs is also important and should be reviewed each year at renewal. A new quad bike may cost as much as £10,000 to replace, in fact the contents of your barn or shed could easily reach a replacement value in excess of £30,000. Most insurance policies have “inner limits” that restrict the amount you can claim, your policy will also have restrictions on what can be considered as contents, for example a tractor or other large machinery may be excluded. Please consider what you have at risk and speak to us about your current policy and whether you need to increase or add specific insurance cover. |
Protecting your liability
Most garden and land machinery will only be used on private property so you do not need to have ‘motor’ insurance in place to comply with the Road Traffic Act. There are certain requirements that need to be considered to ensure that you and your domestic employees are properly protected if someone is injured and not all home insurance policies provide the level of cover you may expect to be included. Here are some helpful tips to consider:
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Unparallel peace of mind
It may be that a simple home insurance policy is not suitable and we can provide you with a solution, so please call us:
- If you own garden or land machinery that has an engine size over 51cc
- If you own a tractor or other large machinery, even if it doesn’t go on the road.
- If you are carrying out any incidental farming activities
- If any of your machinery goes on the public road or crosses a public footpath.
Useful Links
Selectamark Security Systems Plc
Tractors and regulatory requirements: a brief guide September 2017 - GOV.UK
Agricultural vehicle licences, tax information and fuel - GOV.UK
Backstone Consultancy
Blackstone Consultancy is one of the trusted security companies we collaborate with. They emphasise the importance of securing outbuildings on larger estates, which are often more remote and vulnerable to theft.
“On larger estates, outbuildings are often located more remotely and further away from the main property. This once again makes them an easier target. They are often used as overflow storage for estate machinery, something that we are seeing stolen on a regular basis in the current climate.
Where possible, securing and strengthening the perimeter of the estate to deny and deter access at the outset is crucial. Clearly, not all estates have strong perimeters in all areas and many surrender access via public right of way.
Therefore, outbuildings should be reviewed as standalone properties within a security assessment, with thought given to both technical and physical security solutions that can be implemented to build in a layered approach to their security.”