The prohibited list is near-identical across the industry because it comes from the same insurance and licensing logic. The standard exclusions:
- Anything that burns or explodes: petrol, gas bottles, paint thinners, fireworks, ammunition. Includes the petrol in a stored mower; drain it first.
- Anything that was alive or feeds things that are: food (even tinned, in most agreements), plants, animal feed. One forgotten bag of rice invites every mouse in the postcode.
- Anything alive: no plants, no animals. Always surprising that it needs writing down; it needs writing down.
- Irreplaceables and value-in-paper: cash, jewellery, original documents. Not banned for danger but because cover will not make you whole.
- Anything illegal or on the move: no unregistered vehicles, nothing you could not explain to a police officer at the roller door.
The in-between cases
Batteries and e-bikes: increasingly restricted; lithium fires are the industry's current nightmare, so ask before storing anything with a large battery. Wine: fine in most agreements but bad in most units; temperature swings ruin it, so use bonded wine storage. Business stock: fine, and common, as long as nothing on the list above hides in the pallets.
The same list applies to collection storage: BoxSpeed's crews check at the door, which is friendlier than discovering a breach when a claim fails.