Home and Contents Insurance. Are you under insured?
Do you update the contents value on your policy each year? You should do.
Thousands of policyholders risk having any claim they make down sized because they’ve failed to insure their belongings for the correct amount. This can arise because they simply failed to calculate the value properly when they first took the contents insurance out, or they’ve bought extra bits and pieces and forgot to update their insurance value.
Take CD’s and DVD’s for example. How many have you got around the home? Norwich Union says it values these at £10 each. So if you’ve got a collection of 200, that means your insurer is likely to expect you to have included £2,000 cover for these never mind anything else. And then there are your mobile phones, I pods, stereos, flat screen TV’s, home computers and they like. Tally them up and watch their value mount.
And have you remembered to value the contents of your garden shed and garage? The average value there is around £2,000! All in all, the insurer More Than, estimates that the average family’s household possessions are now worth over £45,000.
If you’re uncertain whether you’re insured for the right amount and want some help, we suggest you visit the web site run by the Association of British Insurers. On the site you will find a useful checklist to help you calculate the correct level of cover you need. You can visit their site at www.abi.org.uk
Remember, if you don’t insure for the right value and have a claim, your payout will be scaled down proportionately to reflect the extent to which you are under insured.
About Contents Insurance
Contents Insurance covers everything in your home that’s moveable. That includes you carpets and curtains – even the lino! However, if it’s screwed down or built in, then those items such as kitchen units and sanitary ware, are covered by your buildings insurance.
The same principles apply to items kept outside. If you have a statue cemented onto a wall, it’s covered by your buildings insurance, but if it simply stands on the wall, it’s covered by your contents insurance!
