Reasons for under insurance:
1. Under insurance. If using a comparison site, the rebuild costs are not always correct. You might think £200,000 is sufficient to rebuild your property. However, if it would actually cost £400,000 you are 50% under insured.
2. High Excess. When using a comparison site you tent to have a compulsory excess which is defaulted at £250 and then they tend to add a voluntary excess of the same amount. You therefore have a £500 excess. Imagine you then need to claim for a laptop that to replace would cost £650. You would receive a cheque for £150 giving you a £500 shortfall. Would you bother claiming? It is important to talk through the realistic excesses to ensure the insurance works for you when you need it.
3. No accidental damage cover. This is the main reason for claims. If it is not added on to the policy and you need to claim due to an accident, you would not be covered.
4. No personal possessions cover. If you take items outside of the home such as jewellery, watches etc, this may not be covered in a standard policy. If this item is then lost or stolen and it was not listed on the policy, you may not be able to claim on your home insurance unless you have this cover
Did you know, 23% of claims are declined by insurance companies for home insurance? To put this into context, 10% of of motor claims are declined.*
*Paymentshield statistics
How can we combat these issues to ensure you have the sufficient coverage for your home?
1. The standard rebuild insurance amount given by our insurance panel ranges from between £1,000,000 and £1,500,000. This means that when we cross reference the estimated rebuild cost for your property, you have peace of mind your cover is sufficient. If your rebuild cost was to fall over the £1,000,000 cover, we have insurers on our panel that can deal with high rebuild costed properties
2. We will go through the different excesses available and also how that can affect your premium. Is it necessary to add a voluntary excess to the policy if the policy is within your monthly budget without it?
3. Accidental damage cover explained and real life case studies discussed so you can see how important this add on is to your policy.
4. Personal possessions cover. If we are looking at your residential property we will be discussing any items you may have over a certain value and if they are to be taken outside of the home. If the answer is yes we will ensure they are added to the policy along with the relevant reference numbers etc. We will also run though if there needs to be any valuations done, services completed or conditions from the insurer for you to evidence the values at point of claim.
Victoria Bennett
victoria@hdconsultants.net
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