Home contents insurance is designed to protect the content of your home. It is available to tenants as well as owners. Most policies will also cover items normally in your home that you often take away to other places, like cameras. Some of the better policies will automatically increase the amount covered during Christmas, when there are likely additional items in your house as gifts. Other policies will also recognize additional things, like purchases that would be likely to be made by newlyweds.

Broadly speaking, there are two types of home contents insurance. The first provides coverage on a wear and tear basis. It tends to be cheaper because it values older products as being worth less than newer ones, and so prices change over time. The second is protection on a new for old basis. It provides compensation sufficient to replace lost or damaged items with new ones at their current price. This can be a little more practically useful, but also a little more expensive.

A critical part of having home contents insurance is the careful itemization of the contents of your home. This means making lists of not just what these items are, but also what they cost. The total amount is the amount you will want to insure them for. (This is called the “insured sum”.) This sum will set the coverage you receive from your insurance company, and it will also determine your premium. Making this list might be a lot of work, but it is of the utmost importance. If there is ever a serious loss of property you will be very glad you took the time to do it right.

It may be tempting to undervalue the contents of your home to reduce the premium you pay. If you file a claim, though, the insurer will use the insured sum as a reference. Even if your claim is only for one or two items, therefore, the amount you are paid will be a percentage of the insured sum, and you will find that you are inadequately insured. For this reason regularly updating your list and adjusting your insured sum as needed is a wise idea.

Home contents insurance is relatively simple and easy to manage. If you have any troubles with it, a good insurance broker will give you the advice you need to find the policy that is right for you.

One of the more frequently beneficial types of insurance is home contents insurance. Whether you own a home or just rent, you can enjoy coverage on your household possessions, from computers and stereos to furniture and kitchen tools. Most of these things are necessary for a comfortable life, and many of them are important for work as well, so why would you let them go uninsured? Counting up your possessions and thinking hard about which ones you want covered is a big part of getting the right insurance policy.

Now that you’ve thought about all the things you’d like covered, you probably want to know if there’s any way to make your insurance cheaper. Well, for starters you should know that contents insurance is often less expensive if you can bundle it with buildings insurance. BUildings insurance covres the struture and architecture of your home, not the things inside it. If you own your own home, you’ll probably want buildings insurance anyway, so you might as well get it along with contents insurance, for lower overall rates. You may not be able to benefit from this if you rent your living space, but there’s other options for saving available, too.

Whenever you start considering a particular company’s policy, you need to remember that different companies have different ideas of what a standard or minimum policy would cover. Some of them will offer accidental damage coverage by default, but others may not offer it unless you specifically request it. Always be sure of what a policy covers before you buy it, and try to get the best coverage possibly for the price you’re going for.

Contents insurance policies will primarily safeguard your possessions against theft, flooding, and fire damage. There is a wide variety of other kinds of coverage you can also request, however, and many will offer different sorts of coverage you may not even think of until you see them. Things like paying for new locks if your keys are lost, or paying accidental damage to the property of another person, can be vital, while also not being things you’d think of until they’re brought up. Don’t forget to compare little bonuses like that when checking out different companies.

Don’t make the silly mistake of insuring your possessions for more than they’re worth. On the other hand, don’t insure less than the value of your things, either. Losing a valuable computer and having to replace it with a much worse one because of low insurance coverage is needlessly depressing. Get fair coverage that takes care of the true value of your belongings, and if you don’t know what that value is, do your best to find out.

Finding good insurance to take care of your possessions isn’t hard, but you have to put a little effort into it if you want a good price. Since every company has slightly different policies, scope out all your options and understand them inside and out for the security you need at good rates.

Exactly which items your policy actually covers will differ between insurance companies. You need to be sure to read the fine print and pay attention to the details which list which items are covered and which items are not. This information can help you decide if a policy upgrade is the right choice for you. It is important to note if a policy will allow a new-for-old replacement. You will also want to check the upper limit the insurer will cover for non-specified items as this can be different from company to company.

A new-for-old replacement policy will allow you to replace a damaged item with one that is brand-new. This is a common feature in most policies. However many insurance companies will factor in a certain amount of depreciation based on its condition and how long you have owned the item. If your policy has such a clause, you could be refunded less than the retail-cost of the new replacement item.

Review the policy carefully and note the limit placed on accidental damage. You may find that the value of certain items in your home exceeds this limit. If this is the case, you should immediately let your insurance company know and request additional coverage for those items. If such an item were damaged and no additional coverage was requested, the insurance company may very well deny your claim if it were to become damaged.

Aside from ensuring that your policy will cover all valuable items in your household, you should be aware of policies which may reduce the amount of money you are paid in a claim.

Low monthly premiums may seem attractive, but they often come attached to high deductibles. In the event of a claim, you could be forced to pay a significant sum before the insurance company will pay. In many cases this deductible can be close to or even higher than the cost of a replacement item. Also be check to see if there is a deductible per-item or per-claim. If it is per-item, you could be forced to pay a great deal if many items were damaged.

It could also render your electrical items useless and cause your life to be turned upside down. A Contents Insurance policy could help replace some of these items and help you to establish normalcy once again. This type of accidental damage of items is also covered in your policy.

Several insurance providers provide 24 hour emergency service in the event of a claim. They possess a list of different work forces that can come to your aid. For instance, if you find yourself in sudden need of a locksmith to change your locks because your home has been broken into, you will be in instant contact with an emergency help-line representative that will then in turn find you a locksmith.

Determining the amount of coverage you will need is vital. It is simple to make mistake on the combined value of your things. Once you have an idea of what this figure might be, you must then find the equivalent coverage to meet your needs at the price that suits your budget. Extra Accidental Damage coverage can be added to your Contents Insurance policy, however, DYI accidents are not covered. You can even insure your personal belongings when you are away for a holiday or otherwise. Personal Possessions coverage would give you a large spectrum of protection. Obtaining a specialist broker would be the ideal way to find the right policy suited for your needs.

The price of the premium varies based on the amount to be covered and other variables. You might live in an area that is known as a high-risk location. There are a few options to lower the price of your premiums. By joining a Neighborhood Watch organization and having an updated security system installed, you can influence your premiums. Installing heavy-duty locks on all doors and making sure your valuables are marked with your identity is another helpful tool.

There are discounts available that can change the price of your Contents Insurance. If you buy your policy online or purchase buildings insurance with the same insurer you will receive discounts on your policy. If you haven’t made a claim against your insurance provider in the last three years, you could receive lower premiums. A specialist broker will be helpful in finding the discounts available to you and also in finding the best value Contents Insurance policy to suit your needs.

The 2nd home insurance policy does not mean that you live in the home. You can have your residence somewhere else and still be covered fully. If you have a rental property or a secondary home it is imperative that you get 2nd home insurance on that property.

The cost for repair due to a fire, flood or natural disaster can make you cringe. You should have an insurance policy on all properties you own. Real Investors or any investor owning several properties should check out purchasing second home insurance to be protected in case of a natural disaster or theft.

The additional property insurance is based on two sections. The building coverage and the contents coverage are the two main sections. The building or dwelling insurance is usually required by the bank or other financial institution. The owner will want to have building insurance coverage if the residence is not owned by the bank as well This will cover any damage done to the property itself such as any natural disaster like a flood or wind storm as well as damage from a fire or other disaster.

The coverage of contents gives security to the owner knowing that their belongings are covered in case of disaster. There are many insurance groups that will supply more coverage such as legal security. Legal coverage gives benefits against liabilities to secure your financial assets in the case of injury to another person while at the insured property.

The insurance policy is usually hit with a larger premium to protect against natural disasters, certainly if they are a regular occurrence where the property is located.

There are some good advice for saving on your second property insurance policy. The insurance agents will evaluate many factors when they assess your property for risk factors You can reduce the premium of the insurance policy by investing in certain alterations to the property.

An alarm system will decrease the price of your policy. If you install a high quality alarm system that protects all the entries of your residence it will make a large difference in your price.

The policy can also be affected by where the property is located. If the residence is situated in a high crime area you can expect to pay higher premiums If the home is located in a guarded and gated community you can expect to pay lower premiums, in most cases it will save you 15% on your overall policy.

There is also an umbrella policy that can be bought by 2nd property owners. This policy will extend from the building to its contents as well as protect the vehicles of the insured.

If the property is a rental home there are cost reductions given for that as well Since the property is not left vacant they will offer you discounts on the premium You can also combine insurance policies between your primary property and your second home to reduce cost on the policy. If you combine multiple policies such as your residence, car, water craft, and life insurance policies with one agent you can save a tremendous amount of cash

Additional property insurance can offer a variety of options depending on guidelines and changes the owner makes. You can shop around and find out the best rates and get more information on tips to save you money on your policy

The rebuild or replacement value of your buildings and their contents will change quite often, sometimes as much as several times a year. That is why a consistent schedule of checking your buildings and contents policy is well worth the time invested to do so. It is possible to have an automatic adjustment for inflation included with the policy, which will definitely help keep things current, but even that is not a substitute for checking it and updating the policy yourself.

Current statistics in the insurance industry show that the average person who owns a home is insured for the value of the contents that is considerably less than the amount it would take to replace them. Under estimating the value of your buildings and their contents is the number one mistake homeowners are making these days. You must make sure that the amount of coverage you have is enough to actually rebuild or replace your home, surrounding structures and all the contents in the event that the need arise.

Being able to replace everything in the event of a disaster makes your building and contents insurance valuable enough for you to take the time to review and update, at least once a year, but more often if you are constantly increasing the amount or value of your home and contents. Make sure that your policy does more than just cover the current value of the items and that you will be able to replace them if disaster strikes. Know now what is covered and for how much, because later is just too late.

Although for many people it is difficult if not impossible to contemplate, a home an even more so it possessions can vanish from the face of the Earth in a matter of minutes. A house fire can be particularly cataclysmic, with smoke damage and water damage being side effects. Floods are slightly less common, but can also do a load of damage. Theft through house breaking comes third in the list, but can be the most traumatic and expensive of all.

Once the decision has been made to take out house contents insurance, the steps involved are fairly straightforward. Once you have made contact with your insurance broker, they will arrange to send a bonded valuator to your home to value your possessions. These people have been trained to be very thorough and will cover every corner of your home and ask as many questions as they see fit.

Bear in mind that the appraiser is working in your interest as much as the insurance company’s. They need to appraise the current value of every possession of everything you have under your roof, so that the insurance company who will be handling the policy will be able to provide you with a totally accurate estimate of the cost of insuring your valued possessions.

Based on suggestions made by the appraiser, the insurance may also make a list of suggestions how to better safe guard your possessions, and in certain circumstances these suggestions may be even be stipulations that need to be met in order to receive full cover. Insurance companies know their business and anyone considering taking out house contents insurance should heed their advice.

For example, for a family home containing high value items, they may suggest installing an alarm system as well as close circuit television, linked to a security company. For people who have a high value jewelry collection they may insist that the home owners install a safe or house the goods in a safety deposit box in their local bank. While these means of protecting property are expensive, the costs saved on writing the policy will more than likely reflect this.

For the majority, they will not need to face these problems. On the other hand they maybe pleasantly surprised to discover the value of the domestic possessions, and will breathe a major sigh of relief that they have never been caught out by a natural or man contrived disaster till now and rush to take out house contents insurance before it is too late.

The most common causes for insurance claims for contents are fire, flood and theft. There are a few others that come up from time to time, such as trees falling onto your house, cars, buses or trucks driving through your house, acts of god, and acts of war and so on. It is always worthwhile to thoroughly check with your insurance company against which calamities they issue cover. You can never be too sure!

Other factors that will affect house contents insurance costs is the location of the property, its security systems, whether it is left un-attended for long periods, history of previous claims among others. Most insurance companies will also consider “add-ons” such as insuring goods stored in outhouses and garages (not cars) food in freezers and assorted anomalies.

The next slightly grey area as far as insuring your contents is whether you are being covered for replacement value against current market value. If your home is filled with valuable persona; heirlooms antiques, art collections and valuable jewelry then you will find that your premiums will be very high, but will reflect the replacement value or at least the emotional value if they are unable to be replaced.

The average man in the street is not usually faced with such problems. They have to contend with another dilemma which can be extremely larger. It arises when the insurance company will assess their possessions according to current value and not replacement value. For example if someone has a ten year old television, the insurance company will only cover the policy holder to replace it. Unless the policy holder insists differently.

If the policy holder is prepared to pay a considerably increased premium, they can insure the entire contents of their home against total loss and replacement at current values. This can make for a very expensive policy. Most people who take out house contents insurance take the sensible approach of looking at the cross section of the value of their “depreciateable possessions” and do their sums accordingly.

Overall house contents insurance need not be that high, and especially if you don’t have a few diamond necklaces around. An average appraisal of house contents would place them at a value of 200,000 rand and annual insurance costs should be around 3% of that figure, or around 6,000 rand a year. One of the best investments you will ever make, that hopefully you will never need to use,

What is covered?

Your homeowner’s insurance should, at the very least, cover the building itself as well as all permanent fixtures and fittings against accidental damage or destruction. Ideally this should include damage caused by fire, lightning, flood, earthquakes etc.

You will find, not surprisingly, that insurance companies are loath to cover you against flood, for example, if you live on a river bank, or against earthquakes should your home be located in the proximity of a major fault line.

In other words, the greater the risk of damage or destruction the less likely it is that you will be able to insure against it. You also need to take into account the fact that your insurance company is unlikely to cover you for damages caused by war, strikes or riots.

Obviously, then, it is very important to be certain if there are any restrictions, exclusions or a disproportionate excess payable before you sign the contract, rather than discover these when you make your first claim against the policy.

What happens when you claim?

In an ideal world, presuming you had all your ducks in a row before you signed your policy document, making a claim would be a simple matter of filling in the forms and waiting for your payment. Unfortunately insurance companies are not quite as cheerful about paying out compensation as they are about collecting premiums.

This was borne out by personal experience: a claim for a carpet burnt when a pet accidentally overturned an electric heater was rejected on the grounds that it was an accident! Sarcastic queries as to whether a deliberately burnt carpet would be covered fell on deaf ears and only the threat to move both mortgage and insurance cover to another institute persuaded them to pay out what they owed.

Here are two other incidents which underline the reluctance of insurance companies to honour their contracts. An insured party had a pipe burst under the floor of his home. He immediately called his plumber who repaired the damage.

When he lodged his claim, however, the insurance company turned it down stating that he should have phoned their toll-free number for a list of service providers. In another flooding incident caused by a burst geyser the insured party was told that he could only claim for the water damage, not the geyser itself. This claim was paid out.

A year later he learnt that his brother-in-law had successfully claimed for a burst geyser and he contacted his insurance company, only to be turned down again, this time on the grounds of late notification! In both cases the clients refused to accept the repudiation of their claims and eventually won their cases.

Conclusion.

The moral of the story is firstly to ensure that you are fully covered and that all the ‘i’s’ and ‘t’s’ in the policy are satisfactorily dotted and crossed, and secondly, when you know you are in the right, never take no for an answer.

The number and complexity of policies on the market, however, can be confusing, even for seasoned policy holders, let alone for those venturing to insure their possessions for the first time. Here, then, are some tips on how to get the most for your hard-earned cash and at the same time ensure that your belongings are adequately covered.

Update your policy:

Your purchase of household insurance does not end with the signing of the policy, which is then filed away until such time as you need to make a claim against it. As you buy new items for your home, update computers and other electronic equipment and jettison articles you no longer need these changes need to be reflected in your policy.

The cost to replace existing articles also increases over time. Failure to update your policy could result in bitter disappointment should you need to claim for stolen or damaged goods which you have neglected to include.

Keep receipts and inventories:

When you do purchase anything of value it makes sense to retain the receipt as proof of purchase. These should preferably be kept in a secure location outside of your home. Photographs of valuable items are also very helpful. Insurance assessors are inclined to be suspicious by profession – an undocumented purchase just prior to a burglary sets off all sorts of alarm bells in their minds.

It is also a good practice to keep an updated inventory of your household possessions. After the trauma of a burglary or disaster it is not easy to determine exactly what is missing. The belated discovery of missing valuables after the claim has been processed – ‘Where are Aunt Mabel’s silver candlesticks?!’ – can be avoided by keeping an itemized inventory.

Cover all residents:

Talking about Aunt Mabel, don’t forget to include all household members, including tenants, on your policy. Failure to do this would most likely result in their losses being excluded from your insurance claim.

Maintain security systems – and use them:

The more secure your property the more likely your premium will be discounted. Ensure that your insurance company is aware of security measures such as burglar bars and security systems. And if you have a burglar alarm make sure that it works and is always armed when there is no one at home. A non-operable alarm system, if it is stipulated in your policy, can be justification for rejecting your claim.

Minimize risk factors:

Finally, be aware of factors which increase the risk of burglary or fire damage, such as the structure of your home, its location and whether or not it is left empty for any appreciable period of time. By reducing these risks you can substantially decrease the cost of your household insurance.

Knowing the terms and conditions of your household insurance policy and updating it regularly, understanding claims procedures and reducing, as far as possible, your risk profile, will all go a long way towards ensuring you get the most out of your insurance.

Remember that short term insurance is not offered to everyone, nor does everyone qualify for the same rates in terms of premium costs. The fewer risks you pose to an insurer the cheaper your short-term insurance costs.

Be familiar with the conditions of your cover and the claims procedures at all times.