Insurance Facts

Owning a house is a massive accountability. Not only do you need to deal with the monthly home loan installment and other fees such as water and electricity, but you also have to be geared up in case of an unexpected emergency, a robbery or other tragedy! Just think about if you had to lose all the assets within your house or if the entire house is destroyed through a natural disaster… how will you ever be able to recover from such an event?

The answer comes by way of homeowners insurance!

Homeowners insurance can commonly be separated into home content insurance which provides coverage for the actual content inside your home and house structure insurance or building insurance which provides coverage for the structure of your home. Most banking companies will not even consider financing your home if the structure of your home is not insured.

It is important to compile an exact household inventory. You need to supply an insurance supplier with a detailed overview before your insurance coverage and premiums can be worked out. Be sure that you complete this inventory as in-depth and scrupulous as you can. There is genuinely no other way to determine the precise value of lost or damaged property and you might end up being underinsured if you try to take shortcuts with your insurance cover. It’s better still if you can keep the slips and invoices of new items you buy – this will insure complete accuracy. Better yet, photograph all the rooms in your house, ensuring that the most valuable objects are clearly visible and also send this through to your insurance provider so that they can keep it on file.

Don’t assume all homeowners insurance plans will offer the same type of cover. In some instances you will need supplemental policies to cover your home against events such as hailstorms and bomb explosions while other damage such as storm damage, fire damage and leaky plumbing might be included in the policy. Naturally the more extensive the cover required, the more expensive the actual insurance policy.

It is very important realize that no-one is untouchable. Just because your home is in a secure neighbourhood with 24hour security and a vicious guard dog, does not necessarily mean that you will never need homeowners insurance. As stated previously, you also need to insure your property against elements such as fire, theft and storm and no amount of security measures will be able to shield you from these kinds of disasters!

As with all varieties of insurance coverage you are only harming yourself if you lie on your homeowners insurance application. Should you not have an alarm system installed or stay in a complex with a security guard at the gate, don’t pretend that you do in order to try and save on your monthly premiums! If it’s time to claim and an assessor is sent to your house, your little white lie can mean that the insurance company will reject your claim!

To summarize: No homeowner is untouchable! Make certain you have contents insurance and building insurance in place – then you can sleep sound through the night!