We are
including information on contents insurance on this
website as many people require to purchase it as a
stand alone product. Today many people still have
their building insurance arranged by their mortgage
provider so they are left to arrange their own
Contents Insurance cover. Lets start off with a definition of Contents
Insurance.
Household contents includes just
about anything in the home including items you keep
in the garage or any outbuildings, belonging to you or
a member of your family. It also includes contents
that you are responsible for; maybe you have rented a television
or other electrical appliance. In simple terms
anything you would take with you when you quit or sell
the property is covered.
Most policies will now extend contents insurance to
cover items temporarily away from the home but the
cover can be quite restrictive. If you require
"wider" All Risks insurance, you need to add
a separate section to your policy. This wider section
is a lot more expensive and is usually reserved for
items of a special value that you are worried about
loosing or you take with you on a regular basis (
Items of Jewellery, Camera Equipment etc).
Most Contents Insurance policies
cover a wide range of perils, fairly similar to your
standard building cover. As well as the perils you
will also receive Occupiers Liability insurance cover
and this is a very valuable addition. An example would
be a guest tripping over a carpet in your home. The
law can be very complicated when it comes to sorting
out owners liability ( covered by the building) and
occupiers liability ( cover by contents insurance). It
is best left to an insurance company to sort this
mater out in the event of a claim suffice to say that
if you have both Buildings & Contents
insurance will get the correct liability
insurance over.
Most modern policies now provide contents insurance on
a new for old basis.. Quite simply in the event of an
insured loss, your old item will be replaced by a new
one. Nowadays, insurers tend not to offer cash
preferring to actually replace the item concerned. To
make sure you receive the full benefit of this cover,
you have to make sure you have insured your
contents for their full replacement value. If you
fail to do this and a claim occurs, you may find that
your insurer will apply an average
clause.
