It’s never been easier to get your home insurance online. There are countless price comparison sites out there, and once you find a quote that works for you, you can usually get cover in a matter of minutes.
But we’ve seen too many homeowners unsure about what cover they have actually purchased and typically this comes to the fore at the time of a claim.
In this post we’ll outline the pitfalls of buying home insurance online, and how you can ensure you have all the cover you need to protect what matters most.
Common Misunderstandings About Home Insurance
When buying insurance, it’s vitally important to understand just what you’re getting for your money. Our experience as insurance brokers would highlight a number of common areas where problems can arise if cover is not as expected.
- Accidental Damage
- Worldwide cover
- Sums Insured Overall and Limits for certain items
- All Risks
- New for Old Cover
- Theft from Outbuildings
- Garden Cover – furniture and outdoor equipment
- Pedal Cycles
- Cover for students away from home
- Money
- Renovations
How To Ensure You Have The Cover You Need To Protect Your Household
Increasingly, insurers are trying to simplify customer needs by removing the need to have precise valuations for buildings and contents. While this can streamline the buying process, it may leave many homeowners vulnerable to underinsurance.
Understand Your Home’s Rebuild Value
When it comes to household insurance, it’s still important to understand your home’s rebuild value. Some insurers offer £1m of building rebuild protection, and unlimited sums for contents. This will work for many customers, but not all of them.
Remember, the rebuild cost of your home is not its market value. It’s the amount it would cost to rebuild your home completely following a total loss.
You can get an accurate estimate of your home’s rebuild cost using the calculator on the BCIS site.
Look for ‘All Risks’ Insurance
When buying home insurance, we usually advise homeowners to look for “all risks” insurance. This means that you’ll be covered for the costs of repairing or replacing any loss or damage to your home for anything that’s not explicitly excluded in your policy wording.
Consider a Dedicated Renovation Policy
If you are considering a renovation, a dedicated renovation policy for building works and extensions can fill any gaps in your current household insurance policy for a set price.
Consider Valuable Items and Collections
For contents insurance, even if your insurer offers you an unlimited sum, they will likely still want you to list all items over a certain value, which is usually £15,000. You may also have to provide a total value for certain collections, including jewellery, watches, art, and antiques.
It’s at this point that you may need to consider specialist high net worth insurance.
When Do You Need Specialist High Net Worth Insurance?
High net worth household insurance provides extra protection for “prestige homes” (which includes listed buildings), as well as for any homeowner who stores certain high value items in their home.
You should certainly consider high net worth cover if you store a collection of jewellery, watches, art, antiques, or other high value items in your home. Some insurers will cover collections up to an agreed value of around £10,000, yet this is somewhat rare. You may need tailored cover for your collection, particularly if it includes jewellery and watches.
We have published guides to getting the right cover for numerous collections, including sneakers, watches, stamps, memorabilia, records, posters, and more. You can browse our guides to getting the cover you need.
In any case, you should choose your cover on an “all risks” basis. This means you’ll be covered for any event that is not explicitly specified as an exception, including accidental loss or damage.
We’ll Help You Get The Household Insurance You Need
Buying home insurance online can be a great choice for many homeowners. It’s just important that you know exactly what cover you’re getting, and exactly what the limitations are. And if you have specific cover needs, buying your insurance online could leave you at risk of underinsurance.
Talk to Anthony Jones, and we’ll take the time to understand your specific cover needs. We will then work to get you a home insurance package that will truly protect the things you value the most.
Alongside buildings and contents cover, we can also arrange home emergency cover, family legal cover, and personal possessions cover.
For more information, call us on 0208 290 9093 or email shuaib.rahman@anthonyjones.com
