Moving on from the cold snap and unfreeze your sums insured!

Moving on from the cold snap and unfreeze your sums insured!

It might still be freezing cold outside, but that doesn't mean your sums insured should freeze too!

Christmas seems like an eternity ago despite the recent bout of cold weather but the season of giving means that the total value of many household’s contents has increased.

According to Facebook, the most popular day for people to get engaged is Christmas Eve, followed by Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and then Valentines Day. With all these engagements comes engagement rings and although these can vary in value, we can agree that this will increase the value of your home’s contents.

One thing that is so often overlooked when it comes to contents insurance is first, whether the items you own or plan to buy will be covered by your policy, and secondly, whether the sum insured or limits within your policy are sufficient enough should something happen. In quite a number of cases, you can add an engagement ring to your household contents policy as a specified item, and the same can be done with other items like; pieces of art, antiques and even high-value sporting equipment. Even if you don’t do this, it is worth checking that your sum insured is sufficient to cover the combined value of everything in your house.

We are now moving on to the period of the year where people embark on home improvement projects. Making sure that your insurer is aware of any construction work that is being undertaken at your property is another thing many individuals often overlook. In addition, after the construction work or home improvements have been completed, the right thing to do would be to adjust your sum insured on your property to reflect the new rebuild cost.

Underinsurance is a major issue that spans the nation and means that you might not receive quite as much money as you think you should in the event of a claim. This is why we would urge you to obtain a Chartered Surveyors report that gives you a rebuild value for your home and helps guide you to set a sufficient sum insured.

We can provide a solution to this by giving our client’s access to a Rebuild Cost Assessment Service. It costs significantly less than a traditional on-site survey whilst still providing you with a RICS approved report.

For more information about the Rebuild Cost Assessment Service, contact Louise on 01202 754964.