Lacking Home Insurance Cover

Home contents insurance is one of those everyday things most of us give little thought too other than to check the renewal form once a year. Yet with most of us constantly upgrading our home contents and all the great home insurance deals out there we’d be wise to give a little more time to ensuring we have adequate home contents cover at competitive rates.

Its natural that over the course of time the value of our home contents should rise as we make new purchases and upgrade our existing belongings, especially with regard to electrical items such as televisions, VCR’s and DVD players. However according to Sainsbury’s bank while up to 3.4 million claim to have increased the value of their home contents by more than £5,000 27% fail to check whether their home contents insurance needed to be amended to take this into account.

Few of us seem to shop around for the best home insurance deals either. While it can seem attractive to stay with the same company for ease of renewal and company loyalty that can lead to higher than competition premiums.

Lack of adequate insurance cover can be disastrous in the event of a claim. Insurers can argue that if you have only insured 50% of your contents then you’re only entitled to 50% of any claim made. A harsh shock in the event of a burglary or fire. In fact, Sainsbury’s bank believe that one of the reasons so many insurance claims are turned down each year is down to inadequate cover or failing to notify the insurer when the value of home contents rises significantly.

Aside from keeping your insurance company abreast of significant increases in home contents value to ensure your cover is still adequate is there any other way to make sure your not underinsured? After all it’s a bit of a headache to be constantly checking the value of your possessions. One way to make sure you’re never caught out is to chose a company with unlimited sum insurance. So far very few companies offer this, only 18% in fact, but of those Halifax and More Than are two main stream insurance providers who offer this service. However investigating whether your favoured insurance provider can offer you unlimited sum cover is worthwhile. Particularly if you are a householder whose contents are likely to increase in value over the course of a year.

So when your home contents insurance renewal arrives in the post or even now if the value of your home contents has risen, take a bit of time to consider whether the cover is still adequate. Consider whether an unlimited sum policy may be best or even whether a shopping around for the best home insurance policy might yield a better rate. Then you can relax and have peace of mind that any increased value on your home contents is covered.