I'll soon be moving home and am looking at buildings and contents insurance. Previously, I've always minimised my insurance cover to buildings only and taken the risk on contents...the money I've saved over the years could be considered my insurance against the future risk to the smaller possessions. Doing the usual price comparison, the incremental addition of accidental damage, cover outside the home etc. has me tempted just to add the lot for the extra couple of hundred pounds. Then I'm torn because I think with a total £350 excess, I'm not sure I'd bother claiming if I had damage to a watch or I dropped my iPhone!
Whats everones thoughts on insuring stuff...do you just insure for everything or insure the minimum/mandatory stuff? Are there scenarios I havent considered that would make me think twice about my previous strategy and tick all the insurance options?
Always buildings and contents
Usually name one or two of the dearer watches as have them covered fir away from the home cover
Don’t normally bother with accidental damage as am careful
Each to their own
But regards contents
Imagine your house burnt down and you literally had to buy everything again from socks through to white goods, TVs, furniture, carpets etc etc
Insurance these days is so cheap imo it’s not a risk I’d ever take not to cover contents
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Have a look at m&s insurance they have comparatively high maximum values for single items although if you are rocking AP or Patek then you’ll probably want more.
For my relatively modest collection it’s fine and we even saved a little moving over to it.
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the companies are different and have hired a load of brain boxes to come up with all kinds of confusing terms and conditions for everything.
ticking all the boxes can be very wasteful so i would say to get more clued up and read the small print for various options.
for example if you just tick everything you might be unknowingly paying £40 extra per year to insure against pest infestation and stuff falling from the sky onto your property.
they are very good at getting people to sign up to stuff they dont need
Fire, flood or water damage can easily write off all or nearly all of your possessions. Just do a realistic inventory of one of your rooms & then work out how much it would cost to replace everything; every shirt, suit, duvet cover, saucepan, TV, settee, carpet, & wardrobe. You'll find most people could spend £50,000 without even trying.
I'm averse to insurance other than fully comp on the car and standard buildings and contents. Anything else I will cover the cost of I suffer a loss. Overall I think I in positive territory over the course of my lifetime.
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I always go for unlimited cover excluding valuables such as Aviva or John Lewis. Many people underinsure when based on new for old cover. If I had to replace all my audio equipment as new it would be over 100K which wouldn’t be amusing.
I had a flood a couple of weeks ago, just hit the recessed family room. The flood went to about 20cm deep and I pumped it out within a few hours, but the cost has been immense.
The floor, underfloor heating, batons, and sheeting were all wrecked and it's only this morning that we were marked as dry after having 5 fans and a dehumidifier on 24/7 since the floor was lifted and binned. We've also had about 2ft of plaster on the walls removed.
We lost, large U-shaped sofa, a unit that we store electricals in and all the electricals that were in it, book case and loads of books, standing lamp, rugs and toys that were in a box.
Goodness knows the cost of the floor, but replacement of the stuff on it will be north of £7k. So, contents insurance is a must.
As with all things insurance related, the only time you really know how good your insurers and insurance policy are is when you need to make a claim.
The way different insurers treat their insured parties varies by huge amounts and the policies are varied/edited on an annual basis, so seem to cost more but cover less each year. It is therefore very hard to compare apples with apples when it comes down to insurance policies.
We still run Buildings and Contents, but self-insure our animals now. We binned accidental damage many years back.
Hope you're keeping well, Christian.Originally Posted by Christian
Whilst others have concentrated upon the obvious headline benefit of Contents cover i.e. loss of, or damage to, your 'stuff', there are a few scenarios that some might perhaps be less aware of:
1) Occupiers, Personal & Employer's Liability:
Policies can differ in their application but essentially, if you purchase Buildings cover only, you are insured for liability arising from Ownership of the home itself e.g. slate falls off roof and hits a passer-by, their car etc.
Contents cover typically bundles-in further cover for Occupiers, Personal & Employers Liability, which are different risks to Ownership ones, emanating instead as the Occupier, rather than the Owner of the home, e.g.:
- Visitor to your home trips and injures themselves on something you carelessly left lying around
- Handy-man or cleaner injures themselves whilst working for you, as a result of something you are liable for
- Your dog (one not defined as 'dangerous' in law) takes a chunk out of someone
- You hit a pedestrian whilst carelessly riding your bike (non-powered, that is)
Likely? Not overly, but personal injury costs (never mind the legal costs in defence) can be exorbitant.
My brother-in-law needed this cover when a labourer he engaged fell off a ladder (supplied by my brother-in-law) in his hallway and took legal action against him.
Here's an interesting report from the Guardian where a home owner was not covered for water damage caused to a neighbour's home due to a lack of contents cover - note that the ombudsman eventually ruled against the insurer, but only because Aviva failed to draw the distinction between Owners & Occupiers Liability to their policyholder's attention: https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...er-third-party
2) Legal Expenses
Probably an additional purchase to both Buildings & Contents cover, but it covers the pursuit, or defence, of legal disputes & actions following some definable incident e.g. with tradesmen who have carried out poor services at your home, disputes with neighbours, employment issues like unfair dismissal, contracts for goods, tax investigations or when you might need to take legal action to sue someone yourself following a wrong against you.
3) Loss of Money, Credit Cards etc. - self-explanatory
4) Worldwide Contents cover - saves you also buying baggage & personal possessions cover as part of your Travel insurance
5) Personal Possessions / 'All Risks' & Accidental Damage cover - this is where watches etc. come in e.g. if the diamond solitaire falls from the setting of your wife's ring whilst out shopping, or your watch slips from your wrist in the sea, or you leave a laptop on a train, or you drop your Patek on a tile floor etc.
6) Childrens/Students Possessions - e.g. my wife claimed from her parents' home policy for a burglary whilst living away at Uni
AXA (from them directly) are very good.
Set the max value for high value items Eg £15k, 20k, 25k and they will cover them in and out of the house once named. I asked if they need up to date valuations. They said no.
As a guide: I pay £230 ish for 75k contents in the house and £20k high value which covers our jewellery worldwide.
My postcode however is very, very rural
Thanks all, much appreciated. I've been playing around with options and this time round, I'm leaning towards going for pretty much the works as its not much more than the prices with options removed.
We were robbed a couple of years ago and there was £10k of interior damage... not including what they nicked. Rip a kitchen cupboard door off and damage it... can you find a new one that matches ?
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