October 10, 2024
What is Home & Contents Insurance?
One of the two basic types of home insurance is contents insurance.
It protects the contents of your home in the event of theft, loss, or damage. These also cover situations beyond your control, such as fire, theft, storms, floods, ground movement beneath your property (also known as subsidence), and water leaks.
Home insurance is only required if you own the property. Contents insurance can be purchased separately or as part of a combined policy that also covers the structure of your home.
Why should you consider it?
Your house is so much more than just a physical possession. Because home is a place of protection, security, familiarity, and comfort, a severe weather event, an accident, or a home invasion could cost you more than just money. That’s why it’s important to safeguard your valuable property with great insurance to make sure you have the right type and amount of coverage in place to protect your home and belongings.
And in an unfortunate event that your home and contents were damaged or destroyed, or say some of your belongings were stolen, and don’t have the budget to replace them right away, the home and contents insurance will cover it for you.
Also having a house that has a mortgage, most of the time the bank requires it to have home insurance to cover it. Although even if you own your property, or you rent your home, having home insurance of some sort should still be considered.
What can it cover and can’t cover?
Home Insurance inclusions depend on your policy but can have the following:
– Home Insurance: protects and covers your property against natural calamities such as floods, earthquakes, explosions, fires, storms, and lightning strikes. And if ever some unfortunate events like breaking-in, vandalism, or liability to third parties occur, your house insurance got it covered.
– Contents Insurance: this one protects all your valuable possessions, in the moment that they’re damaged or stolen, you can have them either repaired or replaced. Possessions like furniture, sporting equipment, electronic appliances, or jewelry are covered with this insurance.
However, there are some exclusions and things Home and Content Insurance can’t cover, most of the time they are excess or limits regarding their coverage. So having an insurance broker is recommended for you to know the limits and scope of your insurance. Also, don’t forget to ask for a PDS or Product Disclosure Statement from your broker.
What is a Product Disclosure Statement?
This is a document that your insurance provider should give you when they recommend or offer you certain insurance. This document contains all the information about the insurance being offered, all the fees, risks, and benefits of insuring your possessions, and the complaints handling procedure if ever you’ll encounter problems regarding your insured properties.
In deciding whether to acquire your Home and Contents Insurance, the PDS (Product Disclosure Statement) is a must since they contain everything you should consider before insuring your property. They will also help you decide if you want to continue holding your insurance once you get one.
For your Home & Contents needs, feel free to contact any of our Insurance Broking experts by reaching us out on 02 492 4444 or by email at maitland@armainsurance.com.au.