Home Contents Insurance

Ciwan

Hello Friends

I have been living at my current house since 2008 and have not had contents insurance. I think the time has come, but I am very confused about it and would greatly appreciate some answers to the queries I have.

WHAT IS IT?

As far as I understand, it is insurance for all the good material things in my home. But insurance from what? Flood water? acts of Thor & Odin? Theft?

RECEIPTS

In order to have effective contents insurance, do I need to have receipts for everything in my home? I have receipts for some of the stuff (e.g. TV) but for the majority of the stuff in my home, I have lost receipts. Would this cause me problems if in the future I had to make a claim? If not, how does it work? say my TV was stolen and I say I bought it for £1000 eight months ago? How would they handle that if I had no receipt?

ACCIDENTS

Does contents insurance cover accidents? Say my little niece visits with family and she accidentally breaks the screen on my Sony Bravia? Or she pushes my Dell XPS laptop off the table and the screen is smashed?

PRICE INCREASES

After making a claim for whatever reason, does the price jump really high? Hence stopping me from ever making a claim!

Any help with the above would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You.

InsideInsurance

There are two types of home insurance. The mass market insurance is specified perils, damage is covered when its caused by one of a list of named perils like fire, theft, malicious damage, flood etc. The upper end policies are written on an all risk basis where any damage is covered excluding a small list of excluded perils (eg breakdown, poor workmanship)

On most specified perils the basics are covered and there are optional extras you can add such as accidental damage or personal possessions - extends the cover to items you carry out of the house.

Theft is the most difficult claims to deal with because you obviously dont have the dead TV as you would in a flood claim. Insurers will look for proof of ownership, receipts are obviously preferred but things like photos of the items in situ, instruction manuals, boxes etc are all useful too. Insurers also use fraud scoring mechanisms which will judge how much evidence you need to provider. If for example you insure £110,000 of contents with them for 10 years and your first claim is a stolen TV for £1k and they come round, see the damage done to get in, see the rest of your £30,000 home cinema setup ad the broken mount where the TV was then they probably wont question it as much as if you bought a policy for £15,000 of cover and within a week claim your £3,000 TV was stolen and when they come round you have a tesco value DVD player and some £10 PC speakers then they may want more proofs etc

jacksonmic

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Susan1942

I have contents only insurance as I live in a leasehold flat and the buildings insurance is a Master Policy held my the leaseholder
Currently I have contents insurance for £50 000 I have accidental cover and all risk non specified cover with any item up to the value of £1500 I have freezer cover What I am wondering about is I have legal cover Do I need this Not sure how much this added to the cost of the policy I think I can be away for up to 6 weeks My renewal is not due until September but when I was in my bank on Saturday I was asked if I would come in to see them tomorrow and to bring the current policy with me My bank is Santander and my current insurance is with RIAS underwritten by Ageas I think Advice would be appreciated Sue