SUM INSURED - It is your duty to make sure that the sum insured for your buildings cover is correct. It must be sufficient to pay for the rebuilding cost, not the market value. If is too low, you are 'under-insured' and this could mean having to pay part of the claim on top of your excess. In extreme cases, your insurer might even refuse to pay a penny. Once you have established the correct sum insured, and there are leaflets available for your insurer to help you, it will be index linked so should stay correct from then on. Don't try and save premium by under-insuring your home. You will run in to difficulty with any claim of substance. The saving is not worth it
MATCHING SETS OF SUITES - check your wording carefully. Your insurer will usually try and restrict any repair or replacement to the item damaged only. You could end up with a funny looking bathroom suite! See the home insurance - grey areas page for my thoughts on how far you could push for full replacement of a suite.
"My husband, myself and the dog were the only people in the house and
he is completely deaf unless he wears his hearing aid."
Extracts taken from actual claim forms submitted to
a number of UK home insurance companies
LIABILITIES - This area is similar to 'third party' cover for your car. It is restricted to any liability you are responsible for as OWNER of the property. The vast majority of incidents involving your property will be brought against you as Occupier and will be dealt with under your contents cover! Thus, I suggest that if someone makes a claim against you, you approach your contents insurers first.
There are a few instances where you could need a buildings liability cover. Examples would include landlords who do not occupy the property, owner/occupiers of flats that share common parts of a building and so on. Actions brought against you under the Defective Premises Act. Cover is included Free with your buildings policy so you have it if you need it.
There is a long list of exclusions which are, by and large, common sense. These include contractual agreements that impose liability on you that you would not normally have, property you own, liability for any employers, damage and injury associated with lifts, if you are running a business and so on. There is usually a limit to the cover, the policy I am looking at is £2 million. Sounds a lot! But some liability claims can exceed that! See also the liability part of the contents cover.
EXTRAS - Some insurers have now bolted on extras such as free legal help lines and emergency assistance services. These can be very useful when you do encounter a problem so are well worth having. Your policy will finish with some general exceptions and conditions. These are much the same as those applying to contents so please check out the contents insurance explained page of this site for more information.
