Insuring Your Home

Every week, we get a lot of queries from people calling into our call centre or retail stores asking about home insurance. Here are some of the common questions we get asked.

Rebuild Costs

This subject caused a lot of confusion with people paying too much for their policies. It goes without saying that building costs have reduced considerably over the past couple of years but yet many people have not factored this into their insurance premiums when it comes to renewal time.

People taking out mortgages would have had to insure their properties and some may have insured for the market price or purchase price. As market values have dramatically fallen their home insurance should be checked to ensure it's based on rebuilding rather than market values. For more advice on this check out rebuild costs on the Chartered Surveyors of Ireland website.

Buildings Cover

The physical structure, essentially what you'd leave behind if you were to move. This is how your house would look without any contents in it. Some people do think that it does not include fitted items like kitchens or wooden floors but it does.

Contents

This is your furniture; from sofas, and beds, to pictures on the walls.

The Excess

This sounds technical but you need to know what it is as it impacts on your policy price. The excess relates to the first amount of any loss that you will have to pay when making a claim, i.e. if the excess is €300 you need to pay that amount yourself, and the balance is covered by your policy.

Finally the one message to take from this article is to shop around for your insurance. It seems obvious, but a lot of people just renew and do not consider if their current policy is the best one for them. Consider what cover you need; go online to get quotes; and then talk to a company that can give you a policy to best meet your needs. It is important to talk to an expert rather than just rely on a website, especially if you are not sure what you actually need.