Policy especially designed for Holiday Homes & Second Homes Automatic sum insured up to £1,000,000 for buildings Payments by credit card, debit card or interest free direct debit Plain English policy wording Wide policy wordings to satisfy mortgage lenders Contents and all risks cover can be added 24 hour Claims emergency hotline 24 hour emergency property assistance Family legal expenses can be included Cover arranged with Lloyds of London via Intasure
An important factor in determining insurance costs is the actual sums insured required. Whilst many insurance companies, are now opting for sum insured free policies, the majority of insurers will still require to know the actual amounts your require to be insured. In respect of home insurance buildings cover, you should insure for the rebuilding cost of your property. This is not the value of your home, which will of course include the land on which the property stands and a whole range of variables to which you cannot attach a rebuilding cost. This market value, will include things such as the location, the view, the size and shape of the garden, the proximity to schools and shops and facilities , items to which it is simply not possible to attach a rebuilding cost. The rebuilding cost of your property relates to the full replacement of the structure, its permanent fixtures & fittings such as the bathroom, a fully fitted kitchen, & the central heating system. Remember to include garages, garden sheds, greenhouses, fences & gates.
It must also include amounts for demolition costs, site clearance, professional fees, such as those charged by architects & surveyors and local planners. To a home owner, this may seem a little complicated, especially as it is important to have then figure as accurate as possible. There are two ways of calculating rebuilding costs. Firstly, you can contact a local surveyor and ask them to visit the property and provide a valuation for insurance purposes. However, there is a cost involved with this and thus most people elect to calculate the sum insured themselves. A great tool to help you do this, can be located on the Association of British Insurers website. The information is provided by BCIS. BCIS is the principal source of residential rebuilding cost data in the UK. To use the calculator, you will need to provide a few basic details and be able to supply the dimensions of the property. However, it is important to follow the guidelines and pay attention to the types of property that the calculator cannot cater for.
If you have a mortgage on the property, your lender will have carried out a survey prior to advancing a mortgage on the property. If you are able to locate a copy of this survey report , then it should state, the level of insurance you require. However, lenders are interested in protecting their loan and in some cases, surveyors attached to lenders have recommended amounts that are more closely related to the market value of the property. It is important to make sure that your sum insured is accurate, you can end up paying far too much for your home insurance if your building sum insured is correct. On the other hand, and perhaps a far worst scenario, having a sum insured that is too low, could end up with you be subject to having an "average" clause applied to your policy in the event of a claim. Average is the method by which insurance companies deal with under insurance on partial loss claims. In essence, they will reduce the cost of a claim under a policy in ratio with the amount of the under insurance. Here is an example.
A home is insured for £200,000 and following a flood at the property, a claim is submitted which totals £30,000. The insurers appoint a loss adjuster and he calculates that the true rebuilding cost of the property is £400,000. In this instance the claim will be reduced to £15,000. For most people, in the event of this type of loss, having to fund a substantial amount of money would be unthinkable, hence the need to make sure that building sums insured are as accurate and as up to date as possible. The most popular home insurance companies for buildings and contents insurance are as follows:-
Most modern contents insurance policies whether part of a home combined cover or issued as a stand alone contract, will offer cover on a " New for Old" basis.
The range of perils, will be almost identical to that offered by the building section of the policy, but the basis of settlement, will be New for Old. Originally, contents covers were contracts of indemnity, that is to say, in the event of a loss, you were " placed in the same position after the loss as you were in before it" Thus , if you had a 10 year old sofa and it was damaged, you were provided with a payment based on this age. These contracts, led to a great deal of problems with claims settling and thus a style of cover, called new for old came about. Under this type of contract in return for valuing your home contents as if you had just bought them all as brand new, in the event of a claim, the insurance company will repair or replace the goods with new items.
Most insurance companies now, prefer not to offer cash settlements in respect of claims. A network of agents and direct suppliers exists, meaning that insurers can obtain substantial discounts on such things as electrical items.
When valuing your contents on a new for old basis, it is important to include every, item, this really does, mean everything, including all items of clothing. ( Although new for old cover is usually not offered on clothing)
The third main section of a home insurance policy , that requires a sum insured calculation, is the All Risks section.. The title is slightly misleading as not all eventualities will be covered although a good deal are. This section is designed to cover items away from the home and you should calculate your sum insured on a replacement basis. Most insurers offer two options.,
1- Unspecified All Risks, this covers smaller items and insurers will have a single article limit of anywhere between £750.00 and £1500.00 per item. Cover is arranged on a first loss basis, as you simply effect cover for the maximum amount of items you think you will have away from the home at any one time.
2- Specified All Risks. This type of cover is slightly cheaper as you are declaring the items to be insured, to the insurance company. In some cases, proof of ownership or a valuation will be required. Most Policies will come with certain restrictions and warranties with regard to the care and maintenance of valuables, these as with all terms & conditions, should be studied closely.
How Can Your Postcode Affect Your UK Home Insurance Policy? - home insurance uk is the most standard and easily available form of property insurance contract and although not compulsory by statue, anyone with a mortgage will almost certainly be required to insure the fabric of their home under a buildings insurance policy. To this, you can at your option, opt to include cover for contents which in turn can be extended to include All Risks ( this section of a home insurance uk policy is designed to cover valuable items away from the home. But how are insurance rates for home insurance calculated? When applying for you home insurance uk policy, there are a number of rating or underwriting factors that an insurer will take in to consideration before providing you with a quotation. There are quite a few variables and this makes almost every quotation different. One of the most important rating factors for home insurance is your postcode....
Postcodes in the United kingdom are alphanumeric and were introduced by the Royal Mail to help identify United Kingdom homes over a 15 year period between 1959 to 1974, however major cities had been using postcodes as a means of identifying locations from as long ago as 1857. The first system of ten London postal areas identified by the letters (W, WC, EC etc) was devised by Sir Rowland Hill and introduced in 1857. The numbered subdivisions (W1, W2,WC1,EC1 etc) were introduced as a war-time measure and date from 1917. These 1917 subdivisions became the basis of the system introduced by the Royal Mail, because they form the first part of the two-part modern postcode (so W1 1AA is an address in the old London W1 district. Modern postcodes that are used to pin down exact addresses are made up of various sections, the following example postcode SW1A 1AA, is for Buckingham Palace in London. In this example, the first pair of letter represents the area, the following digit represents the district within that area and the remaining letters and numbers pin the location down to a sector in that area. The part of the code before the space is the outward code or out code used to direct mail from one sorting office to the destination sorting office, while the part after the space is the inward code or in code used to sort the mail into individual delivery rounds, each separate code usually identifying the address to within 80 properties (with an average of 14 properties per postal code), although a large business building may have a unique postcode.
It is a pure hierarchical system, working from left to right with each postcode generally representing a street, part of a street, or a single premises. So this system that was originally introduced as a means of helping postmen locate homes, now plays a major parting in the rating of home Insurance. All insurance companies keep a database of statistical information relating to postcodes, from it they can discover various information that will all affect insurance pricing.
1) Insurers can tell the type of soil that you property stands, on this helps them decide if you home is likely to be troubled by subsidence, for example if the postcode indicates that your home is built on clay soils, the insurance company may want an increased premium. They will also be able to tell if you home is situated above mine workings or tunnelling.
2) Insurers can tell if you property is situated on a flood plain or close to any rivers or water courses. Insurers also make use of sophisticated mapping software and can often overlay maps to see the extent of any flood water and its proximity to your home. With the rent spate of bad weather claims, insurers are currently updated the postcode flood map and this data will help them decide of future home insurance premiums and may even decide if insurance is available or not.
3) Insurers will have access to previous claims information for your postcode, this is now so fine tuned that sometimes insurance rates can vary from street to street. Insurers will be able to tell if they have experienced previous claims in your neighbourhood, in particular they will be looking out for Theft and malicious damage occurrences.
Assetsure is an Appointed Representative of Intasure, a trading name of Blenheim Park Limited who are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Assetsure Limited is an appointed representative of Highhouse Insurance Services Limited who are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
Policy especially designed for Holiday Homes & Second Homes
