Introduction -
by property insurance UK, most people mean the insurance of buildings and
contents and personal possessions, However, it is a slightly ambiguous term and
can relate to a whole manner of different insurance requests. Literally
the word property designates those things that are commonly recognized as being
the possessions of a person or group. Important types of property include
buildings, whether they be private dwelling houses or commercial property,
personal property such as the contents of a dwelling house, business contents
associated with a business or trade. or other personal possessions such as
watches or jewellery. Property insurance Uk can also relate to slightly less
tangible objects such as intellectual property rights over creations, inventions
and discoveries etc. However statistic show that the vast majority of
peoples interpretation of the term building insurance uk, relates to the
insurance of private dwelling insurance within the United Kingdom.
Private property in the UK is a very easy insurance to place, the bulk of
homeowners use their private dwelling houses for nothing other than a place to
live, however even if you are one of the growing band of homeowners that use the
property for business purposes then cover is still relatively easy to obtain. A
variant on the standard home property insurance policy is the Landlords property
insurance, this type of contract is very similar to a normal home insurance
except that the insurance company are aware that the property has been purchased
for rental purposes and will be occupied by a tenant.
Standard home property insurance policies in the Uk are divided in to a number
of sections all offering different types of cover. A typical domestic property
insurance contract will have the following sections.
In some cases a policy will have an extra section which can be used to
cover small craft or even caravans.
The most important sections of a domestic property insurance uk policy are the
first two sections, these relate to the insurance of buildings and contents. A
question that always arises is how do you separate buildings from contents when
requesting your insurance quote ? Its quite simple, buildings are defined as the
structure of the property and its decorations and its fixtures & fittings. The
term fixtures and fittings gives an important clue to defining items that fall
under the buildings section of a property insurance policy. Anything that is
affixed to a building is deemed to have become part of it and thus should be
insured as part of the building. This would relate to bathroom fixtures and
fittings and fully fitted kitchens. looking at in another way, anything you
would leave behind if you sold the property, should be insured as the building.
Buildings premiums are calculated on the rebuilding cost of the property and the
contract is normally index linked, this means that the sum insured will increase
each year in line with inflation. This is to help you guard against under
insurance.
Contents include furniture and personal possessions and includes any items you
would take with you if the property were sold. Carpets are always a bit of a
grey area when it comes to whether they are buildings or contents as many people
tend to leave them in the property when they move home. However, most
insurers would rather you insured carpets as contents as leaving them behind on
the sale of a property is very much a matter of personal choice, they are more
portable that say a fully fitted kitchen or bathroom and thus the contents
section of a home property insurance policy is the best place to have them
insured.
The All risks section of a Uk property insurance policy extends the normal
contents section to cover items when they re away from the home,. Usually cover
is provided for valuable items such as watches or jewellery, sometime camera and
sports equipment are also included. The term All risks is slightly ambiguous as
now insurance policy is going to cover every eventuality but under All Risks
section cover is very wide and the list of exclusions is not usually too
extensive.
Modern contents insurance policies are usually written on a new for old basis,
this basically means that in the event of a claim, your old contents will be
replaced with new items. usually the insurance company will have the option to
repair or to replace your items, Cash settlements are not always offered as the
insurance company may have a deal with a supplier who can provide the product at
a much reduced price. This helps to keep the cost of claims down and will; of
course help keep everybody's premiums at a reasonable level
Property insured under a contents insurance is almost always index linked, this
means that each year the sum insured is increased inline with inflation, to help
guard against under insurance. However, no amount of index linking can help to
keep your sum insured up to date if you are constantly buying new property. If
you have just set up home or are in the process of replacing all of your
contents, its a good idea to sit down and work out exactly how much it would
cost to replace all of your property as new,. Most people are ( pleasantly)
surprised when they calculate the value of the property in their home.
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2007
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