home insurance Archives - Insurance Agency Singapore | Commercial Insurance and Personal Insurance

Will your home insurance protect you this winter?

3 December 2019 By admin Leave a Comment

Here, we look at the number of home insurers that offer home emergency cover and whether it’s worth including this cover in your home insurance.

Is your home insurance falling short?

Defaqto’s research found that, of the 390 home contents insurance policies on the market, only 21% include cover for home emergencies. Similarly for buildings insurance – which protects the structure of your property – only a quarter of the 271 policies on the market offer home emergency cover as standard.

What is home emergency insurance?

Home emergency insurance is designed to protect you against a range of emergencies that could affect your home suddenly and require immediate action

Where can you get home emergency cover?

Home emergency cover can be bought in a number of ways, aside from adding it to your home insurance policy.

It can be bought as a standalone insurance policy, of which there are currently 104 available on the market. Certain packaged bank accounts also offer home emergency protection, or you may be able to buy cover from your utility provider.

Before you buy any cover, it’s really important to check the terms and conditions to make sure that you get the level of protection you need and don’t get caught out if you have to make a claim.

By Brean Horne

See full Story at www.which.co.uk

Tips for making a successful home insurance claim

11 December 2018 By admin Leave a Comment

Claiming on your home insurance policy often comes at an already stressful time, so the last thing you need is a difficult claims process.

You may have been burgled, or been the victim of flooding or subsidence – if there’s damage to your home you’ll want to contact your insurers as soon as possible.

What steps do you need to take next and how do you make sure your claim goes smoothly?

Submitting a home insurance claim

If your home has been burgled, the first thing to do is phone the police, who’ll issue you with a crime reference number which you can give to your insurer.

If your home needs repairs, you need your insurer to agree to the work before proceeding, so unless it’s an emergency, don’t do anything without consulting your insurer first.

If your home has been seriously damaged, insurers are usually understanding and should reimburse you the cost after the event if you have to go ahead and make emergency repairs.

To submit your claim, dig out your policy documents and find your policy reference number – all insurers have a hotline you can ring to register your claim and discuss what to do next.

Providing evidence

After you’ve let the insurance company know you want to make a claim, you’ll have to fill out a claim form which it’ll send you.

Be prepared to provide the insurer with receipts or evidence to prove you really own what you’re claiming for – if you can’t find receipts, then credit card or debit cards statements may be an alternative.

By Emily Bater

See Full Story at www.gocompare.com

Does home insurance for an older property cost you more?

14 August 2018 By admin Leave a Comment

How much does it cost to insure an older home?

The age of your property can determine the size of your annual insurance bill. Homes built towards the end of the 19th century have the highest home-insurance premiums, coming in at around £160 a year, Consumer Intelligence found.

By contrast, properties build post-2000, including new-build homes, are cheaper to insure, with an average annual home insurance premium of £117, £43 cheaper. Overall, the average UK buildings and contents policy costs £133 annually.

Why do older homes have a higher premium?

Higher home insurance premium for older properties reflect the higher cost of claims made by their owners. You’re more likely to need to make a claim for an older homes, as the roofing, plumbing and wiring are prone to wear out or develop faults.

And when repairs are needed, replacement materials for 19th century houses are more expensive to source. Insurers factor in the higher cost they’re likely to incur from these properties, and charge owners more accordingly.

Risks of buying an older home

In addition to higher insurance premiums, there are several risks to consider if you’re thinking about buying an older property. These include:

Dangerous substances

Older properties are at risk of containing dangerous substances like lead and asbestos which were commonly used in the construction of properties until relatively recently.

Subsidence

Victorian and Edwardian homes have a higher risk of subsidence than newer properties. Subsidence happens when the foundation of a house collapses or sinks and often causes sudden cracks to appear in plaster or brickwork.

Damp and mould

Older buildings are more likely to develop damp and mould than newer homes as they were not built with damp proof materials and roof felting.

By Brean Horne

See Full Story at www.which.co.uk

Key home insurance tips you need to know

12 July 2018 By admin Leave a Comment

Purchasing a home and other home valuables takes serious financial investment. It is for this reason that buyers must ensure homes and other contents are sufficiently covered in order to avoid losing them all in the event of loss or damage caused by fire, theft or natural disasters like floods. Here are some key home insurance tips.

Be aware of upselling mortgage broker

Many banks and building societies encourage borrowers to take out home insurance that is tied in with their mortgage but you may find you are paying more than if you researched the market and insured through a broker. It’s always worth looking for a policy that suits you best and provides the best value.

Estimates

Always ensure that you have accurate estimates for both the re-build cost of your home and the replacement cost of all contents you had in mind when taking out the policy in the first place.

Insure for full replacement value

Remember that this is not the same as the market value. The value of the land on which the house stands is excluded from the calculation of the replacement value of the actual building of the house.

Increase your excess

If you increase the amount you pay in excess, your monthly premiums will decrease. This means you’re taking more of the risk on yourself. Make sure you can afford to pay your excess, though, otherwise you negate the insurance.

Compare deductibles

The deductible is the amount you have to pay out of pocket on each claim and applies only to coverage on your house and personal property. Make sure when choosing a policy that you are comfortable paying the deductible if you make a claim.

By Caxton Central

See Full Story at southcoastsun.co.za

How to get home insurance: 10 tips to make home insurance easy

8 February 2018 By admin Leave a Comment

If you’re trying to get insurance for your home, you may have a few questions. At the top of the list might be how to get home insurance in the first place. It certainly seems like a daunting process with all the fancy words and big numbers. Since your house is so important to you and your family, it’s essential to make sure that it’s protected by the right home insurance. So, to help you out when you get home insurance, we’ve got some tips to keep in mind.

1. Shop around.

It’s not a bad idea to compare some home insurance rates and explore the options that are out there for coverages and policies. If you were buying a new TV, you’d want to check out all the features on different models and do some price comparisons, right? Your home insurance isn’t exactly a new TV, of course, but you can put your shopping skills to good use. Keep in mind that you’re not just looking for the lowest rate – you want to find out what coverage works best for you and go with a quality, secure home insurance option. Making sure your home is fully covered is more important than shaving a few dollars off of your premium.

2. Resist the urge to procrastinate.

If you’re getting a new home, insurance might be the last thing on your mind. Or you might not want to deal with it, so you shoved it into the back of your brain. At any rate, don’t wait until the last minute to get home insurance. Give yourself plenty of time so that you save yourself stress and panic later on – and so you have more time to weigh your options.

3. Make sure you have enough home insurance.

It’s important to make sure you have enough home insurance to fully protect your home. Ideally, you’d have enough insurance to…

Completely rebuild your home if it were destroyed by fire (including construction and clean-up costs)
Replace all of your belongings
Cover your family’s liability (your legal responsibility if you cause someone bodily harm or property damage)

by Katelyn Betts

See Full Story at insurancehub.com

6 Home Insurance Tips for First Time Home Buyers

11 January 2018 By admin Leave a Comment

For first time home buyers finding the right house can be both an exciting and daunting prospect. From the initial flurry of finding a property that is right for you to going ‘sale agreed,’ it really is just the start of the process. Looking for a reliable home insurer that will help guard and nurture your new castle when life comes into play is another task worth thinking about.

1. Cheap Cover May Not Be Best Value

At the outset it will appear that the bills are piling up, from solicitors fees to surveyor reports and lots more. Despite this, it’s important that you don’t try and sell yourself short when taking out home insurance and find value for your money. In some cases the cheapest cover can often be the least desirable. Be sure to get a number of quotes from different providers and compare the benefits on offer. Most insurers such as The AA will provide cover against losses relating to a fire, storm, flood or theft. The AA will also cover you for accidental damage, i.e. if you spill bleach on your carpet or accidentally kick a ball through your window.

2. Know Your Rebuild Cost

When working out the cost of home insurance, you should think about how much it would cost to rebuild your house and its contents. Your bank and mortgage broker should have conducted a valuation shortly after you go ‘sale agreed’ and prior to your loan approval. This valuation will advise the rebuilding cost of the house, and the minimum amount that you must insure it for.

3. Understand the Benefits of Cover

Be sure to have your contents insured at an adequate amount and don’t forget to specify the most important items, some of which will be covered outside the home. You can extend cover for valuables such as your laptop, tablet or jewellery.

BY BARRY ALDWORTH

See full story at www.theaa.ie

Households risk financial disaster by failing to update home insurance

12 October 2017 By admin Leave a Comment

As storms, floods, fires and earthquakes make headlines across the world, research group Canstar has found that four out of 10 Australians with home and contents insurance have less than $350,000 of total cover, while average national values are more than double this.

Almost 80 per cent of those people feel they have enough to cover their home and contents if their home is totally destroyed, it found.

Finance specialists say homeowners are failing to account for the costs of rebuilding and demolition, or the surge in expensive technology items in homes in recent years.

“I would be very confident in saying people are massively underinsured,” said Canstar group executive financial services Steve Mickenbecker.

“It’s the replacement value of the home and $350,000 doesn’t get very far in this day and age,” he said.

“They insured for an era when the fridge and the TV were the expensive items, and would be underestimating just how much electronic stuff is in the home today.”

The median value of all dwellings in Australia ranges from $383,000 in Hobart to $910,000 in Sydney, according to CoreLogic.

While home and contents insurance doesn’t have to cover land values, it does have to pay for demolition, rebuilding and replacing all items.

Consumer finance specialist Lisa Montgomery said many people did not think they would ever suffer a total loss of property, and instead guessed the level of cover they might need.

By Anthony Keane

See full story at www.adelaidenow.com.au

Motor expected to post a fall in half year profits to home insurance giant Admiral

29 October 2015 By Digital Curator Leave a Comment

Image via Flickr user Chris Potter

Insurance giant Admiral is expected to post a fall in profits when it reports its first-half results on Wednesday amid tough competition among motor insurers.

Tough for the sector

Earlier this month rival Direct Line said it had noticed a rise in large bodily injury claims.

In another recent update, Sheilas’ Wheels owner Esure – which also owns Newport-based price comparison firm Gocompare – said it was planning to drive up premiums after a surge in small injury claims had seen half-year profits in its motor insurance underwriting business fall by four-fifths.

The latest set of results will be the first since Admiral boss Henry Engelhardt said in May he will step down next year after clocking up nearly 25 years at the group he co-founded in 1991. The 57-year-old Chicago-born executive will be replaced by co-founder and current Admiral chief operating officer David Stevens next May.

New board role

It has also been confirmed that Admiral’s non-executive director Penny James has been appointed group chief risk officer. Ms James, who is also an executive director of Prudential, will take up the new role from September having joined the board Wales’ only FTSE-listed company in January.

New jobs

Last month Admiral announced it is creating a further 250 jobs in South Wales. This will see it taking on 130 people in its Newport office as well as creating 50 additional jobs in Cardiff and 100 in Swansea.

by Sion Barry

See Full Story at walesonline.co.uk

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