Home insurance covers the building as well as its contents. Your premium will depend on the value of the contents you want to insure. Do you have to put down everything or only count valuables? Should you specify the price new, the present value or the replacement cost? How do you declare contents to your insurer? In this article, we help you to answer each of these questions, to make sure that your insurance policy provides protection as close as possible to reality.
What does insurer mean by “contents”?
For insurance purposes, the contents of a home are everything that is mobile and movable, such as valuables, clothing, appliances, furniture, ornaments, etc. A sink unit, a cupboard or a garage door, on the other hand, are not considered to be contents.
In other words, everything you take with you when you move could be covered to be covered by contents insurance, including objects such as curtains and rugs.
Don’t forget that contents cover is not only designed to protect against theft. You could also be compensated in the event of water damage, fire or natural disaster (depending on your insurance policy).
What contents should you include in your policy?
When estimating the value of your home contents, you need to take into account all your belongings, not just the most valuable things that could be stolen in a burglary. Remember that all of your belongings could be completely destroyed by other incidents, such as fire or flood damage.
In fact, the only items you don’t need to include in the estimation are structural and fitted elements covered by buildings insurance (walls, windows, roofs, as well as all fittings such as cupboards and bathrooms).
Your estimation should include curtains and rugs, as they are insured as contents and not as part of the building.
To make sure that nothing is missed from your cover, it’s best to prepare an inventory of all items in each room of your home (including garage, attic and outbuildings). Anything you could move should be included in your estimate.
Also remember to take photos of your valuables. They may prove useful in the event of theft.
How do you estimate the value of your contents?
For insurance, the value of an object is the amount it would cost to replace today. That value therefore probably doesn’t correspond to the price you paid.
If you are unsure of the value to assign to a particular object, go on the internet and check how much it costs to buy from an e-commerce site.
