Household Insurance

If it can be moved into or out of your home, you should include it under your household insurance policy. Household insurance is designed to protect the moveable valuables and contents in your home. It doesn’t matter if you bought it recently or it’s a family heirloom, if it’s not permanently fixed to your home, we recommend you cover it. There are, of course, exceptions to this regarding what we will cover. For example, we don’t insure deeds and bonds.

A common pitfall of insuring your home contents is over-insuring or under-insuring them. It’s easy to do this by accident and tempting to do it on purpose. But it’s important to insure your valuables for the right amount. Here’s why:

When you under-insure, you will pay a lower monthly premium. However, when the time comes to claim, you will get a payout that is less than what your contents are worth. So, if they’re valued at R100 000 and you’ve insured them for R50 000 (50% of the total value), we’ll only pay out 50% of your claim. 

When you over-insure, you pay more than you need to every month but you don’t get paid out more than the value of your contents when you claim. So, if your valuables are worth R100 000 and you insure them for R150 000 (50% more than they’re worth), we will only pay you out up to 100% of your claim.

The best way to ensure you’re insuring your valuables correctly is to go from room to room in your home and make a list of everything you own. We know this sounds like a lengthy task and we acknowledge it can take hours. But trust us – you’ll be so glad you did it if you ever need to claim. As you’re writing down each item, make a note of how much it would cost to replace it. Note, you need to record the replacement cost, not the amount you bought it for. For example, you might have paid R7 000 15 years ago for your lounge suite, but it would cost much more than that to replace it now.

Also be sure to go through your list every year and update any valuables that might have changed in value or anything you bought that isn’t on the list.

Unfortunately, we can’t possibly know when you’ve treated yourself to a brand new flatscreen TV or bought the kids a balance bike unless you tell us. It’s important to update your list, and therefore, us when you buy something new. If you don’t do this, your home contents will be under-insured and you won’t be paid out for the full claim if something happens to your stuff.

While we do cover you for most scenarios under our comprehensive package, there are a few exceptions. These include:

• Goods you use solely for your business. These must be covered under a Business Insurance policy.

• Items stolen from your garage if we can’t see evidence of a break-in.

• If your home remains unoccupied for more than 60 days in a year.

• If you take out a Fire & Storm Only policy, you won’t be covered for theft and damage caused by a break-in.