Imagine this – you live in a nice big house and have spent a huge amount of money in buying really expensive stuff for your house. During the summers, you go overseas for a nice 2-week beach vacation. As your come back, you try to open the house door and see that the whole house is flooded and the false ceiling in your living room is lying on the floor in a pool of water. Your expensive Persian carpet is in knee-deep water and your genuine leather sofa is beginning to rot inside your house. The expensive home theater system is lying on the floor and the TV does not work any more.
If this scares you, you need to rush out and get a home content insurance for your house. Home Content Insurance is a very basic and cheap insurance policy that covers and protects all the contents in your house including personal belongings, furniture, electrical appliances, jewellery, electronics, art, etc. against any damage or theft. These policies are issued by most general insurance companies, which generally charge a very low premium rate.
The insurance companies offer these policies in three or four different price bands with varied levels of coverage based the size of the house and the value of contents insured. In certain countries, the Home Content Insurance policies are a part of the overall Property Insurance that provides a cover against any damage to the house itself. It is, therefore, very important to understand the coverage offered by both these policies very clearly to understand the cover provided by each.
In the event of a loss of any item, theft or damage to your home contents, just call the insurance company and report the claim. If the items are expensive (over $2500), they may request a receipt to confirm the value of the item. The surveyors from the insurance company will come to conduct a survey in your property and will approve the claim based on the damage assessed by them. These policies usually pay the replacement value of the items lost and it is prudent to get quotes for all the items lost or damaged to get a proper claim on the same.
While you are selecting the insurance company, you need to look at a few important factors such as time taken to pay claims, number of claims that are rejected by the insurance company, the policy details, stipulations, clauses, premiums, deductibles and so on. Also try to use the online comparison services to compare companies, policy, and cost.