Posts Tagged ‘Always’

It is something you might see on the plot of Eastenders of Coronation Street, but some people actually have to live the nightmare of seeing their home wrecked during a teenage party. This is exactly what happened to the parents of Sarah Ruscoe in Devon recently.

The teenager plastered her school with ?all welcome? posters, this phrase was taken literally and the party was even mentioned on Radio 1, due to this 2,000 gatecrashers turned up at the party and the house was left in ruins when the revellers left.

However your home insurance policy may not be willing to pay out if your home is damaged during a party thrown by your children. There are clauses in most home cover which can mean that if your property and possessions are damaged you are not covered.

Many insurers will not pay out for the irresponsibility of yourself or your child.

In this case the irresponsibility includes advertising the party on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace and inviting more guests than could possibly fit into your house.

Whether or not your insurer will pay out for the damage depends on the level of care you have taken. Allowing a teenager to throw a party while you are away could result in your insurer deeming you have failed to take adequate care of your property.

If the party is thrown without you knowing and without your consent it is likely you will be covered for any damage. The fact that the party was advertised across the internet will not go in your favour though and it is likely the payout will not come to fruition due to recklessness. Effectively your child is inviting strangers into your home.

An Esure spokeswoman, Niki Bolton, said: ?Friends and family will take due care in your home. People who don’t know you have no reason to be careful or treat your property as if it were their own. House party guests must be known to you – they cannot be random people off the street.?

Buildings and contents insurance policies cover malicious acts, but according to the Association of British Insurers there is often a clause in place stating that the policyholder must take reasonable care to prevent damage. Spokesman Malcolm Tarling said: ?The problem is that there is no hard and fast ruling. It really would depend on the individual insurer.?

Some insurers will state that the malicious acts cover only applied to damage caused by strangers. Insurers will also often recommend taking out extra accidental damage cover, which can increase premiums by up to 50%. However, this type of cover only applies to damage caused by friends and family and not if guests appear with the intention of causing damage.

Accidental damage is an ambiguous statement but generally applies to breaking a light-shade from doing exercise indoors, not to pre-planned events like large house parties where damage is extremely likely.

The Financial Obudsman Service, an independent complaint handler has warned that people cannot count on all policies giving the same levels of cover, it is important to check the small print. Spokewoman Emma Parker said: ?Without seeing individual facts, it would be hard for us to make a judgment on a claim because the wording in policies can differ widely.?

We have previously looked at how reviewing our home insurance policies regularly can result in a lowering of our rates. Leaving it just at that could be misleading. Why?

When you review your home insurance policy, you do not only discover things that have lost value. You only discover things that have appreciated in value. Do you gain anything by hiding these? No you don’t. We talk of affordable but adequate home insurance coverage. Whatever you do, you need to have adequate coverage ortherwise why bother at all? You can only get adequate home insurance coverage when your home and valuable are adequately covered. This means that if you insured your home when it was valued at $5000 and and your rate was x amount every year and now it is valued at $10,000 and your rate is still x amount every year meaning the new value has not been taken into consideration, if anything happens and you make a claim, your claim would be based on $5000 which would not be adequate compensation for your loss. So you were not adequately covered.

Reviewing your home insurance policy can show you things you need to remove and can also show you things you need to add. Your focus should be getting affordable but adequate home insurance coverage.

Never be under-covered. Get adequate coverage but get it at an affordable cost. Like I mentioned in the last article, get a CLUE (Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange) It would help you save a great deal.

Also do not joke with comparing quotes online. Its a very simple process that would save you tremendously. Visit between 3 and 4 free quotes sites and compare quotes to get affordabloe home insurance coverage.

One thing we all agree on is that we could love to get whatever we want to get at the lowest possible cost. This would include our home insurance coverage. There is good news for you. You can achieve this if you can take note of certain points we would be looking at in this article.

Nothing in life is constant including your home insurance policy. What this means is that you need to constantly review your home insurance policy. I would suggest doing this at least once a year but preferably twice.

You might wonder why this is necessary. Lets look at some cases and then leave you to draw the conclusion.

1, When I got my home insurance policy, it covered the valuables in my home. Due to certain factors, I have given out, donated, sold, relocated some of them. This means the total value of the valuables in my home has reduced. Does it make sense to keep paying a rate calculated based on the old higher value?
2, When I took my present home insurance policy, I didn’t have the security gadgets I now have. Anything you do that reduces the risk to your home and the valuables therein, also leads to a reduction in your rates. So with the addition of these new gadgets, do you think you need to get your policy reviewed?
3, My neighborhood now has a vigilante group that has increased the safety in my area.
4, I now have someone constantly at home (a father, mother, relative or other). These increases the perceived safety of your home and therefore reduces the risk previously attached to your home by the insurer. With this reduction in risk should come a reduction in your rates.

Do you now see the need to review your home insurance policies constantly?

If when you got your hope insurance policy, you did not get a CLUE (Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange), you may want to do so. This is absolutely necessary if you would have an affordable home insurance coverage.

Don’t forget the need for comparing quotes online. Remember the more quotes you can compare, the more the likelihood of getting very affordable home insurance rates.
Visit between 3 and 4 free quotes comparison sites and get the best of deals.