With burglaries up 14% year-on-year in the UK, many people are making home insurance claims for the first time according to The Co-operative Insurance.
Of course your contents are only one part of the home insurance equation; flooding is also becoming a real problem in some parts of the country when it comes to buildings insurance.
This handy guide below will take you through some of the main things to consider if you need to make a claim on your home insurance for the first time.
Buildings insurance claims
If there’s any damage in your property such as water coming in from outside, you should tell your home insurance company as soon as possible.
They will want to know exactly what happened and what has been damaged so it’s worth taking the time to inspect your home properly to make sure everything is included within the one claim if it has the same cause.
Having photographic evidence is also useful, although if the damage is significant, your buildings insurance company may send someone out to inspect your home for themselves.
For some minor home insurance claims, you may be able to get a settlement quickly without anyone coming out. However, for small claims you should always check your policy excess first to see if it’s worthwhile claiming.
For example, if you ‘re making a claim for £250 worth of repairs and your buildings insurance policy excess is £300, you’re better off financially just paying for the repairs yourself.
Contents insurance claims
Not all contents insurance policies are the same. For example The Co-operative Insurance provides cover for certain contents when you take them out of your home such as mobile phones and laptops.
If you’ve had a fire or flood, it’s not always easy to remember all of your contents exactly, such as all the CDs in your collection or exactly how many you had, so it’s useful to make an inventory of what’s in your home every six months or annually.
Of course, some contents insurance claims are as a result of burglaries and these should be reported to your home insurance company when you have a crime reference number from the police.
Before you make a claim, it’s useful to know exactly what your cover is; for example will you get old items replaced with new ones or just the second hand value of your stolen or damaged ones.
*Source:http://www.moneyhighstreet.com/home-insurance-news/burglaries-force-rise-home-insurance-claims/
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