Hidden Clauses Leave Homeowners Inadequately Insured

Making a successful claim on your house insurance could depend on the hidden catches and exclusions contained within your home insurance policy. Many homeowners are often left either disappointed or frustrated when an insurer fails to pay up after invoking a clause found in the small print of the policy, thus leaving the policyholder without recompense.

It is therefore prudent to make yourself aware of your insurer’s requirements and meet them a, for example, just leaving your property empty for a lengthy period of time or failing to ensure your property has adequate security can invalidate a policy.

To assume your insurer will pay out if anything happens to either your property or contents can leave you severely out of pocket and therefore highlights the importance of reading and understanding the small print when taking out a new home insurance policy.

Although designed to cover eventualities such as theft, fire damage or flood damage, home contents insurance does have limitations and exclusions, and you should familiarise yourself with these so you don’t have a claim rejected.

What follows is a list of things your policy may not cover:

• Damage caused by general wear and tear of property or its contents
• Damage due to failure to take responsible care of your property
• Failure to ensure that property is fitted with sufficient security devices such as alarms, strong door locks and window locks
• Your property is in an area that suffers from severe flooding. If already insured and this turns out to be the case check with your insurer if you are covered for flooding. You may have to pay a higher premium as a result
• Any damage sustained prior to commencement of policy cover
• Any damage or loss to property as a result of war, invasion, civil war, terrorism, pollution or radioactive contamination
• Any deliberate acts of vandalism carried out by you, a family member or anyone else who is legally in your home
• Failure to notify your insurer of changes that may affect your policy such as leaving the property empty for long periods of time. The level of cover you have may be affected by failing to notify your insurer of any new high value contents such as jewellery or expensive antiques

Ally Milton
17/5/06