Many South Africans, particularly younger people, consider House Contents cover to be an add-on to their vehicle insurance and a way to keep their vehicle rates low. Insurance companies often provide cheaper rates on your car insurance if you include house contents cover on your policy and as a result, people will often just add the minimum sum insured for the contents of their home.

Being under insured for House Contents places the policy holder at significant risk, because the insurance company will apply average in the event of a claim and the amount paid out could be significantly lower than the amount of the loss. Another factor influencing under insurance for house contents cover is that people usually underestimate the value of their house contents, or do not take all of their contents into account when calculating their sum insured.

Your belongings in your home must be insured at full replacement value, and ALL of your contents must be taken into account. Your insurance company cannot afford to collect premium on only a portion of your contents value but pay you out in full in the event of a claim. What is important to remember, is that the principle of average will apply even if you have a small claim.

Other factors to consider;

• Cover for jewellery is usually limited to as little as R10,000 under House Contents if it is not kept in a locked, wall-mounted safe.
• You are covered for lightning damage under your normal house contents cover but require a special extension to be covered for power surge.
• Theft of items from your garden or outbuildings are not insured in the same way as they would be from inside your house.

The best way to establish if the cover you have on your policy is correct is to let us review your cover with you, so that we can find out your circumstances and needs and structure your policy in a way that suits you.