Articles:
Holiday
Home Insurance: Don’t skimp on your cover
SB May 2007
Insuring your holiday home is essential, but
it is something that is easily overlooked in all
the excitement. And even if you do remember
your
holiday home insurance, you may be in such a
hurry to get on to other things that you grab
the first policy you come across. But if at a
later date you find you are not fully covered,
you might as well not have bothered at all.
Buildings insurance.
Make absolutely sure the sum insured covers
the cost of rebuilding the holiday home, not
just the market value. If you had a survey
done when you purchased the property, the
estimated rebuild value should be in the
survey report. Sadly, if the worst happened
and there was a fire when there was nobody
at the house, it could be totally destroyed
before any action was taken. That isn’t the
time to discover your holiday home insurance
doesn’t cover the cost of rebuilding.
Contents insurance.
This needs to cover furniture, soft
furnishings and electrical equipment –
anything you would take with you if you were
moving. (Most holiday home insurance
policies don’t cover personal valuables.)
Don’t just tot up what you think your
contents are worth at the moment – you need
to calculate what it would cost to replace
them on a new for old basis. Be generous in
valuing your contents or you may find you
are under-insured.
Tenants.
If you are planning to let out your holiday
home, you must check that your holiday home
insurance policy allows you to do this.
Don’t just take it for granted but
double-check – some policies specifically
exclude tenants. Make sure the policy
allows you to claim for expenses that could
arise if something happened to make the
house uninhabitable while guests were
staying there. Not only would you have to
refund what they had paid, but you would
have to find them alternative accommodation,
and you could be liable if they suffered any
injuries or damage to their own property.
Plus of course you would lose any subsequent
bookings during repair work.
When an emergency happens, finding you are
under-insured or not covered makes the nightmare
much, much worse. Be very careful with your
holiday home insurance, make sure you anticipate
what could happen, and keep your holiday home
dream alive.
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