Home insurance – you know you need it and so you renew the policy each year. Renewal might have become a reflex action – you might even have arranged for automatic renewal so that you don’t have to worry about it each year.
But don’t take your home insurance for granted – and make sure to review each renewal with care.
Renewing your home insurance
There are two essential checks to make before renewing your home insurance:
- are you being offered a fair premium; and
- does the policy continue to provide the cover you need?
Loyalty
A study conducted by Citizens Advice in April 2019 found that customer who had been with the same insurer for more than six years – renewing their policies each time that date came around – paid an average of nearly double the premium paid by new customers of the same insurer.
In that way, insurers were found to make their entire profit from loyal customers who stayed with them for many years.
Since there is every chance your loyalty is going unrewarded, therefore, check that your insurer is one of the more reputable providers who does not penalise your renewal each year but continues to offer a fair price that reflects whatever new customers are asked to pay.
If you find you are paying more, of course, then that is the time to consider switching insurers.
The cover you need
Despite the seemingly cavalier way in which loyal customers of some insurance companies appear to be treated, home insurance is a highly competitive product.
Not only is it available from literally hundreds of providers, but policies also differ in substantial ways, and new products are coming onto the market all of the time.
To stay abreast of those constant changes, therefore, it is imperative to review your home insurance policy every year prior to renewal and ensure that you continue to have the cover suitable for your particular home and its contents.
In general, home insurance can cover accidental damage, deterioration due to disasters like an earthquake or flooding, fire damage, etc. Say that your house has been impacted by an earthquake and your windows need repair, your roof needs replacement by a roofing contractor High Point or elsewhere, and your foundation needs revamping, then your policy can come in handy. Along with that, you can look for add-ons like home emergency cover that may include broken locks, a breakdown of your heating system, emergency fixes to burst pipes and roofs, and clearing blocked drains.
Take this example to better understand the concept of insurance. If you are hiring a professional for home repair such as for roofing, you can contact your insurance company to see whether the costs will be covered or not. You can also look for a roofing contractor who could provide you with the report stating the extent of damage to the roof and its cause to get insurance money. A similar course of action could be taken for foundation and wall repairs, window and door replacement, patio restoration, and more.
Additionally, the following are some of the main points you might want to review:
- do you have sufficient building insurance – enough to cover the complete rebuilding costs in the event of a major incident that completely destroys your home;
- have you prepared an exhaustive inventory of the entire contents of your home – itemising each item may help you avoid the risk of underinsurance and any settlement in the event of a claim that is insufficient to repair or replace lost, stolen or damaged items;
- are you content with the level of excess attached to the different types of claim you might make – or might you prefer to increase the excess in order to reduce the amount you pay in premiums;
- does your contents insurance include cover against accidental damage;
- does your home insurance policy include all the cover you need as standard or are you having to pay extra for optional extras;
- on the other hand, are some elements of cover incorporated – and therefore included in the premium you pay – even though you might not need them.
By reviewing your current home insurance package before automatically renewing it each year, you may ensure that you are paying a fair price for the premium and at the same time making certain you have the cover you need.
