Hey big spender, where's your insurance?
04/01/2008
With Christmas presents now unwrapped and sale items carted home, SGIO is encouraging WA households to update their home insurance for 2008.
The insurer revealed over half of WA households have not increased their sum insured in the last 12 months,* potentially leaving them exposed to financial loss in the event of a claim.
Across Australia, further research reveals underinsurance remains a problem with one in three households estimated to have inadequate cover, while nearly 1.8 million of Australia's 7.7 million households have no insurance at all.**
SGIO Product Manager Dearne Arrah encouraged households to make it a new year's resolution to regularly update their home and contents insurance in line with their spending and lifestyle.
"With consumer spending at an all time high, many households have bought up big either before Christmas or just after," explained Ms Arrah. "It's so important to ensure these assets will be adequately covered in the event of an insurance claim."
"Even a few purchases can change the value of your contents significantly, so updating the value of your sum insured helps ensure you have adequate cover."
Ms Arrah added that households who have altered their home in 2007 - especially any type of renovation or extension - should also revisit their insurance.
To help ensure your household has adequate home insurance cover for 2008:
- Review your building and contents sum insured when renovating or making large purchases;
- Don't simply include furniture and appliances when calculating your sum insured - commonly overlooked contents include kitchen items, manchester, DVDs, CDs and clothes;
- Make sure you've taken the cost of architects, surveyors and debris clearing into account on your home building insurance;
- Take extra building costs into account if you live on a sloping site;
- Don't forget luxury fittings you may wish to replace, such as marble bench tops or gold taps;
- Factor in external buildings such as sheds, granny flats or freestanding garages;
- Calculate the current replacement cost of all contents, not the amount you paid or its second hand value;
- Consider additional cover for items such as expensive jewellery or valuable art; and
- Visit www.sgio.com.au/homecalculators for a home building and contents calculator.
*Research based on a survey of Australian households by Woolcott Research on behalf of SGIO, October 2007.
**www.insurancecouncil.com.au