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The House Insurance Policy Simplified
By: Terry Cod
The buildings insurance product has two flavours and the cost of the policy depends on the options chosen.
The policies can be categorized into standard cover and accidental damage (or all risks). If you purchase standard cover, you have to compare any loss you have with the list of 'peril's that you are insured for. If you can't match your particular claim to one of the perils on the list, you are not covered. The 'onus of proof' is on your shoulders. That means it is you that has to prove the cause of loss is covered.
If you purchased accidental damage cover, you effectively have an 'all risks' type of cover. Here you are covered for every possible risk, except those listed in the exclusions (small print). With this type of product The 'onus of proof' rests with your insurance company. In other words that it is up to them to prove that you are not covered against that risk.
Standard Cover
You should have a list of risks covered plus another list of variations that only apply to that peril. It could look similar to this:
- Explosion, Lightning, Fire, Earthquake, Smoke - excludes damage caused over a period of time
- Aircraft plus articles or parts dropped from them
- Impact by animals, vehicles or falling trees or branches - excludes damage caused by felling or lopping trees
- Theft or attempted theft - excludes losses that occur if the property left empty for more than 30 days or left unfurnished or stolen by a paying guest or lodger or tenant.
- Malicious Persons - identical exceptions as for theft
- Burst Pipes - some exclude frozen pipes, others include it
- Flood or Storm - excludes damage by freezing and damage by storm to gates, fences and hedges
- Civil Commotion, Riot, Political Disturbances, Strikes or Labour Disturbances
- Leakage of Oil
- Satellite dishes, Mast breakage or collapse, Radio receiving aerials, TV Aerials
- Subsidence - A very tricky subject that requires a complete article all to itself
We will examine each of these in more detail.
FIRE - Provided that there are actual flames then there should be no problem. Where there was also smoke damage to your property caused by the fire, that is also covered. You cannot claim for the smoke damage to your fixtures and fittings caused gradually by smoking cigarettes and so on. That is not a fortuitous event, it is something over which you have control. Hence the exclusion. There are some more exceptions to the rule that there has to be flames but they vary greatly from one insurance company to the next, so you ought to check them carefully in your policy.
LIGHTNING STRIKES - you are fully covered against any damage to your building caused by a lightning strike. If lightning hits an aerial, sorry but that is a claim on your contents policy! Even though aerials are detailed as an insured risk, they don't appear in the definition of a building. They do appear in contents. So damage to aerials constitutes a contents claim. It's the same story with earthquakes and explosions. Thankfully for us these are relatively rare here in Britain.
AIRCRAFT - This covers any object dropped from anything that flies. Again, fortunately, an extremely rare happening.
IMPACT - The idea is that if your home is hit by a vehicle or an animal, you are covered. With trees, if you have arranged to have your tree felled or branches taken off, you must ensure that all precautions are taken to stop it falling onto your house (or sheds. garage etc). Whenever you have a specialist doing this type of job, and their actions damage your property, then you have the right to seek payment for the damage from them. However your home insurance policy will still exclude this damage so you cannot claim from your insurance company.
THEFT - Cover is very wide, that is the exclusions do not greatly limit the cover provided. Whenever your home is left empty for a long time (e.g. 30 days or more), then cover is reduced as it is seen as a juicier target for thieves. Indeed, if your home is left unoccupied or unfurnished you should inform your insurance company anyway! Similarly with a lodger or tenant. The chances of the lodger or tenant being involved in the crime is such that your insurance company does not wish to take the risk on, hence the exclusion. Once again, if you are doing this, you should inform your insurance company.
MALICIOUS PERSONS - In many ways this is the same as for theft.
BURST PIPES - The insurance companies attitude on this has gradually changed over the years for the better. A good insurer will pay for any leak, from any tank, pipe or water apparatus, even where it has been leaking over a lengthy period. Some companies will nowadays include damage caused by frozen pipes defrosting. When I began my career in this industry, it was strictly the case that the pipe itself was not covered, only the resulting water damage. Where there is overwhelming evidence that the pipe has failed due to rust then your insurance company might still use this argument. If a pipe is holed by a nail, for example whilst fitting a carpet, then you will need accidental damage cover for the repair to the pipe but the water damage to your home resulting from the leak is covered under this peril.
STORM OR FLOOD - The definition of a storm varies from insurer to insurer - check the policy wording. Frost damage is excluded although damage caused by snow is covered. A common area of disappointment is that damage caused to hedges, gates and fences is not covered. Some fences seem to blow over with the lightest gust of wind! I have seen at least one insurance company offering additional cover, at extra cost, for storm damage to these items.
RIOT, CIVIL COMMOTION etc. - Again, it is rare for these to cause damage to your house, but should it happen, you have cover in place. In some circumstances, your insurance company will have a right to recover their costs from the police force.
LEAKAGE OF OIL - For those with oil fired central heating, any damage to your house caused by oil leakage is covered.
TELEVISION, SATELLITE AERIALS - As mentioned above, your house is protected if any receiving aerial collapses and causes damage. But the aerials, dishes etc themselves are classified as contents and thus, not covered by your buildings policy.
Article Source: http://www.uberarticles.com/articles
This article explaining the various clauses of a home insurance policy was written by Terry Cod. He has many years of experience working in the claims office of a number of UK insurance companies. His website www.instant-online-insurance.co.uk offers cheap motor bike insurance with online quotes and secure online payment.
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License, which means you may freely reprint it, in its entiretly, provided you include the author's resource box along with LIVE links (without "nofollow" tags).
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