Knowing Exactly What You Are Insured For Will Prevent Unnecessary Angst.

Summary
Not knowing your policy and what exactly you are covered for can cause a lot of stress in a worst case scenario. Below we give an example of this happening and the outcome, and, share some tips with you.

Landlords Insurance: A must read for landlords !
Buildings Insurance and the Threat of Flood: If youre thinking of buying a house in a flood area, read this.
Do you have pest protection?: Have you considered just how expensive a pest infestation could be. Check out the insurance facts.
Are Your Downloads Insured Within Your Home Insurance ?: Everyone knows that they need to have insurance for their home, contents, cars ,even holidays.In todays fast paced, high tech world it is important to make sure we, as consumers, also have sufficent insurance cover to replace all of the downloaded information we have.
Insurers Give Out Warning Following Met Chief's Burglary Comments: In the wake of comments from the Metropolitan police chief which suggested that it was safe to leave windows open and doors unlocked, insurance companies issued the opposite advice. Furthermore they stipulated that policyholders who did this would almost certainly not be covered in the event of a claim.

Life Insurance News

With only weeks to go before her big day Joanne Hudson found herself in one of those ‘worst case scenarios' and did not know where she stood with her insurance.

Joanna lives in Chesterfield , Derbyshire and on the 27 th December was set to marry at Ringwood Hall. She had stored her wedding dress in her 19 month-old daughter Savannah 's bedroom, in a bag.

On this particular day Joanna and her partner, Alan, were entertaining some friends and her 10 year old son Andre and Alan's son Lewis were both upstairs doing some calligraphy. At some point Savannah wandered in to where the boys were playing and took the pot of ink and went to her bedroom spilling ink everywhere. She hid the ink in the bag with the wedding dress in and when Andre realised what his little sister had done he panicked and tried to get the ink off the dress with a towel and when that did not work found some cleaning fluid from the bathroom.

Once the alarm was raised Joanna followed the ink trail and was distraught at what she found. She immediately thought that she was not insured and that she was to be married in a few weeks with no dress.

Much to her surprise, and with huge relief, Joanna spoke to her insurers, and explained what had happened - they sent a representative round and they confirmed that she was, in fact, covered.

Any high value, high risk items should be listed separately if they are worth over 2,000 pounds and as the wedding dress was slightly less than this they paid out, less the excess, leaving Joanna with 1,500 pounds for a new dress. The bridal shop where she bought the dress also felt for Joanna and allowed her to choose a dress for the same value as her previous one.

Nevertheless, the panic was not quite over as the replacement dress would not be delivered until 11 days before the wedding so as a back up Joanna has chosen another dress, just in case.

Understand Your Policy

The following are what people believe are often not covered but are.

1. An Act of God Historically these were excluded but usually now these extremes are covered – floods, hurricanes and lightning.

2. A House Move The contents of your home will likely be insured in transit if you use a professional firm.

3. House Guests If anyone staying with you in your home had any personal property stolen, lost or damaged in the event of fire, flood or burglary they will be covered, but, they may well be covered by their own home insurance policy too.

Meanwhile, some people think they are covered for the following, when they are usually not.

1. Gradual Damage Rust, rot and damp , are not likely to be covered. Or, general wear and tear of soft furnishings, carpet and clothes.

2. Sub-standard workmanship If a builder built you a conservatory and it then fell down you would not be covered, but, the builders insurance might cover the damage.

3. Leaking pipes Pipes that leak will not be covered unless they start to leak after a storm/cold weather/lightning, but any damage caused because of the leak will be.

4. Subsidence cracks Generally, cracks that have not a resulted from subsidence will not be covered except if a vehicle crashes into your home.