What You Should Know Before Taking a Home Insurance Cover in Singapore

Your home is your treasure and a haven that provides rest and escape from each day’s encounters. A home is an expensive investment and probably comprises the most significant portion of your lifetime earnings. It warrants going an extra mile to own a home, from electing the house structures to filling it with personal belongings. It is therefore essential to preserve the status of your home by protecting it from unexpected events.

The only way to ensure your home status quo is maintained is through home insurance. Home insurance is neither a luxury that you can avoid nor is it a waste of resources. It is an essential aspect of your home. It is a cover that can protect your physical structures and all your personal belongings against unforeseen calamities. A home insurance policy will cover damages caused by various incidences like fire, earthquake, burglary, floods, and lightning.

 

What is the Best Home Insurance Cover to Consider?

This is a question many Singaporeans ask especially when new to this insurance topic. It is important to understand what insurance coverage you should look for. This knowledge will help to identify the cover that is sufficient for your home and also affordable to you. Before further ado, let’s look at the various home insurance covers.

 

Buildings, Fixtures and fittings

Though you may already possess a HDB cover, you still need to protect the renovations and personal properties. The HDB cover is mandatory for flats build from HDB loan. It covers the building structure, fixtures, and fitting that are part of the building. In the event of a fire, you would require your insurance company to compensate for the loss of all properties.

It is important to note that you can only claim what you’ve insured. A building, fixtures and fittings cover goes beyond the HDB to include all other properties. Some insurance company provide extension of the HDB cover to HDB flat owners.

 

Household Content Cover

This cover insures against loss or damage of all your home household items present during the unexpected event. Your furniture, jewelry, clothing, computers, crockery, and other home appliances are covered here. You can also secure a comprehensive home contents plan.

 

Insured Peril or All-risk

A specific peril policy covers only that particular occurrence named in the policy. If it is fire, loss of property from theft will not be compensated. On the other hand, an all-risk policy covers everything except what is excluded in the policy. For instance, war is commonly excluded from the policy. These different policies come with varying costs of policy.

 

Personal Effects, Loss of Money and Valuables

This cover is to protect your physical money and other belongings from theft or burglary. Each coverage comes with a limit which is specified in the policy. Such events are painfully felt upon occurrence. So it’s wise not to overlook them thinking they may never happen.

 

Personal Liability

Home insurance also covers situations that might hold you legally responsible. These are cases involving a third party, for instance, a visitor who gets injured while in your premises. This cover may be particularly helpful to a tenant if a landlord holds you accountable for his property damage.

 

Alternative Accommodation

Various occurrences can make your home uninhabitable such as floods, theft, hurricanes, and others. Insurance companies offer this coverage to provide temporary accommodation as well as sustain you if the insured event happens. This benefit comes with a limit to a specific number of days.

 

Personal accident or Accident to Your Family Member or Domestic Helper

In the event of theft or fire, your family member, house-help or even yourself may get injured. This cover helps you get compensated for medical expenditure. The cover may include an add-on for a lump-sum payout in case of accidental death.

 

Pets Cover

If you are a lover of dogs and cats and they would worry you if there is a fire break, then you can insure them. There are Singapore insurance companies that cover pet or have optional add-ons for pets in other coverages. For instance, the content insurance can extend to cover the accidental death of pets. The cover may include theft of pet or injury caused by the pet. Note that the cover is limited to dogs and cats and also limited to specific breeds.

 

A Comprehensive Home Insurance Policy

This policy covers the most potential damages that can occur in your home. Such damages include fire, water damage, personal possessions, theft, and personal liability. A comprehensive policy is the most expensive of homeowners due to its extensive coverage. Some of the coverage mentioned may not be the policy’s initial inclusions.

Therefore, it may require you to pay an additional premium to have additional coverage. To get around such a situation, you should read and understand the policy document before picking on a policy.

 

Paying Premium

An insurance premium is the total amount of money you pay for an insurance policy. It is what entitles you to compensation when the insured event occurs. The amount you want to insure your home determines the premium to pay. You should choose coverage that is equivalent to the value of your home. It can be demotivating to find that your compensation returns you to a lesser status than the original.

The premium sets an insurance contract limit thus you can’t be indemnified beyond this limit. It’s worthwhile noting, the higher the insured amount, the higher the premium.

 

Home Insurance Claim

Many policies offered by various insurance companies in Singapore have similar insurance claim procedures. For instance, claim procedures for AIG and AVIVA have a slight difference. When it’s time to make a claim, under any circumstance, you should consider these facts.

• Don’t wait too long. Many insurers require that you make a claim within the 30 days of the occurrence. As the saying goes ‘Justice delayed is justice denied.’

• Safely keep originals of everything. These include photographs of the damage, receipts of damaged property, police report, an assessment report about the damage and others.

• Cooperate with your insurer adjuster. Your insurer usually hires people to assess the damage, and it is wise to offer cooperation.

 

It has become relatively easy to acquire a home insurance in Singapore. With most insurers providing online services, you can apply for home insurance from the comfort of your home. You can also learn other vital things online, compare quotes and premiums offered by other insurers.

 

Here are some other interesting articles you should read.

How to Streamline Your Business: Identify Repetitive tasks

The best Health Insurance for Millenials in Singapore

Benefits and Risks of Investing in Blue Chips

 

(By Racheal Muriithi)

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