All Topics / Help Needed! / House and contents insurance?

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  • Profile photo of thekthek
    Member
    @thek
    Join Date: 2005
    Post Count: 16

    Hi, I need to renew my insurance on my PPOR and I was thinking that I might be over insured.

    How much should I insure the house for if the house and land combined is worth say 310k + 30K contents.

    Do I get house and contents for 340k, or do I go less because much of the house’s value is in the land.

    If so, around about how much do you think I should insure the house itself for?

    thanks.

    Profile photo of JFisherJFisher
    Member
    @jfisher
    Join Date: 2007
    Post Count: 143

    As insurance assessors for North West Vic for a couple of years we went to 3 total loss fires and every single one of them were underinsured. The insurance company will include every structure on your property as included in your premium whether you state it or not. So if your house burns down but your sheds and fences are ok they will deduct the cost of replacing these and you will have the balance to spend.

    Also consider the cost of rebuilding. You cannot just use a price that is comparable to buying a similar property, you should have the option of rebuilding on the same land. To do this you will need to add demolition and council/permit fees etc plus the going rate for a new home to be built that is a similar size to what you had (anything much bigger and they may investigate the fire a bit closer…lol). Use at least $1100 per sq mt as a base and at least 10k for demolition and removal. Add another $5k for plans conservatively. You will probably find you definately aren’t overinsured.

    We went to a fire in rural Vic where an elderly couple lost their homestead on the river right on the edge of town. They had only estimated the replacement value using the prices of similar properties in the town so could not replace the home with something similar and had to make do with a small unit. To make matters worse their old home had heaps of asbestos in it which made the demolition even more expensive…anyway you get the drift. It’s only a few bob a year and will give you more choice if the worst happens. BTW $30k contents insurance seems very lean to me; are you aware that curtains and carpets are considered contents by most insurers?

    Julie Fisher
    Daryl Fisher Homes

    Profile photo of thekthek
    Member
    @thek
    Join Date: 2005
    Post Count: 16

    thanks for the info Julie.

    My house is insured for 375, 000 (although it would sell for 310 max) and my contents insurance is 30K.

    For this I am paying $815 annually. Does that sound about right?

    thanks,

    Mike

    Profile photo of JFisherJFisher
    Member
    @jfisher
    Join Date: 2007
    Post Count: 143
    Originally posted by thek:

    thanks for the info Julie.

    My house is insured for 375, 000 (although it would sell for 310 max) and my contents insurance is 30K.

    For this I am paying $815 annually. Does that sound about right?

    thanks,

    Mike

    Sorry thek, we just fixed the claims. We didn’t sell the policies, so I cannot answer that question! You will have to do your own homework on that one. A good insurance broker will be able to provide you with a few options and you can compare the premiums and policy details amongst them.

    Profile photo of daciumdacium
    Member
    @dacium
    Join Date: 2007
    Post Count: 56

    If you have building insurance they should already be taking into account the land value. Yuor insurance money should be to rebuild the house and pay for contents, nothing to do with land. I don’t see how anyone would say you are insured for land+building+contents value. Usually they would pay upto $315 you said minus UCV.

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