When you buy a new home, you likely learn about the importance of purchasing a quality homeowners’ insurance policy. This is insurance that can help cover costs associated with any damage that your house sustains due to inclement weather or accidents like flooding, earthquakes, or fires.
One area of insurance you may be less likely to hear about, but that’s nonetheless just as important, is contents insurance. Contents insurance can help cover expensive goods in your home that may also be damaged in the event of something like a fire or even theft.
In some instances, contents insurance is bundled together with homeowner’s insurance, so be sure to compare home insurance policy details if you’d prefer to just have one policy to cover your home and the belongings in it. When shopping around from different homeowners insurance companies, you’ll want to make sure that you have an accurate list of what possessions you’re interested in insuring and what their value is. Just to get the ball rolling, here are six belongings you’ll absolutely want to be insured.
1. Furniture
Your furniture is likely the most expensive collection of belongings you own and replacing it could be very costly after a fire if you don’t have contents insurance. In order to get an accurate count of all of your furniture, make sure to go room by room, making a list of the make, model, color, and purchase price (if you can remember it) of each of your items. From bed frames and mattresses to couches, armchairs, and dressers, you’ll be able to tally up the cost of replacing this personal property, helping you determine what kind of replacement cost to look for in an insurance policy.
2. Electronics
Another important category to include on your personal property coverage is your electronics. Computers, laptops, and televisions should all be included on this list. If you have any video game consoles, it’s a good idea to include that hardware here as well, although you’ll likely want to keep video games and DVDs separate in an entertainment category for the sake of organization.
3. Entertainment
Beyond including DVDs and video games in this category, you’ll also want to be sure that you include books, CDs, and vinyl records. All of these items are small and quite perishable in the event of a fire. They also are usually owned as part of a larger collection, so it can be hard to remember what items you did or didn’t own after a natural disaster if you don’t have an itemized list. The number of your entertainment items can quickly add up, too, making it important to include these when figuring out your replacement cost coverage.
4. Jewelry and Clothing
Almost as tedious as tracking down all of your books, any pieces of clothing and jewelry you own also belong on your list of items to get extra coverage for. It’s also a good idea to note the condition of these items since if you have an indemnity policy, you’ll need to factor in the wear of each article of clothing into its overall value. That being said, if your insurance plan is a new for old policy, you won’t need to worry about the condition.
5. Antiques
Family heirlooms and antiques are, in a way, irreplaceable. After all, if your home burns down and destroys the piano your great grandfather owned and passed down to you, the sentimentality won’t be able to be replaced. Even so, many antiques have a functional role to play in your home, so it’s vital to include them in your coverage options.
6. Kitchenware
Grouping pots, pans, and kitchen appliances in a separate category than electronics is helpful because some problems like fires may only ever destroy your belongings in one room. As fires are more common to start in kitchens, it’s only logical to have a list specifically for your kitchen items. This makes it much easier to reference in the event of a fire, rather than requiring you to page through a variety of lists to ensure that everything is accounted for.
It’s important to note that different contents insurance has different rules about how much of the value of your personal property can be covered by a policy. For example, some insurers make you pay some form of a premium over their limit, which can catch some homeowners off-guard, particularly when it comes to the price of their jewelry.
Even so, since you can use the internet to compare home and contents insurance with iSelect, finding the right insurance company has never been easier. Being able to look at your own personal liability and different coverage limits when it comes to the replacement cost of an item can help you make a more informed decision.
Ultimately, your peace of mind is worth doing a little shopping around.
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