How much bone contents cover do you have?

[NearlySchoolTimeAgain]

We have a 4 bedroom house.

2 adults and 2 children.

We’re about to move so I’m reevaluating as I think removals is a risky time for potentially losing everything.

£48/month gives us £50K cover. £78 gives us £100K cover. Both are more than I’d like to pay!

That’s a really good point. I don’t think I really spend much on clothes or anything really, because I love bargain hunting. But if I had to get everything again all at once I might end up paying 5x if not 10x what I’ve actually paid.

I've never claimed on contents so I stopped buying it. Controversial, I know. If you're moving home, then the removals company, if reputable, should have insurance.

I've never claimed on contents so I
stopped buying it

That’s a pretty odd reason to cancel your policy!

You can get basic cover for around £5 a month.

What would you do if there was a flood / fire and everything you owned got destroyed? Do you have tens of thousands to replace everything?

Or even (and a more common) scenario, you were broken into and your valuable electronics were nicked?

Each to their own, but I think it’s pretty daft not to have some level of cover. The thought of something terrible happening and not having any is a nightmare.

So if your house burnt down Keynesian how would you replace everything?

In 26 years my house hasn't burnt down. At £15 per month for 26 years, that's nearly £5,000. I just dont see why I should give my money to a company in case something happens - of which the probability is next to zero.

Of course, that's a very personal view, and I am not advising anyone to do the same.

Oh and I havent been burgled EVER.

My DH works in insurance. He has had cases where people go away for the weekend, come back and find their water tank has burst, brought down the ceilings and everything in the house has been destroyed. Imagine standing in the street with your kids and a suitcase full of clothes and having nothing else. All your clothes, bedding, books, toys, precious photos, furniture, curtains - everything- either irretrievable or only salvageable at great cost. £5k won't even touch the sides of trying to put it back together when you are living in temp accomodation

Non compulsory insurance is about peace of mind as much as anything else so of course you don't have to buy it but assuming something won't happen to you because it hasn't already is totally illogical.

What happens when someone is underinsured? Say it all goes up in smoke. How would they know there was £50K of stuff not £35K (and you were therefore underinsured).

I'm not an expert but if you were only covered for 35k I think they would only pay out up to that amount so effectively you would have to pay the extra yourself to replace your things

No, they wouldn't.

Say you had insurance for £25k, and in writing all your items out to the insurance company, it comes to £50k.

You'd get £12500.

You're 50% underinsured so you get 50% of your claim.

Trust me on this on. I was once an underwriter....

Sorry, you get 50% of your sum insured.

We have £50K cover (plus £1m rebuilding) for £20pm with LV

I’ve never even begun to attempt to add up our possessions!

It’s a 3-4 bedroom mid terrace & most of our furniture is old/second-hand so I’m guessing £50K is ample.

I also wonder how they’d know you were underinsured in the case of a destructive fire, OP

Because you'd list what you'd lost and insurance company would work our replacement value...now either you have to work out not to go over your sums insured but it's going to look suspicious when you don't claim for clothes or certain items.

The insurers can spot it a mile off.

You have to declare when you sign the contract that your sums insured are correct. If you say they are, then it's discovered it's way off, then that's your problem, not the insurer.

Ideally, one should have photos of valuable items receipts etc uploaded to cloud to prove value.

Look round your sitting room now. Mentally tit up the furniture, DVDs, ornaments, pictures, carpet/rugs, curtains, cushions etc etc....how much would they cost to replace with new.

Doing a basic inventory is a good idea.

Wow. Why is our insurance so expensive? We're getting basic quotes for building and contents for £500 +.

Cost can be linked to:

Postcode (risk of burglary, flood or other factors).
Previous claim history
Years no claims bonus

Are you insuring unspecified items outside the home and/or specified valuables like engagement ring or watch? That can add up.

Depending on area, type/age of build of house (eg older, timber framed, listed or thatched would be more) your building could be higher than a standard construction 3 bed 30's semi.

@MissMarplesKnitting

Because you'd list what you'd lost and insurance company would work our replacement value...now either you have to work out not to go over your sums insured but it's going to look suspicious when you don't claim for clothes or certain items.

Thank you

In our case I don’t think I could get close to listing everything we own! (We’ve lived here 35 years & are a bit - er - cluttered...) If you just listed the stuff you knew you wanted to replace, would they be satisfied with that or insist on more information?

NB Not planning any nefarious infernos. Just curious - eg wall of Billy bookcases in image (which is a good example of our clutter) - wouldn’t need to replace every book, ornament etc. How would that be handled? Should we keep images of every room?

Really, it should be for everything, but we all have accumulated crap we could live without!!

Photos of rooms are an excellent plan.

I'd honestly suggest doing a bit of an inventory and work it out. Then when you've got your total, round it up.

Claims handlers and loss adjusters are incredibly good at estimating values from fire/smoke/water damaged properties.

In most cases the whole place isn't totally destroyed, but items can only be salvaged with expensive specialists. Remember - it doesn't matter how much you paid second hand for an item, the insurance cost is buying new - my 10p charity shop paperback books have to be valued at £7 each for instance.

MissMarplesKnitting Cheers. I think it must be postcode. We're in a low flood risk area but 58m from a high risk area.

John Lewis home insurance gives unlimited contents cover. Far easier than trying to calculate the cost of everything. Last year had our first ever claim on our insurance in more than 20 years. John Lewis paid out straight away and their customer service was great.

Definitely look at John Lewis then!!

I'd get a broker (try A Plan, they're independent) to have a look for you.

Obviously I'm not an underwriter but if I had a massive claim and realised I was undersinsured why would I made a list that came to more than the value I'd insured?

Surely the obvious thing to do is to prioritise what you want to replace up to your insured value, who would submit a claim for twice what they'd insured?

In the OP's case for example no insurance company would expect her to have 20 ball gowns so she'd miss those off, if you had a £5k tv you'd ask for a £500 replacement etc