House Contents Insurance cover’s your possessions whilst they are on your residential premises, or while they are temporarily at another residence, for example when you are on holiday. You must ensure that your sum insured for House Contents on your policy includes ALL of your possessions for the full replacement value. If not then you risk being underinsured in the event of a claim. If you are underinsured your claim will only be paid out proportionately depending on the extent to which you are underinsured.

To give a short explanation of the scenario of being under insured during a claim:

If at the time of loss or damage the cost of replacing the property insured as new is greater than the sum insured, you will be responsible for the difference and will bear a rateable proportion of the loss or damage accordingly. For example, if your sum insured is R200 000 and it is found that the replacement value is R300 000 and your Loss is R30 000 you will be paid R20 000 calculated as follows: R200 000 / R300 000 X R30 000 = R20 000

Our Personal Insurance Policy now automatically gives you accidental damage cover, and we would recommend that you extend this cover by taking Mechanical/Electronic Breakdown cover to also cover you in the event of a power surge damaging your electronic equipment.

Special considerations under house contents:

You must ensure that your sum insured for House Contents on your policy includes ALL of your possessions for the full replacement value. If not then you risk being underinsured in the event of a claim. If you are underinsured your claim will only be paid out proportionately depending on the extent to which you are underinsured.

As soon as you leave your residential premises, the belongings that you have with you are only insured if they are specified under the All Risks section of your policy. You can elect to specify an amount for Clothing and Personal Effects and use this as a blanket cover but it will only cover clothing and personal effects (i.e. not electronic equipment) and you will only be able to claims up to a limited amount per item. Items for example, Cell phones, Laptops, I-pads, GPS, I-pods, Jewellery etc. should be specified under your all risk section at an additional premium.

Jewellery under House Contents is limited to R10,000 unless it is kept in a locked and wall-mounted safe, in which case it is covered for one-third of your House Contents sum insured. When you leave your property, your jewellery and anything else you have with you is only covered if it is specified on your policy.