A-Z of home insurance
Additional Living Expense
Should extensive work need carrying out as the result of a claim, additional living expenses may be incurred by you and your family.
Arbitration Clause
In the event you make a claim, but can't agree with your insurance company, an arbitrator can appoint an independent assessor to give their view in an effort to help the claim get resolved.
Buildings
These can cover a range of items such as patios, swimming pools, walls, fences, hedges, gates, drives, footpaths, drains, septic tanks, pipes, cables and more that all come under 'buildings'.
Business equipment
Computers, keyboards, printers, fax machines, photocopiers, telecoms equipment.
Claim
When you need to put your insurance policy into action because of financial loss you have incurred due to something that your policy covers, you make a claim.
Conditions
Your insurance policy will have certain conditions attached. Make sure you're aware of these to keep your policy valid. It might require you to have certain locks for example.
Contents
All the things in your home that aren't a fixed part of the fabric of the building, including cash, up to certain limits (check the individual insurance policy details).
Depreciation
Not everything we buy retains its value. Things that go down in value are said to depreciate.
Exclusions
Your insurance policy won't cover everything. Make sure you're aware of what it excludes.
High risk items
High value or items that you take out of your home like jewellery as well as individual items of high value such as valuable audio equipment, posh flat screen TVs, expensive laptops and so on can be considered to be high risk items and may require separate cover or to be individually mentioned on your policy.
Home entertainment equipment
Computer equipment, TVs, DVD player, games consoles, audio equipment, aerials, and satellite dishes.
Liability Insurance
It's important to have insurance not just to protect you from financial loss regarding your own property, it's important you're covered should anyone who is not in your immediate family make a claim against you for damage that you or your possessions have caused. For example if a tree from your garden falls down and damages another property.
Money
Cash, cheques, postal orders, Premium Bonds, traveller’s cheques, any tickets for travel you might have, gift tokens and even phone cards come under cash these days.
Pedal cycle
Just to ensure people don't get confused between motorbikes and mountain bikes: if you have to pedal it, it's a pedal cycle!
Period of cover
The dates between which you're insured is known as the period of cover.
Premium
This is the cost of the insurance policy.
Replacement Cost Coverage
When insuring possessions some policies will cover the full replacement cost rather than the actual value at the time they are lost. (see depreciation above)
Settlement
In the event of a claim you and your insurance company have to agree on a settlement figure.
Underwriter
An underwriter is a company that agrees to provide the actual cover for the specific policy you're interested in.
Valuables
Jewellery, works of art, clocks, watches, photographic equipment, stamp collections and more all come under 'valuables' as far as your insurance company is concerned and may have to be mentioned separately.
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