Homeowners Insurance

Homeowners insurance cover is imperative for anyone who owns a home, flat, townhouse or a body corporate. Homeowners insurance covers everything that is structural in your home as well as anything affixed to the walls, floors, and ceilings. It is further extended to include the outbuildings, fixtures and fittings, water, sewerage, gas, electricity, telephone connections, walls, gates, fences, swimming pools, pumps, tennis courts, saunas, gardens, and driveways.

This insurance covers the “dwelling” for any unforeseen structural damage it may weather including damage from fire, lightning, earthquakes, explosions, storm damage, and theft/burglary. This cover can also be extended to include accidental damage to glass and sanitaryware as well as extras such as loss of rent, temporary accommodation if your home is uninhabitable, a security guard to protect you after violent home invasions, and much more.

With a good homeowners policy, you can rest assured that you have transferred your risk to an insurer who will endeavour to put you back in the same position you were in before your loss occurred.

Household Contents Cover

This cover insures belongings that you or your direct family members own and keep within your home/s and outbuildings - from the bedroom and living room to the kitchen and the shed, and even a university residence or storage unit

This cover also applies to people renting a home, paying off their home or living in a complex, since the homeowner, bank or body corporate usually only insures the building and not its contents.

The easiest way to quantify these items is to imagine that you are moving house. Everything you would pack into the truck to move would be considered household contents and should be insured under this section.

This insurance would cover any damage or loss, including damage as a result of fire, lightning, earthquakes, explosions, storm damage, and theft/burglary.

It can also be extended to include accidental damage or to include cover for items such as locks and keys, domestic workers’ belongings, documents, loss of rent, and certain veterinary expenses.

General All Risk Cover

Also known as ‘goods out’ or ‘items out and about’ cover. This insurance provides cover for apparel and personal effects that you or your family members regularly take or wear outside the home. This includes items such as handbags, makeup, perfume, jewellery, sports bags, firearms, and electronic devices such as cameras – up to specified limits.

General items over the specified limits, such as expensive watches, phones and handheld devices, laptops, golf clubs, bicycles and specific high-value sporting goods will need to be insured under the specified all risks section if they are taken out of the home.

Specified All Risk Cover

This insurance covers all expensive items that fall above the general all risk cover limit, as well as items that cannot be covered under the general all risk section, such as handheld electronics that are routinely taken out of the home. This cover is on an all-risk basis, meaning it will be covered all over the world for insured perils.

Items typically covered under this section include:

Handheld electronics including phones
High-value electronics such as cameras, telescopes, and binoculars
Spectacles, contact lenses, and sunglasses
Musical Instruments
Firearms and hunting equipment
Collectables that are routinely moved (coins, paintings, stamps, etc.)
Golf clubs and specific high-value sporting equipment **

High-value jewellery *
Rare items
Portable radios
Sound reproduction equipment
Non-factory fitted car audio equipment
Car kits or similar
Furs
Pedal cycles

* It is of utmost importance that all specified jewellery items are valued every three years. The valuation certificates can be sent through to us via email to keep on file. Jewellery items that have not been revalued will only be replaced at their specified limits. Owing to fluctuations in exchange rates and the gold price, jewellery values are often very different at purchase and claim stage. Thus, updated values are imperative. This will also help you prove ownership and replacement value. Furthermore, jewellery over a certain value must be kept in a locked safe when not in use – please refer to your policy wording and schedule. Contact our offices if you have any queries or concerns in this regard.

** This section does not cover the sporting equipment whilst in use. A receipt, invoice, box, or valuation certificate is essential at claims stage to prove ownership and replacement value.

Are you adequately insured?

This is the golden question with regards to personal insurance. It is of utmost importance that you are adequately insured at your building’s or home contents’ current replacement value, and NOT the municipal value or the value you could sell your home or the items for.

For building cover, we work on an approximate base figure of R9 500 – R12 500 per square meter to calculate the replacement value, then adjust it to include criteria such as expensive fixtures and fittings, imported tiles or granite, unusual building materials such as green or rare materials, and the area the building is situated in.

For household contents, general and specified all risk cover, it is important to complete an inventory and have precious items valued to ensure that you are adequately covered.

What happens if you are inadequately insured?

Your broker at Graham Silva Insurance will advise you to insure your items at their most appropriate replacement value. However, we are not property valuators, nor can we force you to increase your insured value. The onus is on you to insure your home and belongings at the correct replacement value.

Should you not be adequately insured, an average will be applied at claims stage after a loss or damage. This means that if the cost of replacing your property or goods is greater than the sum you have insured it for, you will be responsible for a portion of the claim – you are, essentially, deemed to be your own insurer for a portion of the claim.

For example:
If you are insured for R50 000, but all your goods are valued at R100 000 by an assessor, you are deemed to only be insured for 50% of the full value. Should you suffer a R20 000 loss or damage and claim for it, your insurer will only pay 50% of your claim – in this case, R10 000. This is because you would have only been paying premiums for 50% of the correct value.

How can you calculate the correct insured amount?

Please contact us if you are unsure whether you are adequately insured, and we will send you an inventory form to complete. This form will help you ascertain the correct value of all your goods. Remember that all values must be at today’s current replacement prices. At Graham Silva Insurance all our policies are on a new-for-old basis, which means that your old items will be replaced with their new equivalent.

Furthermore, it is important to ensure that you have the correct type of cover for your assets. Expensive jewellery or electronic devices that regularly leave the house, for example, should be insured under specified all risks to be adequately covered. Contact us if you have any queries in this regard.

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