Insurance Cover

[Rimms]

Interesting day today renewing my home insurance cover. I was unaware to be fully covered you need three insurance policies, at least that is what I was told by two separate companies.

1, DASK, the mandatory government earthquake insurance.

2, Buildings and contents

3,  Now the bit I was unaware of, if you take out both of the above, the structure is covered in the event of an earthquake and also for example if a tree falls on your property during a storm or a truck smashes into your property etc. you are also covered for burglary, accidental damage etc. The problem seems to occur in the event of an earthquake, if you only have DASK, buildings and contents. The structure will be covered but contents damaged by the earthquake (an act of god) are not.

Confused? I certainly was, the way around it is to also purchase an earthquake insurance that covers your contents in the event of any damage done to contents in the event of an earthquake.

Both companies kept referring to this optional 'earthquake insurance' I was getting this mixed up with the mandatory DASK, anyway, I think we are sorted now?

[Eric]

Also personal jewelry is only covered up to a percentage of your contents insurance, not the full value of replacement.

[Rimms]

Spot on Eric, on my policy it's a 15% of the maximum value insured.

[BernieTeyze]

Yes, it was a shock for us too. Also our dask wasn,t big enough for the size of the property so we had to upgrade it.

[Jacqui Harvey]

I also think that with jewellery, people never know what it is worth, particularly if they have had it for a long time. Always good to take jewellery and  get valuations for insurance purposes.

[Rimms]

JH, I totally agree with you, however, it's a different world here, first off, there is the language problem, the words we use concerning insurance may as well be from Mars. Secondly, the value of insurance we request is "off the scale" compared to what they normally arrange, our bank suggested the maximum contents value should be 19,000 lira. We don't live in a palace but that amount wouldn't replace the soft furnishings and curtains. Where we could use "Go Compare" and got a tailor made quote in minutes, it took us all day today. Head office needs the value of this, that, the other, parents names, tax numbers, Kimlik numbers, questions about your newly renewed DASK. It seems never ending.

[usedbustickets]

JH, I totally agree with you, however, it's a different world here, first off, there is the language problem, the words we use concerning insurance may as well be from Mars. Secondly, the value of insurance we request is "off the scale" compared to what they normally arrange, our bank suggested the maximum contents value should be 19,000 lira. We don't live in a palace but that amount wouldn't replace the soft furnishings and curtains. Where we could use "Go Compare" and got a tailor made quote in minutes, it took us all day today. Head office needs the value of this, that, the other, parents names, tax numbers, Kimlik numbers, questions about your newly renewed DASK. It seems never ending.

Still if you wasn't doing all that, how else would you fill your day?   

[Rimms]

Maybe a dip in the pool, out on my bike, taking a few photos, having a nice lunch somewhere, working on the Race for Life project, preparing the playlist for the Animal Aid beach party, doing some jobs around the house, fishing, exploring the coast, having a beer down the front.

[sadler]

Rimms, is this a new thing or do you have to go through this every year? Sounds slightly extreme, we renew every year through Inta sure with a telephone call, them asking if we want to renew. I appreciate that we are not resident, but am feeling slightly unnerved as to what would happen if we had to claim, not having gone through the punishment! We also have our contents covered for over £15k and have not heard of this third level of cover!

[Rimms]

The honest answer is I don't know. Maybe insurance companies automatically include the third level of cover within their premium? I think maybe because I told the bank and the other insurance company we visited yesterday that we wanted quotes to compare, both of them went into a detailed breakdown of the quote. But both were clear, contents cover is fine for all the obvious eventualities but in the event of earthquake your contents are uninsured without this extra level of cover.