Safe as Houses?

1971: The Burglars - Henri Verneuil

I'm sometimes asked if I know anyone that can help with general insurance queries or renewals. I'm not an expert in general insurance and it is not something that I'm qualified to advise on, however I know enough to know that the comparison websites are, to put it bluntly, not the entire market. General insurance, like many other things in life is one of those costs that we would all like to keep to a minimum, but as is so often the case, price is merely one factor. When it comes to insurance claims and the inevitable stress that is almost certainly experienced, having a good insurer that handles and pays a claim quickly is worth additional cost when compared to the additional stress that more "competitive" companies may generate. I cannot tell one from the other until I experience a claim, but this is where a general insurance broker is ideally placed.

If you have a home that would cost over £500,000 to rebuild or have contents worth more than £75,000 then you would automatically be considered for "high net worth home insurance".This type of policy provides much higher levels of cover than a standard household policy, including worldwide all-risks cover for all your contents (including pet damage, which is excluded by most other policies), high single item limits for jewellery, fine art and collectables, plus useful extras like identity theft cover, family legal expenses cover and emergency assistance.

Additionally, the security conditions are not onerous and the premiums are lower than you might expect. Underwriters can be very flexible in terms of what they can agree to cover and in most cases it is actually cheaper to arrange a high net worth policy than to cover the same sums insured on a standard household policy. You can also include cover for up to 6 properties – ideal if you have a second home or holiday homes you also need to insure.

So if this is something that would be relevant to you, I would suggest giving Phil Heard of 1Stop Insurance a quick call or email. Let me know if you would like his contact details.

Property crime has generally fallen fairly dramatically since 1993 according to the UK National Statistics from roughly 1.75m reported incidents to about 0.75m reported incidents. This is information for trends in domestic burglary to 2008/09. The more recent report for 2009/10 reveals that of the various types of reported crime, burglary accounts for about 12.5% of all incidents which is approximately a total of 542,375 reported burglaries. This is the fourth ranking form of criminal offences behind, (1) theft and handling stolen goods, (2) violence against the person, (3) criminal damage.

DT