Dubai: After news of yet another fire in a residential building in Dubai, there was a spike in home insurance sales according to the online marketplace ServiceMarket. If you’re considering purchasing a home, then home insurance is definitely something you need to think about.
You should also make sure you don't spend more on your home insurance policy than you need to. You can save a lot of money by making an informed decision and fine tuning your coverage instead of taking the first offer you can find. Gulf News reached out to Service Market, who gave us these useful tips.
Here are 4 insider tips that could save you hundreds of dirhams:
Compare home insurance quotes
Comparing quotes from multiple home insurance companies in the UAE can save you a huge amount of money. Not only should you take the time to get quotes from multiple home insurance providers when buying home insurance for the first time, but you should repeat this exercise while renewing your insurance policy.
Insurance rates change every year and another provider might be offering a better deal this time around. Make sure you use comparison websites, so that you can quickly and easily compare home insurance quotes from multiple companies, saving you time and money.
Don't overestimate the value of your home contents
Another mistake many of us make is that we overestimate the value of our home contents. When signing up for your home insurance policy you will be asked to choose an insurance limit for your belongings. This limit is the maximum value that the home insurance company will pay in case your belongings are damaged or lost.
Typically, the cost of home insurance will be higher if you select a higher limit, so instead of just guessing, do a quick inventory of all of your valuables to get a better estimate their value.
Make sure you understand the difference between home contents cover and personal possessions cover
Many people don’t understand the difference between these, and therefore end up paying much more than they need to. Personal possessions insurance covers the belongings that you carry around outside of your home against risks such as theft, loss or damage, while the home contents part of your insurance covers the belongings you keep at home.
Personal possessions cover is usually more expensive, and so, if you have declared a laptop that you keep at home in your personal possessional coverage, then you are probably paying more than you should be.
Subtract the value of land
While buying homeowners building insurance, make sure you don’t include the value of land while estimating the worth of your house. For example, if you bought the house for Dh3 million, around Dh2 million out of this amount could be the cost of the land. In this case, it would cost you Dh1 million to rebuild the house, so that’s the value you should declare while buying home insurance.
