Diwali, the festival of lights turned out to be a disaster for my friend whose beautiful home was turned into a gloomy place when fire broke out in his house due to short circuit. Till the time the fire was put out, the entire household things in his apartment turned into ash. This incident left him with a major setback and created a big hole in his pocket as home was not insured.
So, is home insurance important for us to save from such disasters or natural calamities that not only have an effect on our physical and emotional state but monetarily also shake us to our roots.
Most of us still have not realized the advantages of buying home insurance, but such risks force us to think and understand the importance of home insurance.
Though it’s not possible for us to protect our dream home and our family against each and every probable risks, but we can surely adapt measures that will assist us in having a support system that can help us sail through unexpected events that can completely blow apart our life and dreams.
What is Home Insurance policy?
Home Insurance policy safe guards our interests against most risks to our home or commercial property, which include fire, theft and natural calamities.
This policy comprises of specific kinds of insurance like fire insurance, flood insurance, earthquake, home insurance or boiler insurance. Normally a said property is insured under two heads – one is called as open perils and the other one is known as named perils.
Open perils offers protection against all the damages except the ones that are excluded in the policy taken. Damages caused by earthquakes, floods, nuclear incidents, acts of terrorism and war etc. are normally excluded under open peril policies.
Whereas under named perils the actual cause of the loss has to be specified in the home insurance policy. Damages caused by events like fire, lightning, explosion and theft are insured under named perils.
Eligibility criteria for home insurance policy
Everyone should take up a home insurance policy as it forms an essential part for securing our life, irrelevant of the fact that whether you own a house or not. These insurance policies are normally issued for a period of one year maximum and have to be renewed every year.
There are varied home insurance policies available in the market that you can choose as per your own requirement. If you own a house then you can get complete property insured where as if you are staying in a particular property as a tenant then you can just get your belongings insured.
Most insurance companies have higher limit on the per square foot cost for offering insurance to a particular property or a house. The maximum per square foot limit of insuring a house or a property is also determined on the basis of the location and construction type.
Apart from this, you also have an option of a comprehensive cover and insure a range of risks involved. If you choose a different policy for a range of risks involved, then you can go ahead pick up the heads that want to insured.
What damages are covered by Home Insurance policy in India?
A home insurance policy is normally considered as a very wide-ranging insurance product because it not only covers the house in question but also its contents, its inhabitants along with their third party liabilities. The insurance covers offered by the companies can be segregated under various heads or classes.
- Fire & allied Perils offer you a cover against the damages that caused by fire and its associated perils that might be caused due to:
- Natural calamities including lightning, earthquake, landslide, rockslide, flood, inundation, storm, tempest, typhoon, hurricane, tornado, or cyclone.
- Man-made calamities including domestic gas explosions, overflow and bursting of water tank or pipes, damage caused by aircrafts, riots, strikes, malicious or terrorist acts.
- Burglary and housebreaking perils offer protection against the financial damages incurred by you as result of a burglary. Under this peril you can even claim a cover for the damages caused by falling trees, electric poles or lampposts, collapsing aerials or satellite dishes, as well as damage encountered by civic authorities while fighting fire.
- Jewellery and valuable perils provide cover against damages suffered due to the loss of any valuable items including jewelry, gold, silver, and other precious metal items, watches, clocks, photographic equipment, video cameras, telescopes, microscopes, music instruments, and sports equipment.
- Plate glass perils offer cover for damages incurred by breakage of fixed glass and sanitary fittings, comprising cost of frame, lettering, painting etc.
- Breakdown of domestic appliances perils offer cover against damages caused due to the breakdown of domestic appliances, like refrigerators, washing machines, air-conditioners which might arise because of accidental electrical or mechanical breakdown.
- Breakdown of electronic equipment perils provide cover for the damages suffered due to the loss or breakdown of electronic equipment by accident or disaster.
- Increased Living Expenses perils cover damages suffered because of the fire at your home and its allied perils, making it unhabitable.
How to file a claim under home insurance policy?
You can follow simple steps to file a claim under the home insurance policy taken –
- In case burglary has taken place at your home then you should immediately call police and handover the list of the items stolen along with their approximate value.
- Update your concerned insurance company at the earliest about the damages incurred.
- As soon as you notify the company about the damages, a surveyor appointed who will visit your place for an on-site inspection. During the inspection you should provide all required documents to the surveyor in order to make the process easy and less time consuming.
- Once the surveyor finishes off the inspection, you need to file your claim at the insurance company.
- The surveyor will submit his on-site inspection report to the company and when it is approved the company will release the insured amount.
The claim form submitted by you should be duly filled and signed as per the company norms and it should also carry a letter which states your ownership on the contents and belongings in question. Apart from this there is a list of documents that you need to submit with the claim form:
- Copy of FIR from the police in case of burglary.
- Fire brigade report in case of fire.
- Seismological report in case of earthquake.
- Meteorological department’s report in case of flood.
- Estimate of the repairs.
- Rent agreement if in case you do not own the property.
Your home is one of the most beautiful and cherished possession for you and your loved ones. You should spend a little to save your dream home from all the calamities.
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iDreams Sujata said
I need deatils of how to file claim at the insurance company.