We recently hosted a Goodtoknow webinar with Tower on understanding car, house, and contents insurance - and getting the answers you need because many people are unknowingly underinsured or caught off guard by policy limitations when it comes to making a claim.
The biggest discussion point was around Sum-insured and rightly so. You see for most of us our home will be the biggest asset we own and we’ll need to protect it in case something unexpected happens. And with most house insurance policies, it’s up to us to set our ‘sum insured’ – the capped amount the insurer would pay if our home were destroyed.
If you don't know how to do that, click here to watch the full recording at 14:04 Jonathan Beale from Tower explains what Sum-Insured is and more importantly takes us all through a demonstration of how to calculate it accurately.
However we have also outlined the key points below in this article
Sum insured is the maximum amount your insurance company will pay to rebuild your house if it is damaged. It includes demolition costs, debris removal, professional fees and council fees. When taking out a house insurance policy, you choose the sum insured for your home so it's important you have sufficient cover.
This can be tricky to get right and we want to help you with this process so you don’t underinsure your house.
"I'll explain what some insured isn't first. I say that because I hear this a lot when I speak to customers and you'd be surprised what people say. Many think that its the price they paid for their property and that's not because obviously when you bought a property, there's the price of the actual property. And then there's the land value as well. It's not what you've paid for it. It's not the market value of your house and it's not just what the land is worth.
It's actually the total amount it would cost to rebuild your house. Plus, including, demolition costs, removing any debris, professional fees, and council fees. when you're trying to work out what it, how much it's going to cost to rebuild, that's quite a difficult thing, to do, and, but it's important that you get it done."- Jonathan Beale, Managing Director Partnerships ,Tower
Here are a few things to consider when calculating your sum insured:
Remember to include any additional or recreational features that would increase the rebuild cost of your house. These include swimming pools, solar panels, outbuildings and retaining walls.
The Cordell Sum Sure calculator is an easy way to estimate your sum insured amount – just enter your address and check the property details listed. The calculator will do the work for you and give you a figure to start with.
The calculator includes professional fees, demolition, removal of debris and GST. It also shows you information that is on the public record about your house.
Remember, as a HealthCarePlus Member, you can get up to 10% Off Selected Tower Insurance Policies for the term of the policy*. Just follow the "Find out more" link below to get a quote and see how much you can save.
(*) Terms and Conditions apply to HealthCarePlus Member-only offer. Read Tower Ts&Cs here.
(^) See Tower Multi-policy discount Ts&Cs here.