Floods and landslides are becoming common in Kerala, highlighting the need to take home insurance even for natural disasters.
Apart from calamities, houses and other assets can get damaged or lost in fire mishaps and robbery. All general insurance companies provide insurance covers for such unpredictable incidents.
The recent floods and landslides had brought down several new and large houses in Kerala. The compensation amount, however, is not enough to rebuild the house in its lost glory. Are there insurance policies that give compensation if the building in which the house is located is wrecked?
Various kinds of insurance covers
The house insurance covers damages caused due to 10-odd natural calamities, including floods and earthquakes. Fire mishap and robbery are also included in this. Along with the building, the insurance cover can also be extended to include house assets. The electronic appliances like TV, fridge, and computers; furniture such as table, bed and sofa; expensive ornaments and clothes would all come under this.
Add the additional categories in your scheme to cover for any damage to your electric-electronic equipment caused due to lightning or voltage surge. However, there is no insurance cover for the land where the building is situated.
Get covered
Make a clear decision as to how much amount you need to insure your house with and its contents. Opt for a comprehensive insurance cover that would enable you to construct a new building, and buy new furniture and equipment when a disaster strikes. An insurance cover based on the money spent years ago on building the house would not suffice for the new building.
Therefore, you need to consider the depreciation factor, i.e, the insurers will calculate the current value of the asset that would not fully cover for your losses.
So, you need to take insurance policies that offer reinstatement without cutting down on the depreciation value. Irrespective of how old the assets are, the cover would give you a compensation amount that would allow you to buy a house and buy materials as per the current rates. You can take home insurance for a period of 1 year or a long-term policy of 10 years.
Compared to other insurance policies, the premium is less for the home insurance. Discounts too can be availed for long-term policies. While renewing the policy, the newly bought materials can also be added to it.
For rented houses, you can take home insurance only for the assets.
