House and contents insurance?

As insurance assessors for North West Vic for a couple of years we went to 3 total loss fires and every single one of them were underinsured. The insurance company will include every structure on your property as included in your premium whether you state it or not. So if your house burns down but your sheds and fences are ok they will deduct the cost of replacing these and you will have the balance to spend.

Also consider the cost of rebuilding. You cannot just use a price that is comparable to buying a similar property, you should have the option of rebuilding on the same land. To do this you will need to add demolition and council/permit fees etc plus the going rate for a new home to be built that is a similar size to what you had (anything much bigger and they may investigate the fire a bit closer…lol). Use at least $1100 per sq mt as a base and at least 10k for demolition and removal. Add another $5k for plans conservatively. You will probably find you definately aren’t overinsured.

We went to a fire in rural Vic where an elderly couple lost their homestead on the river right on the edge of town. They had only estimated the replacement value using the prices of similar properties in the town so could not replace the home with something similar and had to make do with a small unit. To make matters worse their old home had heaps of asbestos in it which made the demolition even more expensive…anyway you get the drift. It’s only a few bob a year and will give you more choice if the worst happens. BTW $30k contents insurance seems very lean to me; are you aware that curtains and carpets are considered contents by most insurers?

Julie Fisher
Daryl Fisher Homes

Sorry thek, we just fixed the claims. We didn’t sell the policies, so I cannot answer that question! You will have to do your own homework on that one. A good insurance broker will be able to provide you with a few options and you can compare the premiums and policy details amongst them.