Nowadays anyone can secure one’s home by opting from the wide choices of insurance, most popular being the comprehensive home insurance. This type of policy offers compensation against damages to the property or loss to the homeowner from theft, fire, vandalism etc. There can be several situations when a general home insurance policy does not apply and one needs to purchase a separate policy to be covered against losses. For instance, a general home insurance policy does not provide cover for such losses that are caused due to natural calamities. So, the homeowner needs to purchase a separate policy for all such dangers like flood insurance policy or earthquake insurance policy.
Subsidence Home Insurance
Subsidence is the most common problem for home owners. It is a structural problem in which cracks develop around the doors and windows of the house because of the movement of foundation. This problem often requires the home owner to spend a lot of money on correcting it. One solution to this problem is underpinning. The process of underpinning involves the insertion of a new foundation under the existing one. This process is quite expensive and time consuming. To cover the costs, home owner may require a not so common insurance policy known as underpinned home insurance policy.
The need of a separate underpinned property insurance arises because of the fact that a home insurance policy does not allow the home owner to claim for the work done on the building. Also, if a person is considering purchasing a property which has already been underpinned, a separate policy is required.
Following are the main features of underpinned home insurance policy:
- This type of insurance covers properties that have already undergone subsidence.
- This type of policy provides for landslips, subsidence and heave.
- This type of policy can be transferred to a new home owner in case a person sells his property to another person.
- The policy also provides cover in case the property owner wants to lend the underpinned property.
There are certain exclusions also in this type of subsidence house insurance policy. These are:
- Underpinned home insurance policy does not cover the properties in which subsidence problems already exists and has not been rectified.
- The policy does not provide cover for properties that are underpinned and unoccupied. However basic Fire, Lightning, Eathquake and Explosion cover is usually still available through specialist non standard property insurers.
- The policy does not provide for damages that are caused because of wear and tear and depreciation.
Generally insurance companies are of the view that once a house experiences the problem of subsidence, such problem will persist. That is why most of the home owners have to stay in their existing building which further causes the premium of the underpinned building to rise by 20 or 30 percent. This is one of the main reasons why this type of insurance is considered to be expensive.
When buying underpinned home insurance plan, it must be ensured that all the documents are in order. This is important because when claims are filed, the insurance company requires all the documents. In case of missing documents, the insurance company does not compensate for the losses incurred.
The property insurance company from which the policy has to be purchased must be a reputed one. This ensures that the policy that one is buying is reasonably priced and is offered with the benefits and bonuses if any. Also if a home owner purchases the policy from a reputed house insurance company, the home owner can be assured of the fact that the policy bought is a reliable one and a good investment.
Summary
Underpinned home insurance is not a very common type of policy. It is also not mandatory but as a preventive step, home owners can buy this insurance to be covered against losses.
