Every home owner has a certain amount of fire insurance . This is because, by law, any bonded home has to have fire insurance as part of its building insurance cover.
What many home owners do not know is what is covered by their fire insurance and it is important to be aware of this information in order to not be caught short in the event of fire damage.
Make sure that your house, garage and garden contents, as well as your house and outbuildings themselves are insured again fire and at replacement (not acquisition) cost.
Causes of fire
There are many and varied causes of fires in homes and, for certain reasons, winter is often a time of increased incidence of fire damage. In winter we use electric heating as well as open log fires to keep us warm, faulty wiring, old or damaged electric blankets and unattended log fires are often the cause of homes burning down.
Things such as children playing with matches, cigarettes left to burn and debris from veld fires are other factors that can cause house fires.
In summer, especially on the highveld, lightning can be a significant cause of fire. Global warming could well cause this phenomenon to increase in frequency.
What does fire insurance protect?
If you are uninsured against your home burning down, the repercussions can be virtually impossible to recover from, both financially and emotionally. You will be paying a bond on a home that is no longer there, you will have no possessions and often very little capital is available to replace all those possessions.
If you take out fire insurance it should protect you at the very least from the financial implications borne from the loss of your possessions and your abode. Fire insurance should include temporary accommodation, replacement of a certain value of household contents and damage to the structure of your home so that you can rebuild it or replace the parts that are damaged. As it is usually included as part of building insurance it should also cover the garage, swimming pool and outhouses on your property. Make sure you know where you stand with fire insurance
Even though it is usually included in your building insurance it is important to know what you are insured for and how much replacement value you are entitled to, so check with your insurer before you take out a policy to make sure you are getting what you need from it.
