The number of UK residents how now have overseas homes is steadily on the increase. In some cases these overseas homes are for holiday purposes, such as with Spain, in other cases theyre bought for the purpose of spending at least part of the time of the owners retirement, such as with Cyprus. Either way, more often than not the British owner of the home would prefer not to have the overseas home insured by an offshore insurance provider, but rather by an insurance provider closer to home.

So, if you have an overseas home and would like a UK home insurance company to provide you with insurance, what can you expect to get?

Home Contents and Home Buildings Insurance

A number of providers of overseas home insurance policies have merged the home contents and home insurance policies to be an amalgamated overseas home insurance policy. This mega policy should cover you for both circumstances.

Public Liability Insurance

Should be a must, especially if you are considering renting the overseas home out for the part of the year that you are not there.

Lost Earnings

If you think that renting your overseas home about is going to be a major money spinner for you, you may well want to consider insuring yourself against any lost earnings. Basically, this insurance will reimburse you if your holiday tenants suddenly have to cancel.

Theft

As with mainland UK home insurance policies, you need to make sure you are protected against theft. All the usual precautions about invoicing your possession needs to be taken into consideration with your holiday home. Also, you need to check the excess deductibles carefully, as in most cases this can range from 50 – 200

Natural Disasters

As recent natural disaster such as the hurricanes, tsunami, and earth quakes have shown, certain geographical regions outside of the UK are more prone to natural disasters than the UK itself is. Consequently, you should make sure that your overseas home is adequately insured against this risk.

Insurance for your overseas home can be arranged cheaply over the internet, or else you can arrange to have the insurance provider by a specialist overseas home insurance company in your area. Do keep in mind that as this is effectively your second home, your home insurance premiums will be marginally higher than you may normally be expected to pay with the home you live in, especially if you are using the home in any way to generate income.

Buildings Insurance went up again last year, costing homeowners another 1% a year, taking the average to just over 205 for a year’s insurance. Contents insurance also went up, this time by 2% – now it costs the average homeowner 151 a year. However, some lenders are hiking prices even higher than that Norwich Union for example, raised its prices by a whopping 6% last year.

The question is – why? There’s so much competition out there, you’d expect prices to be falling, not increasing but there are other forces at work, as we go on to discuss.

No 1 the cost of having a house repaired or rebuilt

Labour and building materials are getting more costly, so when the insurance company calculates how much it would cost to rebuild your house, prices are higher. This is due to inflation, and the same thing affects the insurance company and its own operating costs. Wages, bills, office rental all these costs are increasing year on year so of course insurers have to factor these in.

No 2 the weather

The British weather is getting more and more tempestuous, whether it’s due to global warming we are not qualified to say, but it’s a fact that we have been experiencing a lot of extreme weather in the past few years. The 1987 hurricane was a freak occurrence, but flash floods such as the incident in Boscastle, Cornwall, Helmsley in North Yorkshire, and Carlisle are making the headlines on a regular basis. The Association of British Insurers has stated that the average insurance claim due to flood damage could be anything from 15,000 to 30,000, making huge dents into the insurance industry’s profits. In fact, floods cost insurance companies millions every year.

No 3 – Burglary

Claims due to burglary have been going up, now average at around 1,400. The 2 main causes are:

From digital cameras to laptops, game consoles to ipods our houses are full of electronic gadgets with a high value bought new, and a high value resold. Burglars are after these items and it’s hitting the insurance industry where it hurts their pocket.

Burglars pick posh neighbourhoods to ensure they get away with the best items – with expensive items like jewellery for the taking, the value of these kind of claims is increasing.

Insurance companies use statistics relating to a postcode area to calculate premiums for everyone in that area. If your neighbours have suffered subsidence, or your area is near a river which has been known to flood you will have to pay higher premiums. Similarly, if people in your area have been broken into, then it will be assumed that you are at a higher risk of making a burglary claim too.

Having a no-claims discount is a help when it comes to offsetting the annual rise in premiums, but insurance companies cap these discounts once you have 5 years no claims, so you will not get any further discounts.

So is there any way to avoid the rising cost of home and contents insurance?

The first thing you can do is look around for the best deal. Try the Internet for the best deals, because most insurance companies offer a discount, often 10%, for customers that buy online. You will also save if you pay by direct debit. It’s tempting to accept your current insurer’s renewal quote but don’t be fooled the small amount of effort it will take to shop around will pay good dividends. One of the reasons for this is because insurers always offer their best deals to new customers, existing customers are virtually penalised for showing loyalty!

Improving your home security is another good way to reduce premiums while giving you essential peace of mind. Neighbourhood watch schemes, external security lighting, a burglar alarm, security locks on windows, and industry-recognised locks on external doors will make a difference. Obviously these things cost money to install, but they pay for themselves in the long run.

Play the insurance company game and you will always win shop around, be prepared to move insurance company every year, and don’t accept any high prices. There’s always a better deal out there!

Basically, home contents insurance is insurance protection against the replacement cost that you would otherwise have to pay to replace the contents of your home in the event of then being lost, damaged or stolen. As is the case with home buildings insurance, the main factors contributing to grounds under which you can make a claim against your home contents insurance include theftburglary, damage due to floods, burst water pipes or boilers, etc.

There are, however, two very important factors that you need to keep in mind when insuring the contents of your home: