The Hales whānau moved to New Zealand from their native UK three years ago. They sought help from AA Insurance Location, Location, Location, NZ hosts Jayne Kiely and Paul Glover to find their first Kiwi home, searching for a centrally located new build or renovated home with enough space for their belongings, including a few antiques and their children’s musical instruments.
AA Insurance expert Tom caught up with the Hales to talk about things they should consider when it comes to their contents insurance.
“So you've [had] an exciting week looking at houses,” Tom says in the episode. “How's that been for you?”
“Yeah, it's been really interesting, hasn't it?” Anna replies. “They’ve shown us some new areas that we haven't thought about before, and [we’ve been] given some ideas about how much space we can actually get. We were kind of thinking we’d have to shrink right down. And, actually, we can get a bit more space than we thought.”
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Tom asks if the family has thought much about moving their belongings into a new property.
“We’ll probably have to slim down a bit, if we choose some of those houses,” Robert replies.
Moving house can lead to changes in the overall value of your contents. “For your insurance purposes, it's really important to make sure your sum insured of your contents is correct,” Tom says. “That is the total value of all your contents. If you had to replace them all, what would that cost you?”
It’s a question the Hales whānau had to consider when they packed up their belongings in the UK. “Coming over here three years ago, we had to stick all of our stuff in a container,” Robert says. “When you add it all up, it does turn into a much bigger number than you expected it to be.”
It’s a good idea to regularly review your sum insured so you have enough cover to replace your belongings if you come to make a claim. It’s also important to ensure your policy provides adequate coverage for the things of concern to you, Tom tells Anna and Robert. “The other thing to think about is high-value items or antiques. It’s important to make sure you’ve got those covered properly,” he says.
Most contents insurance policies cover your belongings up to a certain amount – your sum insured – without you needing to specify the value of each item. Some categories of contents have fixed or adjustable limits, which is the highest amount your insurer will pay for each category of items, for a single event. These limits are outlined in your policy document and apply to the combined value of items within the same category, rather than each individual item.
“There are a number of things that the policy might have limits on, such as jewellery, artwork, cameras or bikes,” says Tom, to the Hales about their valuables in the episode. “So if you have valuable items in those areas, you might call your insurance company to make sure that you increase the limit.” You can choose to increase your adjustable event limit to reflect the combined value of contents within a category, which may be reflected in an increase to your premium.
Robert tells Tom that the whānau owns a few antiques and items of value, including a rocking horse and piano. Tom recommends getting valuations done to help understand how much your items are worth so you can accurately calculate your sum insured and make changes to your adjustable event limits if needed.
Proof of ownership may be needed for the items you’re claiming. This proves you have owned the item(s) you’re claiming for and can provide specific details about your lost or damaged item so you can be properly compensated for the loss. Valuations can be used as proof of ownership. Other examples of proof of ownership that your insurer may accept include financial statements and receipts.
“If you've got receipts when you buy things, you can take photos of those,” Tom says. “Make sure you store those digitally,” he adds. Digitised backup copies of receipts can be helpful if the originals start to fade, or are lost.
“The other thing that's really good to do is actually just take videos around the house, [which is] a lot simpler than making a list of all the items that you own,” Tom tells Anna and Robert.
Finally, Tom reminds the Hales: “It's really important to just check with your insurer what limits they have on certain items and making sure that you're covered.”
You can watch the Hales whānau’s episode of AA Insurance Location, Location, Location NZ on TVNZ+
Watch all episodes of AA Insurance Location, Location, Location NZ air on TVNZ+
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