The Facts In Regards to Listed Buildings Insurance in the UK
Do you own a listed building in the UK? If the answer is yes, this property needs to be insured by someone who is an expert in listed building insurance. It probably appears as though all buildings insurance guidelines are equal; however, they aren’t. Many buildings and contentspolicies are written for the ‘standard’ market – listed buildings fall under the ‘non-standard’ category which means you’re well advised to discuss your particular insurance needs with an expert broker or insurer.
Make Sure That Your Property is Totally Covered
Real estate owners with listed buildings will have specific tasks. For example, if your home is listed and suffers damage caused by a storm, you’re responsible for the restoration of the property back to its condition prior to the incident. This is true regardless of whether the property receives minor damage or is completely destroyed. The insurance needs to provide total coverage if the structure needs to be rebuilt; thus, it is of utmost significance that you are fully aware of everything your insurance plan covers.
Getting Coverage on Antiques, Art, and Paintings in Your Listed Home
If you need listed building insurance, ,then you will almost assuredly be required to have specialist home contents. Many insurance agencies in the UK will give you a certain amount of coverage for some costly pieces; however, they usually will not extend coverage for exclusive items—for instance– antiques insurance, paintings insurance and art insurance.
As a reminder many contents policies are written for the standard market and place stern restrictions on costly things, antiques insurance, art insurance and collections – these policies will usually provide inadequate cover for owners of listed buildings that have costly home contents. This happens because, as a rule of thumb if you have standard contents policies you are only permitted to receive a percentage of the items implicated. If you own pricey antiques and art pieces, insurance that covers only a fraction of their value would leave you with a considerable net loss.
This is an example: suppose you have an insurance agreement that covers 75% of your building’s contents. Now let us assume that your contents are worth a total of £100,000. When a calamity happens, all you can receive in damages would be £75,000. Thus your loses would still be £25,000.
Many insurance companies have a provision known as “average”. In basic English, if you get coverage on ¾ of the contents of your home, you collect only ¾ of the insurance value i.e. £56,250. Now, you have a deficit of £43,750.
This is why it is essential that you consider specialist cover and and be assured that the sums insured on both structures (re-building cost not market value) and contents will be enough to cover a complete loss.
