House Insurance - Make sure your home is covered

As the cost of building a house continues to rise, homeowners are once again being encouraged to check their home insurance policy to ensure that they have adequate cover.

Home insurance is often something that people take out and simply forget about but it’s important to remember that if worst comes to worst and you do need to rebuild your home, your policy will only cover the value that was originally insured.

That means that if the cost of rebuilding your home today is higher than the value of your home at the time your policy was taken out, you could be left with a sizeable sum leftover which you will need to pay out of your own pocket.

And right now, the cost of building a house in Ireland is rising. This is due, in part, to materials increasing in price, with The Irish Times reporting last month that factors like the pandemic and supply issues with companies in the United States are leading to increased costs of 5-20%.

“Prices for plastics, man-made polymers and resins, used in everything from piping to insulation have been rising rapidly over the past few months,” Barry O’Halloran wrote.

“Most of these materials are derived from oil. The bad weather in the southern US, a big source of oil itself and the various products derived from it, hit their manufacture earlier this year, creating a squeeze on supplies, aggravating a problem that dates back to early 2020.”

COVID-19 has transformed the way people are using their homes and we are now spending more time in our houses than ever. This has naturally led to us using our facilities and appliances like heating, water, dishwashers, washing machines etc. with increased regularity. There has been an increase of claims frequency now that the systems in our homes are under more pressure and issues are beginning to come up. Some insurers are reporting a 6% rise in claims.

The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland website has a handy tool that will help you to calculate the current cost of rebuilding your home. If the figure is higher than the value insured in your policy, you should talk to us about adjusting your cover.

Give us a call today on 0646634632 if you have any queries. We’ll be delighted to help.