subject: Cornish Holiday Homes [print this page] When considering insuring your holiday home you do need to take out specialist insurance. A home contents and buildings policy taken out to cover your existing home would not be adequate for a holiday home. This is because the usage of the second property is different. It may be unoccupied for long periods of time or you may be using it as a holiday let, which involves holidaymakers in the property. While many of the things covered would be the same, specialist cover would also include much more. Here are some holiday home insurance tips to help you get the best policy for your needs.
The sum insured
One of the most important factors of holiday home insurance is that you insure the shell and contents of your holiday home against the worst case scenario. This of course would be if, for example, the holiday property was to burn down and you lost everything. With insurance behind you, you would be able to claim for the cost of rebuilding. Therefore you need to ensure that you get adequate cover by choosing the right sum insured. If you do not get adequate cover, in the event of a claim you may not receive enough money back to replace or repair damage to your property.
Rental income cover
Another of the many excellent holiday home insurance tips when considering a total loss of the holiday home is to check the cover to find out if the policy would payout for loss of rental income. If you had to get someone in to clear the site and then rebuild you could lose many months of income through not being able to rent out the holiday home.
Limits on payouts
What the cover entails within a holiday home insurance policy can differ greatly between providers so with this in mind it is essential that you check the small print of any cover you are considering. There can be many limits and exclusions in the cover and it is imperative that you understand what these are. For example it is not uncommon to find that a provider would only pay up to a ceiling amount for certain items.
What is protected?
The majority of insurance cover will protect against the standard things such as fire, theft, damage due to vandalism, flood and storm damage. However they can also include many more features and these can differ between policies. Check to see if the policy you are considering taking out would cover accidental damage. This could include damage to the contents within the holiday home and the building itself.
Finally one of the best holiday home insurance tips if you are renting out the property is to check for liability and legal expenses. It is essential to keep the holiday home in good repair. However there may be times when something happens which makes the home unsafe and if those renting should get hurt whilst staying in the holiday home they would expect to claim from you. When checking for liability cover always make a note of the maximum amount you would be protected for legal expenses and liability cover.
