Use your spring clean to review your insurance coverage

Mop

Use your spring clean to review your insurance coverage

Staycation instead of Seychelles? Counting rug fringes instead of playing in the sand? Couch potato instead of globetrotter? Most of us have been spending significantly more time at home over the last few months. Even more reason to do a spring clean; and a good opportunity to do a stock-take of your contents insurance.
Have you recently cleared out your cellar, redecorated your guest room or re-ordered your bookshelf? Or have you resolved to really spruce up the household with a spring clean? When doing these things, it often becomes apparent just how many objects we have collected over the year. Accordingly, adding these to your inventory and re-estimating how much it is worth is recommended. After all, your contents insurance can only provide you with comprehensive protection if you have set your sum insured at the correct value. 

Which objects count as contents?

  • Contents include all objects found in a home without a fixed connection to the property. This means that sofas, wardrobes and their contents, as well as crockery, are considered contents, but a fitted kitchen or wash basin is not. It also includes everything in the basement, garage or attic. Garden furniture is also included.  
  • Objects that have been separately insured are not considered contents and don’t have to be added to the sum insured. Your car is not part of your contents and has to be insured separately. All valuables, such as painted artworks, musical instruments or items such as handbags, can be comprehensively protected with an insurance of valuables (Link to valuables product page).

How do you determine the correct sum insured for contents insurance?

  • The best way to determine the correct sum insured for contents insurance is to go around your apartment or house with a notepad or tablet.  
  • The replacement value of the inventory is decisive: The originally paid purchase price or second-hand price from an online shop is not relevant here. The current price at which you could purchase the contents brand new is decisive.  
  • It is worthwhile adding value estimations to your inventory list. You don’t have to list every last washcloth here. Blanket entries such as "Bathroom towels: CHF 200" are sufficient. 
  • You should also store your inventory list and value estimations in additional place to your home, e.g. in the cloud. Should the worst come to the worst and your entire inventory is burnt in a fire, the contents can be easily and reliably reconstructed with this list and compensated accordingly.

Why is it important to correctly set the sum insured?

  • If you set your sum too low, you run the risk of only part of the damage being compensated should the worst happen. This is because insurers are entitled to reduce their benefits proportionately if the sum insured is too low. This is also true for partial damages, such as a living room fire. 
  • If you are unsure, your insurance advisor will be happy to provide information. 

Accidental damage to electrical equipment and accidental damage to sports equipment for additional protection

With the additional accidental damage to electrical equipment module, all electronic devices in the household up to a value of CHF 2000 are insured, from your TV and laptop to your food processor.  Accidental damage to sports equipment works in the same way – you can separately insure everything from surfboards and snowboards to golf clubs with it. 
The two accidental damage insurances complement the theft coverage, as they also take effect in the event of damage or destruction – even if this is accidentally self-inflicted.

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