home renovations insurance

Renovations are an exciting way to make your home feel new again. Whether you’re planning a complete renovation, an extension, or a simple addition to your house, it will increase your lot value. An increase in lot value will affect the monthly cost of your building and/or home contents insurance.

Before we discuss how renovations affect building and home insurance, it’ll be helpful to make sure you understand the difference between the two types of insurance. Do you have building insurance? Or do you have home contents insurance?

Building insurance covers the structure of your house. The building structure refers to features such as the walls, windows, roof, geysers, etc.

Home contents insurance covers your in-home valuables and possessions such as furniture and personal belongings against loss or damage.

You can read more about this in our article, ‘What’s the difference between building insurance and home contents insurance?

Now that that’s covered, let’s move on to the subject of this article…

building insurance

How do renovations affect building insurance?

If you plan to renovate your house, let your insurance provider know in advance. Some insurance companies include certain renovations in their cover. Find out if your insurance plan covers renovation costs and what the limits are.

As we mentioned above, building insurance is insurance cover for your house structure. That means, if you have building insurance and plan to renovate, you’re adding more structure to your house and property. The more your property expands, the more you add, the more your insurance premium will be. This is because a renovation adds more walls, windows, gutters, etc. and that will expand your house building structure and cause your building insurance to increase.

How do renovations affect home contents insurance?

Are you planning an expansion or additional room renovation? Adding more rooms or expanding rooms in your house results in more space to fill! Whether or not you have building insurance or home contents insurance, renovations will affect your monthly insurance premium.

To ensure your new home contents get covered, notify your insurer of the renovations and new valuables/possessions that will need to be covered in case of loss or damage. After all, imagine spending all that money on new stuff to fill your new space, disaster strikes, and it wasn’t covered! The cost to replace your new items will cause an unfortunate financial setback.

home contents insurance

In Summary

Renovations do affect both building and home contents insurance. An increased home value means that your insurance premium will increase as well. Don’t assume your new space is covered. Call your insurance provider to discuss the renovation plans beforehand and ask them to give you an idea and quote on what the insurance increase will be.

Building insurance covers your building structure; any new structure added to your home will not be included in your original building insurance premium. Find out from your insurer what the additional cost will be and ask if you qualify for any renovation cover.

Lastly, don’t be afraid to compare quotes! Once your renovation plans are pre-approved and you’re ready to get going, take some time to compare other insurance quotes. You never know… another insurance provider may have a much better deal to offer you than the additional costs your current provider quoted. Ready for a quote but don’t know where to start?

Get a quick vehicle or home content insurance quote from us on: https://qualityquote.co.za/car-insurance-quote/