House Insurance: how to evaluate household items?

At the time of assessing the property and the household items, be as accurate as possible. If the value indicated in the insurance proposal is above or below of the real value, you take the risk of not receving a fair compensation in case of accident.

The value of the goods will change over the years due to the effect of inflation. Therefore, most of the policies already provides automatic updating of the insured. But of course you acquire new assets as time passes, you may want to update the capital for the household items every 4 or 5 years. If you make improvements to the property (painting, replacement of plumbing, air conditioning, etc..), Update the value of the property to the insurer.

Protect the property

The value for corresponds to the cost of reconstruction. This is calculated based on the area of ​​the house and the price per square meter of the area where it is located. In general, the reconstruction cost is much lower than the market value, since the area of construction is not considered. Some factors are not incorporated on the evaluation of the property, such as proximity to shopping areas and transport, exposure to the sun, the floor, etc..

Do not go in the song of the banks, which require insurance for the amount of the loan (generally much higher). Doing so will pay a premium corresponding to a capital that never receive. If there is a large disparity between their calculation and the value indicated by the bank requires to be corrected.
On the other hand, there´s no interest to declare a value less than the reconstruction, to save on premiums. In case of accident, the compensation may not be enough to replace what was damaged. If, for example, your house is partially destroyed following a fire, the insurer only pays for the damages in proportion between the insured and the actual value of assets. The rest has to be paid by the insured.

Calculate the VALUE OF household items

The capital must be sufficient to replace the furniture, appliances and other damaged goods (clothes, dishes, records and films, for example). Therefore, they should be valued at replacement new as of today. Add 10% to the amount determined, as a safety margin for possible errors of judgment.

As for the special items such as antiques, artwork, jewelry, computers, collections, guns and furs should be evaluated individually and discriminated in the policy. Only then will receive fair compensation. If you do not, in case of accident, the insurer will only pay up to a certain value for the object. If, as a whole, the value of these goods exceed a maximum percentage of the total household items (usually 30%), to apply an insurance premium on the increase.