Properly evaluating your property before taking out home insurance is a necessary operation. On the one hand, this estimate will have an impact on the price of your insurance, but, on the other hand, it will also condition the amounts of compensation in the event of a claim such as water damage, fire or even burglary. The rules to follow to evaluate your property for your home insurance.
Home insurance, and in particular multi-risk home insurance, is compulsory for tenants, and strongly recommended for homeowners. Whether it is a burglary, a fire, water damage or a natural disaster such as a flood, the purpose of home insurance is to protect all your belongings and to compensate them. in case of calamity. This is why it is important to make as precise an inventory as possible of all your belongings and to assess their value. The amounts you declare constitute a maximum ceiling for compensation in the event of a claim.
To carry out this inventory methodically, it is advisable to proceed piece by piece and list each item, from furniture to household appliances, including books, paintings, musical instruments, clothing, linens, jewelry , multimedia devices, etc.
Also remember to make this inventory even in parts of your house such as the cellar or the attic.
In order to correctly assess your property, that is to say estimate it at the right price, for your home insurance, you should take into consideration their value in use, and not their purchase value. Indeed, the majority of goods lose their value over time. It is generally considered that a property loses 10% of its initial value per year from the second year of its acquisition. In addition, there is a maximum percentage of obsolescence that insurers systematically deduct. Some insurances offer, for the payment of a higher premium, to insure your goods according to their value when they were new.
Some goods, however, increase in value over time. These include jewelry, works of art, antique furniture, rare books and certain musical instruments. For these objects, the value of which can be very high, it is preferable to call on a professional expert for their valuation in order to be sure of being compensated at their fair value in the event of a claim. Otherwise, you must declare to your insurance a higher value than the one you paid at the time of purchase. There are also specific home insurance contracts for high-value items.
Finally, to be sure that your goods are covered at their fair price, it is advisable to review the amount of their value regularly, at least once every 5 years.
When it comes to home insurance, poor property valuation can have significant consequences.
If you declare a value above the real value of your property, on the one hand you will pay more expensive home insurance and, on the other hand, an insured person who cannot legally receive compensation in the event of a claim greater than the value property, your insurance has the option of declaring your contract void if it finds your obvious bad faith.
On the contrary, if you underestimate the value of your property, you run the risk of being very poorly compensated in relation to their real value if they are damaged. In addition, your insurance can also terminate your contract if it provides proof that you have deliberately underestimated your property in order to pay a cheaper home insurance premium.
