Are your outbuildings covered in your insurance policy when you go away?

WHEN you go on holiday, it’s essential to ensure that everything at your unattended property is insured. But you must also double-check that any outbuildings on the property are included in your cover, as well as the contents stored within these outbuildings.

Structures such as wendy houses or sheds and freestanding garages are often packed with expensive tools – perhaps bicycles or other sporting equipment, or sentimental items that you are holding onto. However, outbuildings don’t automatically fall within your insurance and usually require specific cover. The structure may be part of your building insurance if it is specified. Similarly, the contents may be covered by your contents insurance, but not necessarily in full.

Wendy houses, for example, are usually not automatically covered as part of your contents insurance. So be sure to specify what you are storing in your wendy house, including all items of value. Freestanding garages are also a specified risk and usually require at least a sensor linking to an alarm on your property to be part of your cover.

Once you have the necessary cover in place, it is also important to comply with security specifications as stated in your insurance policy. For example, if you say your wendy house has a lock and it gets broken into, there will need to be evidence of the break-in to avoid having your claim repudiated. You must also only store what you say you are storing. If you put a new item such as a lawnmower in there without letting your adviser or insurer know, it won’t automatically be covered under your existing policy.

The best course of action to ensure you are adequately covered is to chat to your financial adviser, who can safeguard your pocket and possessions by making sure your insurance policy is comprehensive.

● Visser is the chief executive of distribution at PSG Insure.