Home & Contents
Home and contents insurance covers the house you live in and everything in it against fire, theft, weather, burst pipes, and accidents. Most homeowners are either underinsured or insured for the wrong risks without realising, because the defaults were set years ago.
We structure cover that matches your actual rebuild cost and current possessions, with the fine-print extensions (geysers, power surge, portable items) that standard policies often leave out.
Cover
What this typically covers
Buildings
The structure and what is built into it. If it would stay behind when you moved out it is here: the roof, the fitted kitchen, the pool, the outbuilding.
The structure itself (walls, roof, fixtures, fitted kitchens, pools, outbuildings) against fire, storm, theft, and accidental damage.
Contents
What you would take with you. Replacement cost means the price of buying it again today, which is the only number that helps when a room's worth of things has gone.
Everything inside the home (furniture, appliances, electronics, clothing, household goods) on a replacement-cost basis.
All-risks (portable) items
The items that go out of the door with you and get lost out there. A phone, a laptop, a ring, a bicycle. Ordinary contents cover mostly stops at your front gate.
Jewellery, watches, laptops, cameras, bicycles, and mobile phones, covered worldwide rather than only at home.
Geysers & power surge
A burst geyser and a surge when the power returns come in more often than every other household claim put together. They are written as their own clause for that reason, usually with a lower excess.
The two most common household claims, with specific wording that keeps excesses low.
Householders liability
A visitor is hurt at your house, or your pet damages something of theirs, and you are the one held responsible.
Protection if a visitor is injured on your property or your pet damages someone's belongings.
Alternative accommodation
Somewhere to live while the house is repaired. It is part of the claim, and worth asking for on the first call rather than working out later that you were entitled to it.
Temporary housing costs if your home becomes uninhabitable after an insured event.
Limits
What this will not cover
Underinsurance is settled proportionally
If the sums insured come to less than the cost of rebuilding or replacing, most wordings pay in that same proportion. Insure for half and a valid claim comes back half paid.
Security you said you had
Alarms armed, gates locked, bars fitted, a beam switched on. Where the schedule records a security condition the insurer is entitled to expect it was in use, and burglary claims turn on exactly that.
Gradual damage
Damp, rot, rust, and a slow leak under a floor. Cover is for sudden and unforeseen loss, and most of what a house does to itself is neither.
Items taken from a vehicle
Bags and electronics stolen out of a parked car are excluded or heavily limited under most all-risks sections, however ordinary the circumstances were.
Claim
When you claim
Make it safe, then report it
Stop the water, board the opening, and get a SAPS case number for anything taken or deliberately damaged. Then tell us before repairs are arranged, because a repair signed off in a hurry can be one the insurer will not pay for.
Insure-to-value is tested at the claim
If the sums insured are lower than what it would cost to rebuild or replace, most wordings settle in that same proportion, which is how a valid claim comes back part-paid. The time to fix that is at renewal.
Panel replacement, and somewhere to sleep
Contents are usually replaced through the insurer's suppliers rather than paid out in cash. If the house is uninhabitable, alternative accommodation is part of the claim, and it is worth asking for on the first call rather than the third.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Market value is what the house would sell for today. Replacement cost is what it would cost to rebuild it from scratch. They're almost never the same, and it's replacement cost that matters for insurance. Underinsurance happens mostly because owners use the wrong number.
Go room by room and estimate what it would cost to replace everything at today's retail prices, not what you paid. For most households this is 2–3× what they think. We provide a contents calculator at the quote stage to make this concrete.
Standard contents cover usually excludes items once they leave the property. For laptops, jewellery, bicycles, or anything else you carry, an all-risks (portable items) extension covers them worldwide. Either specified individually for high-value items or as a general sum.
Personal cover usually excludes business equipment, stock, and business-related liability. A home-business extension or a small commercial policy closes the gap. We scope this based on what the business actually involves.
Newly installed solar and battery systems are usually covered under buildings (if permanently fixed) but sums insured need updating. A typical installation adds R100k–R300k to rebuild cost. Portable generators are usually all-risks items. We flag this at every renewal now.