Insuring your home seemed to be an easy task. You’d ring up an insurance company, they’d tell you what your home is worth and then you’re covered. If you make a claim, they pay up and you can repair or replace your home exactly how it was. But wait, because just like an infomercial, there’s now more to it.

One-Third of Kiwi Homes May Be Underinsured

Another reminder in the business section on stuff today, if you are renting you are responsible for any damage. and it can be substantial if it all goes wrong.

If you're renting you need to have some level of contents cover. Ideally enough to cover the replacement of your possessions but more importantly cover for damage you may be liable for.

Have you got it insured correctly? Martin Hawes article here, raises a particually direct point about your house insurance if it is in a family trust.

As Martin outlines in his article, 'underinsurance also ought to be a worry for trustees of family trusts and other trusts.

Trustees are obligated to look after (and properly insure) the assets of a trust, and if they do not, the beneficiaries can demand that trustees make good any losses. This means that if we had simply accepted the default amount from the insurance company ($693,000) and the house burnt down and cost $1.1 million to rebuild, the trustees could be liable for over $400,000. This should have trustees thinking hard.

The newspaper is full of timely reminders and this article is one of them. We are getting to 12 months in on the new home insurance approach of insuring for the rebuild value. It would appear that the vast majority are in for a shock when they have a loss to the house and they hear what it's going to cost to rebuild.

From the major insurers in the country the news isn't pretty. 60-75% of people took the rebuild value number on their insurance at the last renewal and just ran with it. Of the other 25-40% of people who did look at it and change it, 90% increased their cover.

The claims comment in the article would also suggest those who increased their coverage are the ones who probably have it right.