Findings from a recent survey carried out by Legal and General home insurance confirmed that Brits are not very good at valuing the contents of their home.
The survey questioned over 4,000 people and revealed that 15% have no idea how much it would cost to replace the contents of their home. Although the average home contents value calculated by L&G is estimated to be over £40,000, the survey showed that 59% estimate that the cost of replacing their entire home contents would be less than £40,000. What's more, over a quarter, 27% valued their contents at less than £20,000, so potentially underinsuring their contents by 100%.
These figures suggest that UK residents could be seriously undervaluing their home contents and as a result under-estimating the level of insurance they really need.
So, in an attempt to help people more accurately value their house contents, Legal & General has developed a 3D online calculator designed as a virtual home which enables users to add up the value of their possessions, room by room. The simple to use room by room inventory format is designed to help ensure a more realistic total valued.
The calculator is available at www.legalandgeneral.com/contentscalculator.
Marketing Director for Legal & General general insurance, Garry Skelton, said... "Many of us seem to be seriously under-estimating the value of the contents of our homes. Obviously every home is different and so the online calculator has the flexibility for customers to enter amounts that are appropriate to them and so help to provide a more personalised valuation. Our customers can then be confident that they can arrange for the appropriate level of home contents insurance cover to be in place and so not risk being underinsured."
According to the research, the people most likely to be undervaluing their contents cover are:
- Those aged 18 to 24 - people surveyed in this group estimated the value of their home contents at just under £27,000, which is 18% below the average estimate of over £33,000
- People living in Yorkshire - on average those surveyed with a home in Yorkshire estimated their contents to be worth just over £31,000. This is 6% lower than the estimated average.
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