The price of gold has surged by 82% since June 2020 – that means the 18ct gold and diamond necklace you bought five years ago is worth a good deal more today. If the necklace is lost or stolen, and your insurance valuation hasn’t changed in that time, your insurer could pay out a lot less than you were expecting. The same principle goes for any art, cars or other assets you have in your home.
If you take that same logic into your property, and you’re unlucky enough to suffer major damage to your home, be it flood, fire or something else, you can see where problems might arise. One mistake we often see is people insuring their property for market value, rather than reinstatement value – ie. the true cost of getting your home back to normal. Not only have property prices increased over the last few years, but so have building materials, labour costs and so on. There can be huge discrepancies between the insurance value and the reinstatement value. Your insurer isn’t going to cover that gap.
So, if it’s been a while since you reviewed the valuation of your assets, it’s probably a good time to organise an appraisal.
Our dedicated private client team would be more than happy to arrange a home visit, or virtual consultation, to offer a complimentary review of your insurance programme, providing advice and support on valuation and more.