8.5m households have inadequate insurance
Published On 25 September 2006
As many as 8.5 million households in Britain may find themselves in hot water if they need to make a home contents insurance claim due to inadequate or non-existent policy cover, according to new research.Figures from Abbey have shown that in the UK nearly three million households have no home contents insurance at all while a further 5.5 million are in danger of having their claims slashed due to under insurance.
In fact, 3.4 million households do not know whether their home contents policy covers them for the full value of their belongings while over two million are certain it doesn't.
On top of this, only four in ten people check the details of their cover when they take out insurance while 15 per cent do not study their insurance document until they need to make a claim.
Lloyd Wilson, Abbey spokesman, said: "Home insurance documents might not make for the most interesting reading but people do need to check they have sufficient cover in place – being underinsured can end up costing people a lot of money.
"If you don't want to have to regularly review the value of your contents against your policy with each shopping trip, the best bet is to go for an unlimited sum insured policy like Abbey's Peace of Mind."
