Insure your house or face the consequences

Nigerians seldom insures their house/properties due to general loss of faith in the insurance industry.
Insurance companies needs money just like the bank and is good to know that with the present consolidation in insurance sector, monies are now available to run the sector effectively as it should be.
It is pertinent to know that money spent on insurance is not a waste of money.

Why do people hate to insure:

The loss of faith in the sector, there are cases in the past when premiums were not paid to the client based on flimsy excuses from the insurance firms.
Lack of adequate funds in these firms.
Belief that nothing negative will happen to you or your property based on your religious belief.
Uncommon cases of natural disaster
Illiteracy or lack of adequate knowledge on benefits of insurance.
Poor marketing of packages by the firms.
The above reasons amongst others contributes a lot to less vibrant insurance sector in our economy.
But we can smile now because of the consolidations and general reforms going on in the sector.

Benefits:

Policy holders have a lot of insurance shemes to chose from , but we will be concentrating on the area that may affect your building.

-Insurance of Building Under Construction:

You are neither the architect nor the structural Engineer that designed your building, you are also not the builder, but you can’t base faith on the building structural disposition wise just because professionals are involved.
There are cases of houses designed by these people that do collapse though very rare.
For building under construction, especially the one that is more than two floors, it is mandatory you provide an insurance cover against construction risks caused by negligence of you the owner, the professional onsite and other workers, this covers body injury, loss of life or damage of property by workmen or anybody on site.

-Public Building Insurance:

Due to how prone public buildings are to the effects of human and natural activities, special insurance coverage are giving to them.
They are mandated to be insured against collapse, earthquake fire, storm and flood.
Public buildings includes but not limited to a tenement house, hostel, building occupied by tenant or any building that is accessible to members of the public.

Amongst the insurance policies are

(i)Fire and Special peril:

This is most common among the houseowners or landlords. It is aimed at covering the effects of loss as a result of fire and other perils as specified in the insurance policy.
Other perils covered are household items and other personal belongings.

(ii)Burglary

As the name implies, this is targeted at loss or damage that may occur as a result of forcible entry and exit of an insured building.
This insurance policy mainly covers the insured against armed robbery attacks, theft burglary or house breaking.
However due to dare due to dare devil armed robbers of today, indemnification of property insured under this policy is now extended to cover loss incurred in such manner.

-Houseowner Comprehensive Insurance:

This combines both burglary and fire insurance. It covers the owner of the property and content or every other liability that may occur.
It is therefore a comprehensive insurance policy because the policy could be extended to the tenant that lives in the house.
If a building is affected by fire, then the policy will cover the expenses of alternative accomodation for the tenant and other personal belongings that may be affected by fire incident, if the tenant still has outstanding rent paid.

-Householder Comprehensive Insurance Policy.

This is basically for tenants or those presently occupying the building.
Tenants do not have insurable interest over the house he occupies or the apartment. But he may take up an insurance policy that will protect his belongings and cover him against accident that may occur while in the building.