You return home to Dubai following a dream trip overseas, but as soon as you enter your house, you feel as though you are walking into a nightmare. Water has flooded your living space. Now, all of the valuables that you have accumulated over the years are destroyed. And naturally, you start to panic.
However, you suddenly remember that you purchased home insurance online for your property. Yes, you can breathe a sigh of relief.
Home insurance in Dubai can be the difference between losing and protecting your belongings in the event of an unexpected catastrophe.
Here’s a rundown on the importance of home insurance whether you are a homeowner or a renter in the UAE.
Let’s get started!
Home insurance is designed to cover the damages and losses that your house has sustained.
This type of coverage extends to your house/building as well as the individual personal belongings you have in your residence. As far as the building's structure is concerned, both exterior and interior damage is covered.
The damage that your homeowners coverage protects against may stem from a natural calamity, fire, or water, for example. In addition, your policy may protect your property in the event of theft or even vandalism.
The UAE has developed a reputation for being a relatively safe country over the years. For instance, it generally isn’t susceptible to floods, earthquakes, fire, and theft.
However, these types of incidents have been known to happen, and they may happen again in the future. As an example, fires plagued The Address Downtown during the New Year’s Eve holiday one year. Likewise, the 86-storey-high Torch Tower at the Dubai Marina was damaged by fire.
Because calamities can happen at any time, it’s simply a good idea to purchase coverage for your property before a disaster strikes.
You especially need to secure coverage for your property if you plan to travel elsewhere for a few weeks or months at a time.
If you are an expatriate who is out of the country for an extended period of time, then your house could easily sustain water damage due to leaking pipes while you are gone, for example.
If you don’t have a homeowners policy, you’ll end up having to cover the cost of replacing or rebuilding the items that were damaged by the water. Likewise, you might have to cover the damage done to your residence's structure or even neighboring properties depending on the extent of the damage.
If you are a tenant in Dubai, you may be tempted to bypass homeowners coverage. After all, the owner of the building you’re staying in should have purchased a policy for it already, right?
The reality is, landlords are legally required to offer property coverage when their houses are mortgage. However, this coverage will still cover only their houses’ physical structures—not the houses’ contents.
Therefore, if you’d like to protect your belongings’ value, it is generally wise for you as a tenant to take advantage of a homeowners policy.
After all, even if you have an apartment that is several floors away from the source of a fire, the fire could still impact your belongings.
The belongings that your policy may cover range from furniture to jewelry and electronics.
Once you purchase your homeowners coverage policy, you’ll have to pay a certain premium regularly for your plan to be active. For this reason, it’s critical that you evaluate your plan options carefully. This will help you to determine which policy will give you the greatest level of protection at the best price.
For starters, before you sign a certain property insurer’s plan documents, confirm that the plan will actually cover the value of all of your house’s contents.
For instance, let’s say that you have AED 40,000 worth of items in your house. You won’t receive compensation for all of your belongings following a fire, for example, if your plan doesn’t cover up to that amount.
In other words, you’ll be paying for a policy that won’t actually protect your property in full.
Reputable insurers will allow you to obtain a quote online so that you understand upfront how much it will cost you to get the policy you need.
Note that coverage plans offer detailed information about which contents they cover, as well as what kind of damage they cover. Thus, be sure to read the small print in your potential policy’s plan to determine which items and types of damage it actually covers.
Also, keep in mind that if you file a claim after sustaining property damage, the insurer could deny your claim if your negligence led to the damage. Again, check out the plan’s terms and conditions to get a full understanding of when your claim could be denied.
We offer top-of-the-line home insurance in Dubai for both tenants and homeowners.
We are proud to have provided home insurance coverage in the UAE since 1976. However, we also offer our coverage in several other areas of the world, covering 45 countries/regions with the help of nearly 41,000 employees.
Take a peek at our site to learn more about our home insurance online, and contact us to start protecting your assets today.
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