A few months ago, I had a hard time understanding the importance of housing insurance. Theft in the middle of the day. Police inspectors said it was a “typical” burglary of the facility.
Then I learned that this means that the target is monitored for a certain period of time, the time is monitored when people leave the house or apartment, who lives in the building and then usually the team breaks into the object…
Although I belong to a group that promotes prevention of various financial challenges – I admit that the apartment I live in was not secured against burglary and theft.
After telling a few neighbors about it and letting them know what to expect, I find out I’m not the only one who’s experienced it in the building. And not only in the building, I subsequently learned that there were unpleasant surprises throughout the neighborhood this summer. Successful preseason of professionals with bags on their feet and gloves on their hands. No traces left.
Police said the chances of finding a thief were minimal because they had not seen such a professional approach to theft in a long time.
So the option remains to take care of everything yourself. So if that happens again, have someone else cover the damage.
To prevent this scenario, read below about the packages you can take to cover the insurance company, not you, in the event of theft or burglary. Although I knew about these things generaly, now I have further delved into the issues of personal experience.
There are several different packages you can take. Let’s call them basic, advanced and luxurious.
-
-
The basic package covers you from fires, lightning strikes, explosions, storms, ice rain, water spills from plumbing and sewage systems and pipes (narrow coverage), own motor vehicle strikes, burglary and robbery – liability up to € 6,000 per adverse event.
-
Advanced (in addition to the risks in the basic package includes water spills from plumbing and sewage installations and from appliances and pipes of hot water installations (wider cover), snow avalanche, glass breakage on windows and doors of a residential building – liability up to € 8,000 per adverse event.
-
Luxury (in addition to the risks in the Advanced Package, it includes the spilling of aquarium water, the weight of snow, atmospheric water, the impact of an unknown motor vehicle, the impact of a tree fall, vandalism, breaking toilets, the costs of forced removal, the cost of rebuilding destroyed documents, lost and locked keys – liability for an adverse event up to € 10,000.
-
Example: Flat of 65m2, building value (not market value) € 39,000 and household items worth € 8,000.
|
PACKAGE |
MONTHLY PREMIUM FOR A 65m2 APARTMENT |
|
BASIC |
4,23€ |
|
ADVANCED |
5,14€ |
|
LUXURY |
9,23€ |
PAYMENT
You can pay monthly, quarterly, semi-annually and annually.
Smaller apartments are more expensive. The larger the apartment, the lower the price per square meter.
For uninhabited facilities (for example, facilities where most of the time no one lives and which are empty for more than 265 days), the supplement to the total premium, excluding taxes, is 50%.
From the proper claim of the damage (complete documentation is included), the payment is 15 to 45 days.
DISCOUNTS
You have several options for getting a discount. Not every insurance company has identical discounts, but these are some of the things you can expect:
- Discount for immediate payment – 10%,
- Every year there is a 5% discount on damages and the maximum discount is up to 25%,
- Discounts for blind doors or alarm in the building – 5%,
- Discount for insurance concluded for 5 years, additional discount of 5% is granted.
BANKS: THE SITUATION WHEN THE APARTMENT IS A MORTGAGE FOR LOANS
Banks, in this case, are mostly looking for fire insurance.
Only one of the banks in Montenegro, at the moment, in addition to the fire, also requires leakage from installations.
SPECIAL CONDITIONS:
If the supplementary premium is specifically agreed and paid, the insurance also covers damage to insured items caused by:
- An earthquake (but only if the intensity is at least 5 degrees Merkali scale at the location of the insured items). So, if you add earthquake insurance to your package, they have three seismic zones. It affects the price. Podgorica and the coastline belong to zone 1 (the highest probability for an earthquake), other cities in Montenegro are zone 2 and Bijelo Polje belongs to zone 3.
- Flood and torrent (insurance does not cover fungal damage due to moisture, landslides as a result of flooding). You really don’t need this if you live in an apartment.
- Ground sliding and landslide (skating is covered if it happens suddenly and not if the ground started to slip before or at the time of the conclusion of the insurance, if the slip was caused by human actions). A slip is only recognized if a solid piece has broken off and hit a secured item. You don’t even need this if the apartment is your place of residence.
SCOPE OF VANDALISM HAZARDS
What do you hope if vandals break in and demolish your apartment?
In this case, damage to or damage to the insured items caused by third party vandalism will be covered (but pay attention to this – these are not family members, relatives up to 3 degree relatives and tenants).
Insurance, in this case, does not cover damage to:
- Glass and door windows,
- Toilets,
- All kinds of commercials,
- Elevators,
- Lamps, searchlights and light bulbs,
- Neon tubes and their mechanisms,
- Judging by matches, cigarettes, ashes,
- On hedges.
In this case, the policyholder must call the police, report the damage to the insurer no later than 3 days after the damage occurred and provide all the information and evidence necessary to determine the cause, extent and extent of the damage.
CONCLUSION BASED ON THIS EXPERIENCE
The lesson I learned is that I do not store valuables in my home or apartment but in a safe in the bank. On an annual basis, this service costs around € 100.
Apartment insurance is definitely a recommendation. Theft does not happen every day, but when it does – the damage is usually much higher than the multi-year housing insurance premium.
Lastly, always contact a trusted person about these details. You need someone to tell you situations where insurance is off and not just the marketing side. When the damage happens, a quick reaction is required, compliance with deadlines, delivery of complete documentation…