General FAQs

Underinsurance is where your “sums insured” are too low and may not reflect the costs of repairing or rebuilding your home at today’s rates. It is easy to get confused between market value and rebuild cost (“sums insured”) of your home when it comes to insurance. The market value is the price an estate agent would place on your home if you put it up for sale. This is often different to what the cost is to repair or rebuild your home should it get damaged due to a fire or storm for example, this is your “sums insured”.

Within your home insurance policy, one of the terms and conditions is called “Average Clause” and this applies if you are underinsured. This means that if your “sums insured” at the time of a claim are less than the cost of rebuilding your home, the amount paid out if you have a claim may be reduced. To demonstrate how “Average Clause” may impact a claim here are examples we have:

Average- Example of Partial Loss

• Jack and Jill take out insurance on their home with Buildings sums insured of €350,000. A leak in the property causes €100,000 worth of damage.  
• During the claims investigation, it comes to light that the correct rebuild cost is €500,000. 
• As the property is underinsured, “Average Clause” is applied to the claim and Jack and Jill are advised that the claims payment will be reduced. See calculation below.

Claims settlement:

€350,000 (Sum Insured) X €100,000 =  €70,000 (Claims Payment)

________________________________________________________

€500,000 (Rebuild Cost)

• The reduction due to underinsurance is 30% in this case. As a result, the maximum payment Jack and Jill will receive is €70,000

Your letter of indemnity will be included in the policy pack we send you once you purchase your home insurance policy with us.

The amount you have your home insured for, the “sums insured”, should reflect the cost of rebuilding your home, including fixtures and fittings, domestic outbuildings, cost of professional fees and site clearance. The “sums insured” is the maximum amount that we will pay in respect of a claim.

You should regularly review your “sums insured” and policy schedule to ensure that they are at the correct level to avoid underinsurance.

Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland 

The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland have a calculator on their website which you can use for guidance when calculating the rebuilding value (“sums insured”) of your home, https://scsi.ie/consumer/build/calculator/. Please note that this is for guidance purposes only and the rebuilding rates are for estate-type homes and should not be used for other house styles such as one off homes or period properties. For these types of homes a survey may be required.

Survey

You may wish, at your own expense, to get a rebuilding valuation from a professional surveyor, builder or architect to establish the appropriate “sums insured” for your home. Remember, this is different to a valuation from an estate agent who would provide the sale price of your home.

In order to help reduce the risk of you being underinsured, we adjust your “sums insured” in line with inflation at your renewal date to help you to ensure you are adequately protected, this is known as indexation. While we apply indexation to safeguard you from underinsurance, we only increase your “sums insured” in line with inflation, and we remind you of your obligation to review your “sums insured” to make sure they are appropriate for your home.

The amount you insure your contents for should be based on the cost of replacing the contents ‘as new’ at today's prices, and should cover everything that you would take with you if you moved house. The contents should cover all items within the home and domestic outbuildings. If cover is needed for items away from the home e.g. jewellery, All Risks cover must be selected. Refer to the All Risks Cover section of the Household Policy Document for full details and the section on what is “All Risks” cover below.

Regardless of when your renewal date is, we recommend that you review your “sums insured” regularly to ensure they are up to date and reflect today’s cost to rebuild your home. Once you have reviewed your “sums insured”, there are two ways to update your details:

•  If you are a registered MyAllianz user just login to your account where you can update your details
  

Or

• Call us on 01-448 48 48 and our staff will be happy to assist, our phone lines are open Monday to Friday 8am – 6pm and on Saturdays from 9am – 1pm
  

Your Household policy will protect you from many natural, accidental or malicious events . Here is an overview of
some of the situations covered by our Household policy:

• Loss or damage by fire, theft, flood, explosion, storm, and lightning
• Loss or damage by smoke if there is faulty operation of any oil, gas, electric domestic heaters or domestic
  cooking appliances within the buildings
• Loss or damage due to the escape of water from within any plumbing or heating system, fixed water
  appliance or domestic appliance
• Loss or damage caused by vandalism or malicious damage

We provide cover for properties occupied as family homes, holiday homes or which are let to tenants.

As a guide, Buildings include:

• The structure of your home
• Built-in wardrobes
• Fitted kitchens
• Wooden floors
• Garage and domestic outbuildings
• Walls, gates and fences
• Patios
• Solar panals
• Wind turbines up to €1,000 each
• Polytunnels up to €1,000 each

As a guide Contents include:

• Household goods
• Clothing
• Furniture and furnishings
• Personal effects

For the full definition of Buildings and Contents please refer to our Household policy document.

 More on Contents (Renters) Insurance

An excess is the first amount of any loss that you are responsible for paying in the event of making a claim. This
amount is deducted from the total claim settlement figure.

Our standard excess for household claims is €250. Note that the excess for all freezing, escape or overflow of water
from within any plumbing or heating system, fixed water apparatus or fixed domestic appliance claims will be €250
greater than the excess you have selected. The excess for all subsidence or heave of the site on which the private
house stands or landslip claims is €650. If you select a higher voluntary excess, you may reduce your premium (applies
to most products except for Landlord properties). Please refer to your schedule of insurance, policy booklet, or contact
us directly if you wish to query this amount.

Under the Buildings section of your policy, cover is provided for the following types of domestic outbuildings:

• Garages
• Garden Sheds (used to store fuel, garden implements, children's toys, etc.)
• Boiler Houses
• Stable (used to accommodate 1-2 horses for private use only)
• Green Houses

The following are not classified as Domestic Outbuildings and no cover is provided for:

• Hay Sheds
• Cattle Sheds
• Workshops
• Farm Outbuildings

Under the Contents section of your policy cover is provided for your household goods and personal effects within the
domestic outbuildings.

We cover home office equipment as standard under our contents cover up to a max of €4,000 in any one policy year.  This would include computers, laptops and printers.

There is no need to contact us to let us know you are working from home as your home office equipment is covered as explained above.

A protected or graded structure is a structure that a planning authority considers to be of special interest from an architectural, historical, archaeological, artistic, cultural, scientific, social or technical point of view.

The more bathrooms you have, including your main bathroom, and any downstairs toilets, wet-rooms, or ensuites, the more chances you may experience a leak in your home as you have multiple plumbing connections in your home. Remember, if you experience a leak in your home, you can contact our Home Emergency Assistance for support.

A Building Energy Rating (BER) certificate rates your home's energy performance on a scale between A and G. You can check if your home has a BER certificate, or arrange a BER assessment via SEAI website.

You do not need a BER certificate to get home insurance, but Allianz may use the BER rating of your home as a factor when calculating your premium. A BER certificate is compulsory for all homes available for rent or sale. 

Allianz wants to reward customers have own energy-efficient homes. If your home has a Building Energy Rating (BER) of B3 or higher, you can get a premium reduction on your home insurance.