Britons not buying enough insurance cover

Forty per cent of Britons underestimate how much they are worth and are leaving themselves open to financial loss.

08:55 10 December 2004

Forty per cent of Britons underestimate how much they are worth and are leaving themselves open to financial loss.

Research by home insurer Zurich found that four in ten people across the country admit their valuable possessions are probably underinsured. And residents of the South West are the worst offenders with the region being branded the country's "underinsurance hotspot".

One in ten Britons has no insurance cover, with the 16-24 age group (29 per cent) the worst offenders.

Collections of expensive clothes top the list of things that people underinsure - particularly in London where more than one in ten people have garments they believe are not covered by their insurance policy.

Jewellery, collectibles, art and antiques also feature among the list of underinsured items in people's homes, according to the survey.

The hectic pace of modern life is among the reasons for this complacency, with 13 per cent of people putting their failure to calculate the worth of their possessions down to lack of time.

But Maria Donald, spokesperson for Zurich Insurance, urges people to make time. "It really is worth putting a couple of hours aside to tot up the value of your home contents to ensure that you are adequately covered," she said.

"This is especially important for higher value items, as most insurers will require homeowners to inform them of items worth in excess of 1,500 or each individual item will only be covered up to this limit, should the worst happen."