Protect Your Property: Essential Rules of Fire Insurance

Posted on: Jul 2, 2024 | 3 mins | Written by: HDFC ERGO Team

Protect Your Property: Essential Rules of Fire Insurance

Fire insurance provides a safety net to protect your house and your property from the perils of fire. It helps you rebuild your property or replace your belongings. However, fire or property insurance comes with its own set of rules that can be complicated for many. Here is a breakdown of what is included and not included in fire insurance.

What is fire insurance?

Fire insurance is a type of home insurance policy meant to cover losses from fire. It provides financial protection for several assets, like personal property, inventory, and whole buildings. If a fire occurs, the policyholder will make a claim, for which the company holder receives compensation according to the terms and conditions of the insurance policy.

What is covered in fire insurance?

Having understood what fire insurance is, let us find out what is included or covered in fire insurance. The inclusions in a Fire & Special Perils Plan are generally damage caused by fire, lightning, explosion or implosion, damage due to impact by vehicles, animals or aircraft, and damage due to natural forces like storms and floods.

Here is the full list of inclusions in fire insurance.

• Fire

• Lightning

• Explosion/Implosion

• Subsidence and Landslides

• Missile Testing Operations

• Damage caused by impact from vehicles, animals or aircraft

• Storms, Floods, Tempest

• Aircraft damage

• Riots, Strikes, Terrorism and Malicious Acts

What is not covered by fire insurance?

While most fire insurance is quite extensive, it has its limitations. Willfully damaging property or damage due to acts of war or forest fire tops the list. Insurance companies do not entertain claims of the following nature made against the policy:

• Damage due to gross negligence or intentional acts

• Forest fire, war, and perils of nuclear war

• Damage caused by fermentation, natural heating, spontaneous combustion, explosion or implosion damage to boilers

• Damage caused by centrifugal forces

• Terrorism

• Loss or theft occurring during peril

• Undeclared precious stones, cheques, documents or currency

Conclusion

Fire insurance is invaluable for protecting against a wide range of incidents. However, failing to read the inclusions and exclusions of your policy will result in rejecting the claim. Read your policy document carefully and contact your insurance agent for clarity.

Disclaimer The above information is for illustrative purposes only. For more details, please refer to policy wordings and prospectus before concluding the sales.

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