Although the takers of medical and life insurance is growing every year, home insurance is one such product which has lowest penetration in India due to lack of awareness of its benefits, complex terms and conditions, too many exclusions etc. Because of this, there are very less buyers for this very important policy. Considering the fact that India is risk prone to natural disasters like earthquake, it is very essential to consider buying home insurance which also provides cover to the valuables inside the house so that in case of any unfortunate event the losses can be covered to the maximum keeping you and your family out of financial trouble.

In order to increase home insurance penetration, New India Assurance has launched home insurance product “New India Griha Suvidha Policy” which will provide insurance cover to the household valuables of the policy holder such as jewelries, electronic products and others against natural disasters such as flooding, earthquake, fire and manmade disasters such as theft, riots, terrorist attack and others.

Premium & Cover:

There are four levels of pre-defined sum assured as mentioned in the below table:

The annual premium ranges from Rs. 1,175 to Rs. 7,175. You can also choose Rs 25,000-75,000 for TV/desktop cover under above 4 options. If someone wants to insurance for their house premises, then premium paid will depend on the value of the property.

Benefits:

• One of the biggest benefits of Griha Suvidha policy is that the declaration of valuables is not required. And claims would be settled upto the level of sum assured. i.e. Insurance buyer does not have to produce list of items in the house, purchase bill of the items showing value of each item, ownership proof that are covered in the policy. This makes the policy stand out from the existing policies available in the market.
• During claim settlement, original bills etc. won’t be asked by the insurer.

What Griha Suvidha insurance policy will not cover:

This policy will not cover the following:

• Loss of cash
• Documents
• Securities
• Motor vehicle and others

Before buying this policy, buyers are requested to read all the exclusions in detail.

Claim settlement:

For claim amounts higher than Rs. 20,000 the company would take help of surveyors who will personally visit the site of damage and assess the loss. However if the claim amount is less than Rs. 20,000, the settlement would be automatic.

Other insurance products in the market covering contents of the house:

There are many insurance companies offering cover for household contents but all require producing valuables and their price, proof of product ownership etc. Here are the few companies who provide coverage for valuables in the house:

• Oriental Insurance: Houeholder Insurance Policy
• HDFC Ergo: Home Insurance
• Royal Sundaram: Home Content Insurance
• IFFCO-Tokio: Home Suvidha Policy
• ICICI Lombard
• Bajaj Allianz: My Home Insurance