It's important to insure your home contents for their true replacement value. This means the amount it would cost to buy new or similar items. If you don't insure them correctly, it will affect how much money you get if you make a claim.

If you're under-insured, for instance, you won't get the full amount you claim.

Here's how your settlement value (the money that’s paid out to you) is calculated at the time of a claim:
(Claim amount x insured amount) / replacement value of the building = settlement value

Let's say your home contents are worth R200,000 to replace, but you only insure them for R100,000. This means you're under-insured. If you make a claim for R20,000, this is how your payment would be calculated:
(20,000 x 100,000) / 200,000 = 10,000

So, you would only receive R10,000, not the full R20,000.

Whether you are renting or own your home ensuring your home contents are covered should the worst happen such as a fire or burglary could save you thousands of Rands if not hundreds of thousands of Rands in replacement costs. Hippo.co.za will help you quickly compare prices and benefits across a range of home insurance providers and could save you money in the process.

We’ve put together a comprehensive list of home insurance FAQ's to make it easy to get answers on common questions related to finding insurance for your home contents.

Find out the meaning of words that may be commonly used by home insurance companies in South Africa during the process of buying your insurance.