If you are the owner of a vehicle, chances are very good that you have car insurance. With the condition that our streets are currently in and with the number of careless drivers on the road nowadays, you are taking a very large risk if you are driving a car without being covered by insurance. The same goes for the contents of your home. You are most likely covered by insurance so that you can reclaim from insurance if a thief decides that your furniture would look better in his house than in yours! Then you might possibly also have life insurance, medical aid and disability insurance. Then why, if it is so clear that insurance coverage is an essential part of our everyday existence, do so many people “forget” about building insurance?

Building insurance is not the phrase given to an insurance policy that would cover you if someone building your house disappears with your money. Come to think of it, that would actually be a great policy to consider! Building insurance covers the actual structure of your home, office or other buildings.

Think about the following: You are cooling down in your pool, cold drink in one hand, when a light aircraft suddenly has an engine malfunction and decides that your back garden looks like a good spot for an emergency landing. The pilot misjudges his breaking distance ever so slightly and the plane ends up in your pool and the propeller practically destroys your whole swimming pool structure. This could sound a bit farfetched, but let’s face it, accidents happen! Where will you suddenly find enough money to fix (or practically rebuild) your pool?

And what if you are relaxing in front of the television one sunny afternoon, watching a rented DVD and eating some popcorn, when your home suddenly starts shaking? As you are not totally conscious yet, your first reaction might be that aliens are invading your house, but then it (literally!) hits you: It’s an earth quake! When your world at some point stops moving, you slowly do a 360 degree turn to assess all the damage. Of course it’s quite substantial! Now, seeing that you are likely not a millionaire with an extra residence somewhere further down the block, you’d probably need building insurance to get your lovely home looking like a home again!

Fire, flood damage and landslips are a handful of nature’s acts that are covered by building insurance. You’ll be able to insure your house or office, the outbuildings on your residence, your pool and even your tennis court! As you can clearly see, these are things that would need a substantial sum of money to fix or replace and it is therefore definitely not a risk that any normal individual would like to take.

As with all insurance policies, building insurance companies will offer insurance plans with various conditions. Make certain you are absolutely certain what is included in your particular policy and in which cases the insurance firm will not compensate.