These items are classed as „valuables“ under German House contents
Antiques older than 100 years (furniture is not included), art (e.g. paintings, drawings, graphs, sculptures, collagen), bonds & security papers, cash (also in electronical form), certificates, coins, furs, gemstones, Gobelin tapestry, gold (all products), jewellery, medals, platinum, pearls, rugs (hand-woven), saving books, silver, stamp-collections & telephone cards.
With most cheaper plans valuables are only covered up to 20% of the insured sum, which might not be sufficient and needs to be seriously considered when valuating your contents.
A good example:
On taking out cover for 30.000€ with jewellery for 7.500€, you will have already underinsured yourself by 5% and this is not even taking other valuables into consideration! Unfortunately, this is quite a common scenario and in the event of a claim an assessor would pick up on this neglect!
Valuables belong in a safe place!
Although better house contents insurance plans cover valuables that are not stored in a safe, German insurers still prefer their clients to keep all valuables in an approved, multi-walled safe that weighs at least 200kg or, even better, is mounted into the wall/ floor.
Should a valuable item disappear and was not kept in a safe (e.g. due to a fire or burglary) at the time of the incident, these are still covered yet will become subject to reimbursement caps. These are commonly as follows:
- 1,000€ for cash
- 2,000€ - 3,000€ for securities & saving books
- 20,000€ for
- coins
- gemstones
- gold
- jewellery
- medals
- pearls
- platinum
- stamps
ERICON broker recommends:
Before valuating your total home contents please start with just the valuables and calculate the insured sum by multiplying this amount by five.