Home Insurance

Buildings insurance aims to cover damage to the actual structure and fittings of your home by the perils stated in the policy. It will also cover toilets, baths and fitted kitchens, your interior decorations and bedroom fitted cupboards, swimming pools, gates, fences, tennis courts, drives, garages and other outbuildings - these are all covered under the Ibex Home policy. Our policy also includes cover against subsidence, heave and landslip if your buildings are not more than ten years old (However this can also be included for older properties subject to a satisfactory survey).

Almost everything that you own and would take with you if you moved house. This will include furniture, kitchen equipment, food and drink, electrical appliances including televisions, computers, entertainment equipment, clothes, ornaments and valuables. As with all policies there are some exceptions and exclusions so we recommend that you take time to read the policy booklet to discover those that apply. If you are in any doubt, please contact us.

For Buildings insurance, you should insure your home for its full rebuilding cost i.e. how much it would cost to rebuild if it was totally destroyed. This is different to the market value of your home. You can find your home's rebuilding cost on the Valuation Report or Survey you had done when you purchased the property (although if it is more than a couple of years old it almost certainly needs to be increased to take account of inflation) in the absence of such report your agent should be able to assist you.

For contents insurance, you should insure the contents of your home for how much it would cost you to replace them new today.

Ibex has designed a policy to cover small holiday apartments. It provides the same cover as home contents but is rated on the number of bedrooms. Check out the Holiday Apartment policy.

No problem, we will be happy to send a copy to you to pass on. If you have bought your home through a Spanish lender you will be happy to know that all our policy schedules are in both English and Spanish and comply with what they want.

Only if you have arranged cover for All Risks. Items specified under this section are covered against theft, loss or accidental damage outside your home and within the geographic area you have chosen - Europe or Worldwide.

Yes, if it is for personal use only.

If you occupy your home as a permanent residence we automatically cover valuables up to 25% of your contents sum insured in total. If you have valuables with a single article limit worth more than €5,000 or 7.5% of the contents sum insured, they can still be insured, but they will need to be specified separately on the policy schedule. Valuations will only be required in the event of a claim.

We do not, however, insure valuables if your home is a second or holiday home. If you need to insure valuables whilst in a second or holiday home you should arrange an extension of cover under the policy which insures your primary home, or arrange travel insurance.

All insurance policies have exclusions and conditions. Ibex Home Policy has however been modelled on the type of policy you can expect to obtain in the UK market but also incorporates extensions of cover that are familiar to Spain and Portugal such as damage caused to electrical goods caused by a surge of the electricity supplier for example. Our policy has also been written in plain English thereby eliminating any discomfort of not understanding a policy written in the Spanish language. There are nevertheless one or two important points that you should be aware of.

Firstly the application of the Consorcio cover when natural disasters occur. In Spain, all policies contracted include a contribution to a national natural disasters fund - the Consorcio. When a natural disaster occurs, such as wide spread flooding, it is this fund which deals with any claims. In the case of Holiday Homes, valuables are not covered so remember to have these included under your primary home policy, or a travel policy, before coming to Spain or Portugal.

Please click here to see an overview of the Insurance Compensation Consortium (Consorcio de Compensacion de Seguros).

When your property is left unoccupied for any length of time you must lock all doors and windows and activate the alarm system if you have one.

And when your home is left unoccupied for more than 14 consecutive days then the water must be drained and switched off and if friends or family visit the property or you rent the property you must remember to tell them.

You may be busy tanning on the sun-drenched beach or by the communal pool, or have just nipped out to the local shops or for a coffee, but if you're not careful you could be setting yourself up for a very unpleasant homecoming. A burglar can be in and out of your home in two minutes.

The feeling that someone else has been in your home can live with you for a long time. The key to real peace of mind is prevention in the form of security.

Depending on the total and individual value of your contents we may have recommended minimum security requirements for your property but your circumstances can quickly change and it is important that you keep us informed of such changes. For example, you may have had a minimal amount of valuables at the start of your insurance and we may not have insisted on the installation of a safe, but since then you may have purchased various items of jewellery. This has obviously changed the nature of the risk and it is unlikely that we will insure these higher valued items unless you install a suitable safe or alarm system.

The following is the minimum standard of security we expect for standard properties:

Doors

Outside doors should be solid timber and be secured with 5 lever mortice deadlocks or their equivalent. These locks can only be opened by key, i.e. a burglar cannot just use a plastic card to push back the tongue of the lock or break a glass panel and reach in to open it. Doors that you usually lock from the inside - for example the back door should also be fitted with bolts.

Patio doors or other glass door should be fitted with key operated bolts to the top and bottom opening sections in addition to a central locking device - this stops the sliding frame being lifted off the tracks. In addition sliding grills (or fixed swing shut does) should be fitted externally and secured with clasp locks.

Windows

Most burglaries are through windows. Where grills or bars have not been fitted, key operated locks must be fitted to all accessible windows - those on the ground floor and those near drainpipes and flat roofs or where the bottom of the window is less than 3 metres above ground level.

If you have valuable contents we may insist that a safe or burglar alarm be installed. Please consult us as to which type is best suited to your needs.