To keep your home insurance policy valid, it’s essential to maintain your property well.

What many home owners do not realise, says Marina Loubser of Uzoko Brokers, the in house insurance agents for Alexander Swart Property, is that, no matter how comprehensive and thorough their home insurance policies are, the insurers are, in terms of their policies and by law, usually entitled to refuse to pay out on a claim if it can be shown that the maintenance of the property was neglected or insufficient.

During the winter we always see a fair number of claims for storm damage rejected because the property had not been satisfactorily maintained says Loubser. If it had been, the insurers will say, the property would have been able to resist the storm and would not have been damaged.

Home owners, says Rowan Alexander, Director of Alexander Swart Property Group, should regularly carry out detailed inspections of their properties including such basic components as the walls, doors, windows and roofs and they should then be willing to pay for a good artisan to repair, seal or replace all faulty items.

In particular, says Alexander, home owners should look for damp spots and or mould on walls and ceilings as well as for any evidence of leaking pipes, especially where the pipes are invisible to the onlooker. Gutters and drains also have to be regularly cleaned to remove any blockages if insurance policies are to remain valid and special attention should be paid to large trees close to the house whose roots can lift paving and flooring and penetrate pipes and foundations causing great damage. If any of these items are neglected they can result in the eventual insurance claim not being accepted.

Landlords, says Alexander, are often slack about checking their rented properties but this is very short sighted because tenants can be notoriously lax about reporting items needing maintenance.

Apart from making the home genuinely insurable in terms of the insurance company’s policies, good maintenance, says Loubser, will also add immeasurably to its value if and when the home comes to be sold.

One of the great truths about property management says Alexander is that any sums spend on maintenance, repairs and upgrades will usually add more than double the money spend to the ultimate value of the house. For this reason alone good maintenance should be a top priority with home owners and landlords.

For further information please contact Rowan Alexander on cell phone number 082 581 3116 or by email rowan@asproperty.co.za.