Mr. Chan bought a new apartment in November and took out home contents insurance. At the same time, his home contents policy for his current residence expired a month earlier. Knowing he was moving out of his current residence soon, he did not renew his old policy.

He hired a van and asked some friends to help him with the removal. Unfortunately, his vase and mirror were broken during the course of transit. He filed a claim with his insurance company immediately. However, Mr. Chan did not receive any compensation from his insurance company because his new home insurance did not cover this type of removal.

Why did his insurance company not cover Mr. Chan’s damage arising from this removal?

As home contents insurance only covers property in the course of removal by professional removers, Mr. Chan’s removal completed with the help of his friends was excluded. Furthermore, Mr. Chan’s removal should have been covered under a Household Removal extension under the home contents policy of his current home instead of under the policy of his new apartment. Unfortunately however, Mr. Chan’s former home contents policy had not been renewed before the removal.

For household removal, customers are advised to hire professional removers to ensure better handling of their property. It is also important to make sure the policy has an extension of Household Removal to cover property removed from their home to the new residence before carrying out the removal.

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