Surprisingly, even questions about home insurance can be quite startling, and you have to wonder how they come up with these questions in the first place. You just couldn’t make some of this stuff up. The following are my favourite genuine home insurance questions from the most popular question-answer sites such as Yahoo Answers, Quora and Answerbag. Some of them, despite appearing a little absurd to begin with, are not always easy to answer
1. Question from Quora: “If your boat gets lit up by police gun fire to catch a fugitive, is that covered by home owners insurance?”
We’ve all been there. The home insurance policy may not stipulate this exact scenario of a boat set alight by police gunfire, but it’s highly likely that damage caused by a public service will not be covered as part of the insurance, whether police, fire or ambulance. For these situations, people may need to pursue compensation by contacting the public service responsible.
2. Question from Yahoo Answers: “Does home insurance cover bed bugs?”
You’ve no doubt lay in bed at night asking yourself the exact same question. What’s remarkable about this question is, if you could be insured, what exactly would this insurance claim look like? “My content insurance includes my mattress, and the bed bugs have gradually eaten it. Slowly but surely it’s happened. Therefore I would like to claim on my mattress.”
3. Question from eHow: “Does liability for home insurance cover my tree falling on my neighbour’s house?”
Perhaps not as wild a question as it may first appear, but it’s no doubt a rare case scenario – especially in London where most of us don’t own trees. To actually deal with something like this, the neighbour must instead seek to claim from their own homeowner’s insurance. As the article rightfully states: “As a general rule, homeowners insurance is designed to protect only the owner’s property, not a neighbour’s property.”
4. Question from Answerbag: “Does insurance cover house fires caused by fireworks?”
It would seem patronising to point out that fireworks are meant to be deployed outside, but this question does infer that basic logic has been abandoned somewhere along the way – perhaps by setting off a rocket in the front room. However, damage caused to houses from stray fireworks that were set off in the garden is quite common. In fact, Churchill Home Insurance reveals that almost two million British homes have been damaged by fireworks over the years, costing an average of £307 to fix. As to whether the damage is covered by home insurance; it really depends on the policy. Be careful though, if you’re setting off fireworks in a place that has not been legally permitted, you’re breaking the law and no insurance policy in the world will cover you.
5. Question from Yahoo Answers: “What do I do if someone else has taken out home insurance on my house?”
The asker of this question actually arrived home after his holiday to find that someone else had taken out home insurance on his own property. It transpired that it was done by the woman who had lived in their property nine years prior. While many of us would have contacted the lady to ask if she was interested in insuring the car too, stay on the side of caution and having your own policy in your own name is the best course of action. Of all the problems to have in day to day finances, this is one may be on the nicer end of the scale, but ensure you have your own policy all the same.
Jonathan is an Internet Enthusiast, Writer, and Internet Marketer. His job involves writing articles related to finance. In his free time he runs a blog related to travel & technology.
That’s pretty funny. =P Quite bizarre that people ask these questions!
This is a very funny and interesting read. I enjoyed it a lot. Do people really ask these questions?