Tag: Christelle Colman

During the month of September, many homeowners flock outdoors to enjoy the start of Spring; this may even result in a purchase of a plant or two for one’s garden. But if you are super rich, your love for the outdoors may culminate into spend of anything between R500,000 and R1 million on a single tree for your property.

It is important if you are working from home to check your policy and take the time to notify your insurer of this change in risk profile, to ensure you are properly covered if your risk has changed, you have acquired additional equipment or IT infrastructure, and so on.

It is rare, but not uncommon, for the relationship between the customer and his or her insurer to sour. This may result in the insurer having to take what seems like drastic action by cancelling the policy of the customer. The problem is that once you are fired from one insurer, it is very difficult to get a decent insurance policy elsewhere at the same premium rate, given that you will have a record.

As most household incomes shrink, Savings Month, this year coinciding with South Africa’s fifth month of COVID-19 lockdown, is placing monthly expenses, especially insurance bills, firmly in the spotlight. And it is not a kind light. It is critical that South Africans under stress use any extra time they may have in lockdown to sensibly review their insurance covers.

As email inboxes and WhatsApp groups clutter up with advice of how to cope with COVID-19, I suggest three simple questions to help guide consumers in these unprecedented times. The best way to reduce premiums during lockdown – without abandoning cover altogether - is to reassess risk exposures and adjust cover accordingly.  

Understanding and drawing on the cancellation, refund or insurance covers of all operators in the travel value chain offers victims of COVID-19 cancellations the best option to spread their risk, increasing the chances and value of settlement. Now that COVID-19 has been declared a global pandemic it is simply not possible to travel internationally.

Airbnb launched in South Africa in 2015. Since then, the number of home hosts has grown to more than 35,000 with South Africans pocketing more than R3.8 billion over this time. The ripple effect of this booming Airbnb community has also proved significant, resulting in an economic impact of approximately R10 billion and supporting upwards of 22,000 jobs. So what’s the catch?

Being involved in a car accident is a traumatic event in itself, so the news that your vehicle is damaged beyond repair is never going to be an easy pill to swallow. While insurance will undeniably soften this blow, the reality is that there are so many variables at play when dealing with a write off and many people – even those with the most seemingly comprehensive insurance policies – come out feeling hard done by.

South African residential property prices are experiencing continued downward pressure while the average cost of building new property continues to increase year on year with rising costs of materials and labour. The 2018-2019 Lightstone Property Forecast showed that the market ended close to 2.9% as opposed to the forecasted 3.8% in 2018.