Moving Without Contents Insurance? What a Horror Story!

Moving house is never a joyful experience, but it’s even less so when you run into additional problems. The funny thing is that most problems can be avoided, or at least planned for, if you appropriately assess the risks before the big day.

One of the biggest risks you can protect yourself from is damage to your belongings by taking out contents insurance. Listen to these stories to find out why you should be thinking about this now ahead of your next move.

Horror story number 1

Alice had been living in a quaint townhouse for the past five years when her landlord decided that he would like to move into the property. While she was sad to be leaving, the landlord gave her plenty of time to find a new place. After weekends of searching for the right rental property, Alice was ready to move. She found a removalist online and sought a competitive quote for two men and two trucks to relocate all of her belongings.

On the day of the big move, the removalist arrived minus one other person and one other truck. He said that the other driver was sick, but reassured her that he had all the equipment to get the job done problem free. Alice was unsure that he would be able to manage everything on his own, but she didn’t have a choice – the landlord was moving into the house bright and early the very next morning. She took his word and began cleaning up the garage, leaving him with the task at hand.

When her belongings arrived at the new house she was devastated to see marks and large scratches all over her wooden furniture. The removalist refused to take responsibility for the damage, but did concede that the items were heavier than expected. Alice fought with the removalists for months trying to seek compensation for her damaged furniture, but the small print on the contract protected them. All Alice could do was live with the furniture until she could afford to replace it.

Horror story number 2

Dave was moving interstate and he had organised for the services of a removalist to help him relocate his belongings. The packing went to plan, with the removalist truck and Dave on the road earlier than they had suspected.

Dave knew that unpacking the removalist truck revolved heavily on him arriving to the new house on time so he limited his stops.

Just when he thought he was making great time, he felt a huge gust behind him followed by a metal crunching sound – the car behind him had crashed into him and was now firmly cemented into the back seat of his car. Rattled but remarkably unscathed, Dave hurled himself out of the car.

The other driver was more seriously hurt and appeared to be trapped inside the vehicle so Dave called the ambulance. Soon, the police arrived, followed by tow trucks. The police insisted that Dave go to the hospital for a full examination. All of a sudden, three hours had passed before Dave had the chance to even think about the move.

He hired a car from the closest town and began driving the rest of the way. He tried calling the removalist to see if they had arrived yet, but there was no answer. Towards the end of his journey, Dave hit traffic due to a fairly severe thunderstorm and was further inconvenienced another hour.

When he finally arrived to the new house he was aghast to see all of his belongings stacked up high on his balcony. While the removalists had tried to get most things undercover, some of his items had suffered severe water damage from the storm.

As it turned out, the removalists were unable to wait until Dave had arrived at the property to let them in because they had another job. Without contents insurance, Dave was forced to self-fund the replacement of his damaged furniture.

The moral of these stories is so much bigger than just get a good removalist, it is that sometimes the unthinkable happens so plan for it or you might just get caught out!