Ajman fire a wake-up call on content insurance

RITIKA SHARMA / Emirates Business

A huge fire which nearly destroyed buildings in the Ajman One residential cluster on Monday night left residents devastated after losing everything from important documents to a place to stay.
Misconceptions and pre-conceived notions, regarding home and content insurance, made things difficult for those who were affected by the fire. In wake of the incident, experts in UAE are urging people to consider well-thought-of insurance plans to make such incidents a little less disturbing.
“This is yet another incident where many families could’ve been free of the financial distress they face after losing everything in the fire”, said Salem Al Mannai, Deputy Group President and CEO QIC – MENA region. More than 300 families and individuals who used to live in the towers 6 and 8 of the cluster are being housed at nearby hotels in the Emirate.
“Most families don’t see the need for home contents insurance as they assume that their contents are covered by the building’s insurance, which unfortunately is not the case – the insurance covering the building or villa covers the structure but not what’s inside it,” he added.
Interestingly in a recent alarming figure release, QIC Insured had said that less than 1 percent of homes in Dubai have home contents insurance, which covers for loss and financial risk in case of fire, theft and accidents.
FrederikBisbjerg, Executive Vice President, QIC Insured said, “Buying a home contents insurance is not expensive at all, to raise awareness about the importance of insuring home contents against incidents like fire, we’re offering our basic home contents insurance with a 50 percent discount for the next two weeks to give people a chance to get insured before the summer season”.
This will allow people to buy home contents insurance for less than 10 Dirhams per month – the offer can be availed online at qic-insured.com until April 14.
Stating lack of clarity regarding available insurance policies and the difficulty in choosing the right one, Thomas Chalenor, an Abu Dhabi based independent wealth manager said, “People have to know clearly what insurance secures what exactly. There is a huge gap which needs to be filled, both by the insurance companies and by the people opting for them.”