Executive urges tenants to insure their house

Frank O’Connor, North East Area Manager, explained:

“The Housing Executive or housing associations will carry out repairs to the structure of their properties.

“It is, however, the tenant’s responsibility to have insurance cover for personal property, furnishings and the decoration of their home.

“For many, with competing pressures on the household budget, house contents insurance may not seem a priority.

“But we are urging everyone, including Housing Executive and housing association tenants, to have their possessions insured. If you do not have insurance for your personal property, you run the risk of having to find all the money necessary to repair or replace items that have been damaged.”

Mr. O’Connor continued: “Over the past few years there have been many examples of extensive damage being caused by flooding, fire and severe cold spells resulting in burst pipes. Many of those affected had no insurance.”

In the North East area one resident whose home was damaged following burst pipes said

“As well as dealing with the trauma of the water damage caused to our home, we were devastated to find that without contents insurance cover we weren’t able to replace carpets, items of furniture and some appliances, basic things we had taken for granted.

“Like so many people, we never thought it would happen to us. As a priority we have now organised contents cover so that we won’t find ourselves in this situation again but we have certainly learned the hard way.

“My advice – insure your home contents now, don’t be like us and wait until it’s too late.”

There are numerous contents insurance policies available and you can obtain details by looking in your yellow pages or contacting your local insurance broker. Alternatively, visit

Supporting Communities NI website www.supportingcommunitiesni.org

NI Direct website www.nidirect.gov.uk