Buy riders for additional cover

A basic fire policy covers only the structure of the building. Hence, one could add a 'personal accident' rider to the 'society insurance' policy covering housing society members against partial/total disability and accidental death (or death due to reasons other than natural).

Since general insurers cover buildings only from the risk of fire, flood and riots, most buildings customise the product and add riders according to the house owner's requirements.

Along with a personal accident cover, some insurers also provide group health/mediclaim covers. It's difficult to price such products as the risk and number of people to be covered is large.

It is important to also take a 'theft and burglary cover'. A society’s policy covers only the risk of loss of building content, not contents of the house owners. Hence, even if your society has insurance, the individual house owner needs to separately buy an individual home policy to cover the contents in his or her house.

Only Maharashtra has made it mandatory for private housing societies to be insured. Despite this, 30 to 40 per cent of buildings in the state remain uninsured.

Sanjay Datta, head, underwriting and claims, at ICICI Lombard, says it's important for people to insure their societies. “With the rising number of threats, riders like earthquake, terrorism and a personal accident cover should be definitely added to the basic fire policy.”

The basic policy only covers the structure of the building. However, there are add-on covers to help customise the policy if all house owners come to a common conclusion to have extra covers.