Home insurance isn’t a legal requirement in Mauritius in the same way car insurance is if you want to drive on Mauritius roads. However in some cases you may be required to take out cover – for example, if you’re taking out a mortgage on a property your mortgage provider will insist on having buildings insurance as a condition of the loan. If you’re a tenant, you’ll only need to cover your belongings – having insurance for the building itself is your landlord's responsibility. Insuring your belongings is a more personal decision. Again, you’d have to find the money to replace your things if something happened and you didn’t have contents insurance.

Home insurance comes in two parts, buildings insurance and contents insurance, which can be bought separately or together from the same provider. Buildings insurance offers protection for the permanent structures in your home such as the roof, walls, floors, bathroom fittings and ceilings. External structures and installations like garages, pools, sheds and fences may also be covered. Contents insurance is designed to protect your belongings. If it’s something you’d take with you if you moved to a new house, it’s classed as contents. As a general rule, your contents are the things that you’d take with you if you moved to a new house. This includes things such as your furniture, your TV, other electronic equipment and home gadgets, any electrical items, your kitchenware, clothes and jewellery, and any soft furnishings such as cushions and curtains. The homeowner determines the amount for this coverage, but when you file a claim for personal property, the insurance company may require proof of ownership and value.

In all of the different insurance policies, there are some things that are excluded from cover. They are mostly due to wear and tear that gets worse due to lack of proper maintenance. If a home insurance claim could have been avoided with regular maintenance, you can expect it to not be covered - mold is a common example. Other common exclusions include infestations from termites, burst pipes, home businesses, and sewer back ups. Damages due to the bursted water pipes for some instances may be included in your coverage, while for other scenarios it is not. Be sure to check with your insurer about what is and isn’t covered to make sure you get the right home insurance product.

Your own quotes will depend on how likely the insurer thinks you are to make a claim, the value of your building or contents and the level of cover you choose. Insurers use a whole host of factors to price your insurance - home security, risk of flooding and subsidence could all increase or decrease the cost. Every insurer uses a different formula to determine a customer’s home insurance rate. And the rate may vary significantly depending on a number of factors - house location and age, construction materials used, home security, risk of land-slice or flooding could all increase or decrease the premium. For example, if your home is built from concrete or brick, you might have a lower premium than someone with a home made of wood.

When you compare quotes with UCompare, you just need to have some details about you, your home and your belongings. We’ll need to know things like: a) The type of property it is, the number of rooms and and a few structural details b) What types of window and door locks you have and if you have any burglar alarms, on-site security or smoke detectors. c) The amount of money it would take to rebuild the property from scratch if it were demolished. d) The cost of replacing the entire contents of your home as new. e) Your personal details and details of claim history (if exists).

Finding affordable home insurance quotes is easier when you compare your options with UCompare. UCompare is an independent comparison website, aiming to increase transparency and address the information gap that exists between insurers and consumers. UCompare assist consumers to quickly and easily filter information to a level that allows them to make a decision.

UCompare is an independent website that aims to compare standard insurance products from all insurance providers in Mauritius without discrimination. Insurance companies are invited to establish their presence on the UCompare though online registration or by contacting us directly.

All the insurance companies we work with are regulated by the Mauritius Financial Services Commission (FSC) meaning you can be confident your insurance is backed by a reputable company.