For a landed two-storey house built in 2000 with a reconstruction cost of RM1 million and home contents worth RM200,000, householder insurance premiums would cost about RM4,000 yearly while fire insurance policy alone would cost about RM1,500 yearly, according to Simon Ng of ORC Risk Consulting, a risk management firm.
Strata buildings such as condominiums and apartments would have insurance that covers fire and earthquakes, but this coverage is not mandatory for landed homes, he said.
Many landed homeowners who have paid off their bank loans would not even purchase basic fire insurance, Ng added.
“It’s not only about insurance (for) earthquakes or natural disasters, but home insurance in general. I believed that many owners of landed properties might not have any form of home insurance that covers them,” he said.
“In Malaysia, home insurance contains two parts: The property itself and the home contents. If owner buys (houseowner or householder) insurance, the insurance covers both property and the home contents. The coverage would also cover natural disasters such as earthquakes,” he said.
Segamat resident Chew Leh Tong, 52, has fire insurance due to a mortgage. He admits, however, that the policy is unlikely to cover damage caused by the recent earthquake – several cracks that appeared in his home of 10 years.
Chew, who works at an events company, said he would consider buying earthquake insurance.
“I can’t just pack up and leave from here, so there will be a need to be insured,” he said.
Awakened by the severe shaking of his front grilles on Aug 24, Chew said neither he nor his neighbours had expected an earthquake to occur.
“Now everyone is worried about what is next,” he said.
Malaysia’s Meteorological Department director-general Mohd Hisham Mohd Anip has warned that aftershocks along the ancient Mersing fault line – the epicentre of the Aug 24 earthquake and aftershocks – may still occur until all the energy along the fault line is fully released.
“While Segamat is quite a distance from Mersing, the fault connectivity is believed to continue underground and functions as a weak zone in the earth’s crust,” he was quoted as saying by The Star on Sep 7.
The Mersing Fault Zone is one of the major fault belts in the peninsula, along with others like Bukit Tinggi, Kuala Lumpur, Lebir, Bok Bak, Bentong and Lepar.
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