With Labour’s proposed new ‘Mansion Tax’ aiming to charge people an extra levy for the privilege of living in an expensive home, owners of high-value property could be forgiven for feeling a little hard done by.
After all, is it right to penalise people financially for the hard work and effort they’ve had to put in to build a luxury lifestyle for themselves?
Not everybody has, of course, built the lifestyle for themselves. Thanks to quirks of the housing market, it’s not uncommon for relatively low-earners to occupy million-pound homes as a result of a prudent purchase decades ago. The Mansion Tax, proposed at £20,000 per year, would simply force these people to sell up.
The merits of the proposed tax are questionable at best - but it certainly serves as a timely reminder of the importance of recognising and protecting what’s yours. Living day-to-day in your lifelong home, among possessions you’ve amassed over the decades, it can be easy to forget the financial value of everything around you – but the mooted Mansion Tax might just bring it into focus.
Insuring your 'mansion'
Do you even know how much your home is worth? If you’ve never needed or wanted to move, you’re unlikely to have had your home valued in some time.
So it’s little surprise that many people fail to realise that the value of their home and possessions warrants a specialist insurance policy – high-value home insurance cover.
Standard home insurance is simply unable to provide the level of cover that a high-value home needs and deserves. High net worth home insurance is a more bespoke product altogether, factoring in all the luxuries of your home and ensuring they are all covered against damage or theft, including insuring art, antiques and valuables.
After all, if the authorities are intent on making you pay more tax because you own a high-value home – the least you owe to yourself is to ensure that the property is adequately protected.