Home Insurance

I want to understand my different home insurance options

Without adequate cover for your property, one single incident, such as fire or burglary, could have a devastating effect on you and your home. Insurance can’t stop the incident happening, but it can help put things back the way they were – quickly and with the minimum of fuss.

Whether you are buying a home, own a property or are renting, your home and possessions are precious. Your home contains all your belongings, memories, and comforts. Choosing to insure them, and making sure you have the right insurance products for your circumstances, will offer peace of mind and can lower the financial pain of repairing your home and replacing damaged or stolen belongings.

Buildings and contents insurance is also often referred to as ‘home insurance’, a combination insurance that covers both your building and its contents in one.

Buildings insurance

Buildings insurance isn’t a legal requirement, but it will usually be required by your mortgage lender. It protects the actual building you live in, for example, the roof, walls, windows, doors, et cetera.

The type of incidents that buildings insurance may cover are fire, flooding and subsidence. You could receive a payment to cover damage to any part of the structure of your home, which includes built-in furniture such as fitted kitchens and wardrobes, but not impermanent content such as furnishings.

In the worst case, if your home was destroyed and must be rebuilt, buildings insurance is the policy designed to cover that cost.

To be totally confident that your home is adequately insured, an independent surveyor can calculate the exact rebuilding cost of your home.

Contents insurance

Contents insurance protects the contents of the building you live in, for example, your possessions, valuables and furnishings that are not permanently attached to the building.

It typically covers loss of or damage to items due to fire, theft, flooding, etc. The exact incidents covered, and the items covered, differ between policies. You can often pay extra to insure items even when they are lost or damaged by accident, or when they are outside your home. Otherwise, these incidents aren’t usually covered.