What you need to know about UK home insurance
Home insurance is usually divided into two fairly broad categories – buildings insurance and contents insurance. Buildings insurance covers, well, the building. The bricks, the mortar, the floors, the windows. Contents insurance covers – you guessed it – the contents of the home. Your television, your mobile phone, your bookcase, your dining table, whatever is inside your house, contents insurance will cover it. Read on for more UK home insurance information.
Buildings insurance – what you need to know
Our home insurance includes both buildings insurance and contents insurance. Buildings insurance isn’t a legal requirement, but most mortgage lenders will make it a requirement of your mortgage that you have it in place. When you own a house, if a natural disaster occurs like a flood or fire and you don’t have buildings insurance in place, you’ll have to fork out a huge amount of money from your own pocket. However, if you’re in a rented property, you won’t need to buy buildings insurance as this is covered by your landlord.
How much cover do I need?
People often think that they need to insure their home for the market value. That’s untrue – you need to get a quote for the approximate rebuild price instead. This is usually far cheaper, which means that your premiums will be less. Buildings insurance includes cover for damage to: the roof, walls, windows and doors of the building as well as structures that are permanent such as your bathroom and kitchen, caused by natural disasters or theft.
What about contents insurance?
Our contents insurance provides cover for damage to your personal belongings – basically, anything in your house. Things like jewellery, clothes, games consoles, televisions etc. when damaged by a natural disaster or theft.
Sometimes, accidental damage is also included in the policy, but you’ll have to double check with your insurer. Cover for items that you take outside of the home, such as smartphones and tablets, is also often included but again this does differ from insurer to insurer so you’ll have to double check. If not, it’s easy enough to add it onto your cover – just call our Quote Line on 0345 872 3614 to learn more.
Make a list of everything that you have in the property – including low-value items, as every little counts – and take photos so if anything should ever get stolen, you’ll have an image that can be circulated by the police, which will increase your chances of getting it back. If you can, and if you’re organised, keep receipts of all high-value items.
Remember – your landlord may make it a requirement of your contract that you take out contents insurance.
For more information and to get a quote, call our Quote Line. If you need to make a claim, call our dedicated Claims Line on 0345 872 3611.
Disclaimer: the sole purpose of this article is to provide guidance on the issues covered. This article is not intended to give legal advice, and, accordingly, it should not be relied upon. It should not be regarded as a comprehensive statement of the law and/or market practice in this area. We make no claims as to the completeness or accuracy of the information contained herein or in the links which were live at the date of publication.
You should not act upon (or should refrain from acting upon) information in this publication without first seeking specific legal and/or specialist advice. Arthur J. Gallagher Insurance Brokers Limited trading as Devitt accepts no liability for any inaccuracy, omission or mistake in this publication, nor will we be responsible for any loss which may be suffered as a result of any person relying on the information contained herein.