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Home insurance provides an insurance policy for your home, whether it’s detached, detached, a terrace, a bungalow, apartment or flat. There are two classifications:

‘Buildings cover’ for the structure/bricks & mortar, plus fitted items like sanitary ware, kitchen units etc.
‘Contents cover’ for the individual items in your home (removable items like furniture, soft furnishings, jewellery and valuables). Contents insurance is often limited to damage caused by events like a fire, flooding or theft. Contents cover does not always include accidental damage to items, however most policies allow you to add accidental damage protection to a contents insurance policy.

Generally most people opt for combined ‘buildings & contents cover’. It is often cheaper to use the same insurance provider for both buildings insurance and contents insurance and most people now choose to  take out a combined home policy that provides buildings and contents insurance within a single  premium. 

If you live in rented accommodation, or you do not own your home then in most circumstances you will not require ‘buildings’ insurance cover. Your landlord, or the property owner will be responsible for insuring the building & structure.

However it is likely you will still want or need to take out ‘contents’ insurance to cover your own personal items kept in the property. You may also want to take out additional cover for accidental damage to internal fixtures and fittings if this is not included in your standard contents insurance policy, incase you damage any fixtures or fittings in the property. 

The cost of buildings and contents insurance cover varies in a number of ways. Things that can influence the premium or annual cost of home insurance can include:

Yes – As a property let owner or ‘landlord’, it is your responsibility to ensure your property has buildings insurance cover.

Generally a buy-to-let property should be insured via a landlords insurance policy. Landlords insurance provides ‘buildings cover’ with additional levels of cover suitable for properties that are rented out to tenants. Landlords insurance also includes options to add cover for:

– Rent guarantee insurance.
– Legal cover.
– Vacant property cover, periods with no tenants. Accidental damage by tenants.
– Compensation claims due to tenant injury.
– Property owner liability cover.

YES – You should always make sure your insurance provider is aware of any building work or renovations you are doing to your property.

Your contract with your insurer is based on mutual disclosure of information – your premium is calculated on ‘risk’ based on the answers provided when your home insurance quote was generated.

‘Risk’ is likely to increase as a result of building work, if you are doing building work you should inform your insurance provider so your premium can be updated. If necessary you will need to pay any surcharges applied for enhanced cover during the building work.

Always notify your home insurance provider before commencing any building work, make sure you have sufficient insurance cover.

Check with your insurer – Most of the time the insured value of contents is flexible and can be raised to account for high value items like jewellery, valuables, and antiques.

Often high valuable items will need to be individually listed and your insurance provider may require you to keep these items in secure places (e.g. storing jewellery in a safe or lockable storage box).

In some circumstances your insurer may advise that additional insurance cover or even separate policies are required for certain valuable items.

• Accidental damage cover: Most home insurance policies will not pay out on a standard policy for accidental damage but policies will offer accidental damage cover as an additional extra.

• Home emergency cover : Most home and contents insurance policies don’t automatically provide home emergency cover, to insure for things like your boiler breaking down or blocked drains.

• Personal belongings cover: Many policies will not cover items removed from your home e.g. Items like jewellery, iPads, laptops, wallets, purses, bicycles or other items you take with you outside your home.

• Legal cover: Many policies do not automatically include legal expenses cover, to pay solicitor’s fees if you are involved in a dispute with someone e.g. If someone gets injured on your property or if you are become involved in a dispute with neigbours.