HOME INSURANCE

UK home insurance or home owner insurance is commonly known as Buildings and Contents Insurance and is often provided as a combined or joint insurance policy to cover both. It is also possible for a homeowner to buy the two types of insurance cover separately.

Buildings Insurance

You will not be able to get a mortgage without buildings insurance!

If anything happens to cause physical damage to your home your lender will want to make sure that the costs resulting from such damage will always be paid. Your home is their security against the money they have lent to you. 

Buildings insurance will do this and will typically cover you as homeowners for rebuilding costs after total destruction of your property or repair costs for damage caused by perils such as fire, bad weather, flooding and subsidence.

If you own your home as a freeholder you will own the actual building, such as a house or bungalow, and the land under and around it. In this case it will be you responsibility to arrange and pay for a policy to give you buildings cover.

You will need to determine the real costs of rebuilding your home should the worse happen, but you may find that your lender will tell you the minimum rebuilding cost you should use.

However if you are a leaseholder you will probably live in a flat and it is then the responsibly of the freeholder to arrange appropriate cover, but you will have to make sure that this has been done.

If at any point you decide to let your property to tenants you must tell your insurance company who may need to change your policy. You my even find that they may not be prepared to cover you any more and you will have to find a different more specialised landlord's policy.

Contents Insurance

Home Contents Insurance is highly recommend and you should get it!

Insuring the contents of your home is essential to cover the cost of replacing your possessions should they be lost, stolen, damaged or destroyed. You really do need to have this type of house insurance even though your lender will not insist on it. Home owners would be very unwise to ignore contents insurance.

You will have to decide how much your possessions are worth to make sure you are not underinsured and whether you would want them replaced on a new-for-old basis or for their current value at the time of loss or damage. This of course will have an impact on what you pay for your house insurance.

Fitting a burglar alarm on your home or joining a local neighbourhood-watch scheme should help reduce the insurance premium you will have to pay after you get your home insurance quote. You may also find that your insurer will insist on a minimum level of security in your house and that you will therefore have to install such things as window locks and approved five-lever mortice locks on all your external doors.