Home insurance

What is home insurance?

Home insurance covers loss and damage to your house and household contents.

For example, if your home is damaged by an insured event like a fire or flood, your home insurance may cover the costs of any repairs or replacements needed.

Home insurance comes into two parts- buildings insurance which covers the physical building, and contents insurance which covers your belongings. You can buy them individually or together as a combined policy.

Who might need home insurance?

Home insurance isn’t a legal requirement, but it’s a good idea to have a policy in place to provide peace of mind to be able to replace your belongings if they were damaged, lost or stolen.

Step 1. Establish what cover you need

Homeowners

It’s often a condition of your mortgage to have buildings insurance, whilst protection of your belongings is optional. If you own your home outright, both buildings and contents insurance are optional.

Renters

If you’re renting a property, buildings insurance is the responsibility of the landlord, however, your landlord’s insurance won’t cover your contents. You’ll need your own renter’s insurance policy for that.

Landlords

Landlords are required by law to have insurance that’ll look after the property and the occupiers. Landlord insurance will cover your buildings, contents, accidental damage, landlord liability, and alternative accommodation.

Holiday homeowners

You can’t cover a second home with standard home insurance. Instead, you’ll need holiday home insurance to cover the risks associated with renting your second home out and leaving it empty for long periods of time.

Step 2. Combine comparison sites for cheaper deals

Spend some time researching what packages other providers can offer so you can compare costs and find the best price.

Step 3. Haggle

Make your provider aware that you’re keen to stay as a customer, they’ll want to try and keep you onboard, so they may investigate applying discounts or other ways to reduce your payments.

Step 4. Ensure the policy’s right for you before accepting

Read the terms and conditions to make sure you’re happy and check the provider is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. If you have a claim unfairly rejected, you have a right to escalate any complaints to the free financial ombudsman if the insurer doesn’t deal with them.