Home Insurance

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What is Home Insurance?

Home insurance, or Contents Insurance, is precisely what it sounds like; it’s a form of insurance which offers cover for private homes. These can be houses, flats, bungalows or certain other types of private residence. An insurance policy covers all of the items in the home, such as televisions, bicycles, jewellery and clothing as well as the home itself against theft and damage.

How much the cost of a policy is will depend on what is in the home and how much both the residency and its contents are worth. It can also depend on how many precautions the owner has taken to ward off burglars, where the home is located and what crime statistics are like locally.

Is Home Insurance Cheap?

A home insurance policy is also comprised of a contract which details all that is covered and what will and won’t be paid out in certain conditions. Home insurance policies are also taken out for specific periods so it is possible to switch policy or insurance provider if you’re not happy with a policy you hold or want to find a cheaper deal just like you could with a mobile phone contract.

Often the amount you’ll have to pay is dependent on where your home is so, for example, if you’re living close to flood plains, you’re likely to pay more than if you’re at the top of a hill next to a fire station. There are also certain types of crime associated with different areas and this is taken into account by insurers.

Why is Home Insurance Required?

No-one can be prepared for having their most precious possessions stolen or returning to a home which has burned down and there are many things which are hard to replace due to their sentimental value, let alone the literal financial cost of doing so. Home insurance is required so that if anything bad happens to your home or belongings you’re able to carry the financial burden easily, fix or rebuild the house and replace lost items.

Direct Line provide home insurance and offer free advice on keeping everything in your house safe from intruders. In a recent statement to the press, the head of Technical Services outlined some things that people can do to make their homes safer.

“Installing an intruder alarm, good quality locks and security lighting or living in a Neighbourhood Watch area can all help to deter a burglar entering a person’s home.” She said. Adding, “as well as providing customers with quality insurance cover we also offer customers a possible discount on the costs of their cover, if they do take some security and safety precautions.”

This is true of many home insurance providers and it’s common practice to get lower premiums on home insurance by adding simple things like deadbolts and alarms.

What Does Home Insurance Cover?

Home insurance covers everything in your home and garden against theft, loss and damage provided you’ve taken reasonable steps to protect it. For example it would cover a bicycle kept out of street view and chained or locked up but not a bicycle laid on the front lawn for anyone to take.

Building Insurance

Building Insurance is different to home insurance and sometimes this causes confusion. Whilst many home insurance policies cover the building itself, it’s also possible to get separate building and contents policies, though these rarely work out cheaper and are not as useful or comprehensive.

Building insurance only covers the building itself for damage, so as a rule of thumb, if you have building insurance everything covered is only everything which would stay if it were ransacked, literally, anything bolted down. The contents are not insured in a building insurance policy.

Home Insurance Benefits

The benefits of having home insurance are many; the most major being that if anything happens to your belongings or house you can rest assured that the insurance company will cover the costs of getting your life back on track. But apart from the obvious benefits there are others. Home Insurance from the company Privilege offers an array of free extras, for example, cover is increased automatically around Christmas time and around the time of a family wedding by 10%.

Also, according to the Privilege website they “don’t just cover the possessions in your home.” But actually “cover belongings in garages and sheds, as well as up to £500 cover for contents in your garden.” Also if your children go to university and stay in university accommodation their belongings will be insured too, up to £5000. Privilege cover even stretches to the contents of your freezer remarkably, though not many burglars tend to steal frozen food. It could still come in handy if there’s a power cut though!