Should you consider home insurance?
If you have a mortgage and own a property, part of the deal with the lender is that you have buildings insurance in place. If you are mortgage free it should still be considered because of the costs of having to rebuild your house if the worst happens and its destroyed in a fire.
Don’t forget your contents. Whilst you may think most of what you own is only worth a few quid, how much would it cost to replace brand new? The chances are many thousands of pounds if everything was destroyed in a fire. Even if you could afford to buy everything again why would you want to when affordable insurance is available?
What we do
- Assess what insurance cover you need based on the property you’re buying
- Give you a guide to help value the cost of your home and contents
- Find a comprehensive policy to suit your needs
FAQs
Buildings insurance covers you for events like fire, flood and subsidence, which the warranty will not.
Your warranty is there to rectify severe construction defects such as a leaky roof due to incorrect construction.
Unfortunately, yes this is often the case. Your insurance company considers you more likely to claim again in the future. Most insurance companies will ask whether you’ve made a claimed in the last 5 years and the value of the claim when they provide a quote. Failure to disclose this could result in a declined claim.
The amount you insure your property for is the cost to re-build it, which is likely to be different to the price you paid for it. If you have a copy of the survey from when you bought your property it often includes a rebuild cost that you can use for your buildings insurance. Some policies provide automatic ‘blanket’ cover up to a specified level, which reduces the risk of underinsurance.
It’s important you accurately assess how much your possessions would cost to replace. Think of everything, from the clothes in your wardrobe to the dishes in your kitchen. Lots of people undervalue their belongings, so it’s definitely worth taking the time to tot things up from room to room.
Some policies provide blanket cover limits of £50,000 to £75,000 but it’s important to evaluate this Even though a limit might seem generous, you may find it’s not sufficient.