What is buildings and contents insurance?

If you own your own home, whether it’s a two-bedroom flat or a four-bed detached property, you’ll need to have buildings insurance in place to ensure you would pay for any necessary repairs, should your home suffer any damage.

Depending on your lender and your circumstances, buildings insurance is usually a condition of your mortgage. If you own your own home, it makes sense to have this type of insurance in place and without it, you could be putting your mortgage and your home at risk.

What is buildings and contents insurance?

Buildings insurance covers damage to your home’s structure, such as the walls, roofing, floors, and often fixtures and fittings too. For instance, if you have a fitted kitchen or bathroom, your insurance is likely to pay for any repairs you need.

Contents insurance is for things like furniture, TVs, personal belongings and some types of flooring, including carpets. A simple way of putting it; if you turned your house upside down, contents insurance will cover you against the belongings that fall out of it. Different policies provide different levels of cover but usually you’ll be covered against theft, fire and flood.

You can buy both buildings and contents insurance separately or as a joint policy.

What about accidental damage cover?

Alongside contents and buildings insurance, you may also hear about accidential damage cover. This insures your belongings against - you guessed it - accidental damage, and the extent of this coverage will depend on the policy you take. Make sure you research what policy gives the most protection and check whether or not it's part of your contents insurance, as it is usually optional.

How much cover do I need?

How much cover you need to have in place will depend on the value of your property and your personal possessions.

Think about what you might need to replace in the event of a robbery or a fire, and how much it would cost to replace these. This will help you work out how much cover you might need to take out.

Check what your individual insurer and policy cover is, as policies vary from one insurer to another in exactly what events you’re covered for, and for how much. Check that you’re happy with everything that the policy covers, as there can often be exclusions.

If you’d like to speak to a protection adviser to find out more about buildings and contents insurance, please feel free to contact us today.