Last updated: 22/10/2020 | Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

How much cover do you need?

Home is where the heart is and as with all things that are close to you, it’s important to make sure that you are covered should the unforeseen happen. For something as important as your home it’s vital to make sure you have the right cover but it isn’t always easy to know exactly what you’ll need. We have put together a quick guide to cover what you will need in different situations to keep your home covered.

Home insurance is split into two main types, building and contents insurance and with each one it’s important to know exactly how much cover you’ll need.

In This Guide:

• Building insurance
• Contents insurance
• What other cover will I need?

Building insurance

Building insurance will cover your house if any damage were to happen to it and is only needed for homeowners or landlords. When working out exactly how much cover you need, it’s important to remember that you need to be covered to the cost of rebuilding your home rather than its market value (the latter generally being more expensive). An easy way to find out the rebuild cost is to look at the mortgage evaluation which you will if you have just bought a home.

You will also need to keep your building insurance up to date if you make any modifications or extensions to your house. The policy will only cover the parts that were included at the time, so if your house burns down without you adding your new conservatory to the policy then it will not be covered. You’ll also need to make sure that anything not attached to your house, such as a shed that contains valuables, is included on your policy as it will not always be included as standard.

If you live in a house that is listed, is especially old or has particularly unusual features, then you may need to speak to surveyor to get an accurate quote on what the rebuild cost would be.

Contents insurance

Contents insurance will cover the belongings in your household from your TV to jewellery. In order to be adequately covered you will need to make a note of all the items that you want to be insured and their value, which can be a painstaking process. Any items that are particularly valuable may need to be assessed and covered separately as some policies will have a maximum pay out amount per item and if you own something with a higher value then you could find yourself out of pocket. As with building insurance, it’s important to keep it up to date with anything new that you by and where possible, keep receipts.

If you are renting, then you may want to consider tenants insurance. This acts the same as home contents insurance, but it covers you up to a certain amount for any accidental damage to the landlord’s property.