Often the more common insurance, you may wish to cover your building and/or contents against a range of insurable events such as fire, theft, and malicious damage, Further cover can include accidental damage and personal possessions away from the home.
Buildings Insurance
Buildings Insurance covers the cost of repairing or rebuilding your property and replacing any permanent fixtures, following damage caused by instances such as weather, fire, subsidence or flood. It is designed to cover the overall structure of the house.
Internal fixtures including built-in kitchens, bathrooms and fixed bedroom furniture, as well as central heating and plumbing systems, should all be covered as standard.
Externally, Buildings Insurance can cover your driveway, garden path, walls, gates, hedges and outbuildings.
You will need to make sure that you insure your property to cover the full cost of rebuilding your property. This should include costs such as demolition, clearing the site, and architect’s fees, for example.
What Are you Typically Covered Against?
- Fire and smoke damage
- Flooding
- Escape of water or oil
- Subsidence
- Vehicle impact
- Accidental damage to glass windows and fixed sanitary ware (if selected)
- Accidental damage to underground pipes and cables (if selected)
- Alternative accommodation (if your home becomes uninhabitable following an insured incident)
- Theft and malicious damage
Contents Insurance
Contents Insurance cover is a type of policy to cover all items within your home, but those that are not a permanent fixture. Typically, it could be items that you may expect to take with you when you move, or items that may exit the house with you on a frequent basis, such as a mobile phone, or watch.
If your belongings are lost or damaged because of fire, theft, storm or floods, water damage or subsidence, vandalism or malicious acts, you’ll be glad you have contents insurance.
Things that you wouldn’t normally assume are covered too, such as digital downloads, replacement door locks if you lose your keys and even items temporarily removed from the home. If something happens that causes damage to your home which means you can’t stay there, some insurers will cover the cost of alternative accommodation while repairs are carried out.
Even garden plants and food in your freezer can be covered by contents insurance. Your items can then be replaced on an “as new” or “new for old” basis.
There are plenty of “add-ons” to consider with contents insurance, such as whether you wish to include accidental damage cover, personal possession cover outside of the home, or even Home Emergency cover which covers you against central heating disasters, power failures, and broken front door locks.
