Buildings & Contents Insurance: Types of Cover


Comparing home insurance with Policy Expert is one of the quickest and easiest ways to search for the right cover for your needs. There are various ways you can insure your home and making sure you’re fully protected is crucial, especially if your home is mortgaged.

There are a few different ways you can get covered:

•    Separate buildings insurance
•    Separate contents insurance
•    Combined buildings and contents insurance


Buildings Insurance Only

When insuring the building you live in, the most important thing is to make sure the full rebuilding cost is covered. Ignore the market value of your property as this is irrelevant when calculating the cost of buildings insurance. The rebuild cost is normally lower than the market value.

While one insurer may have a good reputation for buildings insurance, they might not offer the best deal on your contents cover. Typically, it works out more cost-effective and convenient to buy both types of cover  from the smae provider but it may work out better for you to get separate policies -  so shop around and compare all the options. Most importantly, check the small print – the cheapest quote might not cover you for everything you need.

Contents Insurance Only

If you’ve done your homework and compared home insurance quotes, you might find that insuring your possessions separately to your building is cheaper. Or, it might be that you have items of significant value, such as jewellery, antiques or works of art that require specialist cover which isn’t available from some insurance providers. If you don’t require buildings insurance, because you rent your home or you’re a student, then contents only cover is what you need – don’t get combined cover and end up paying for insurance that's unnecessary.

Combined Buildings & Contents Insurance

This is where you get cover from one single provider, which can make claiming and renewing easier.  You might qualify for great discounts but you might also benefit from using the same supplier for other types of insurance, such as motor insurance, holiday insurance or life insurance. Sticking to one supplier can be less hassle as you’ll only have set of policy documents to file and it’s likely that you’ve saved money to boot!


Read our home insurance articles and guides for more great topics or get a home insurance quote.

 

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