If you’re planning to take out house insurance, you may want to also consider additional coverage for the valuables within your home. While not mandatory, considering the fact that one in three British citizens fall victim to burglary, it is certainly worth consideration.
House contents insurance provides cover for anything that is not a fixed part of your home. This includes things like your furniture, clothing, any appliances you might have, home electronics, and sometimes even the contents of your cupboards and fridge freezer.
House contents insurance can also insure items you frequently take out of your home, such as bicycles, sports equipment, mobile phones and jewellery, prams – even the contents of your handbag.
The cheapest type of house contents insurance is indemnity insurance. This type of insurance pays for or replaces lost, stolen, or damaged items with consideration for age and depreciation. For instance, if your five-year-old carpet is ruined, your insurance will pay you its value or replace it with another of the same age. More expensive house contents insurance will provide ‘new for old’ replacements. Under this type of policy, your carpet would be replaced with a brand new one of comparable new value.
Most house insurance has a limit to the amount it will cover and often highly-valuable things like expensive jewellery and art work are excluded and need to be covered by a separate premium contents insurance policy.
People who should have house contents insurance include home/flat owners and tenants, while landlords’ needs vary based upon situation.