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home contents cover valuations

After the summer floods of 2007, it may be important to re-consider purchasing home insurance if you don’t have it or checking your policy to see if you are adequately covered.

Unlike car insurance, home contents insurance is not compulsory, although your mortgage company will insist that you purchase home buildings insurance.

A lot of insurance companies now call anything to do with the insuring of the home, home insurance, which normally includes both buildings and content insurance.

After looking around at quotes online it is surprising just how many companies quote you for both home contents and buildings at the same time and call it home insurance. Then if you decide you just want one part of the home insurance, either buildings or contents, the quote ends up being very close to purchasing both parts of the insurance at the same time.

It is usually easier to insure your home contents and buildings with the same company, because the price can be cheaper and it is also easier dealing with one insurance company instead of two if you have a claim.

Currently around one in four people do not have contents insurance, and of those that do insurers say that two thirds are under insured.

People living in flats should have buildings cover through their service charge so only contents insurance will be required.

Buildings Insurance Cover

You need to cover your self for the cost of rebuilding your home, not its market value. If you have purchased your home recently, then your survey will provide you with the cost of rebuilding your home.

The figure will be less than the price of your house as it will not include the value of the plot of land that your home sits on.

If you have owned you house for a while you can pay a surveyor to give you an up-to-date valuation or work it out yourself.

Contents Insurance Cover

It’s important to work out how much cover you need for your contents, as it is always more than you think.

So go around the house and put a price or value on everything that you could pick up and take with you when you move, this includes the cost of replacing curtains and white goods etc.

You can also choose to cover other items in the garden and in the garage.

If you do not want to list everything then you could take out a home content policy which is called a bedroom rated policy. These give you cover based on the number of bedrooms you have in your house.

They are good as they take the worry out of being under insured, but they are bad if you do not have many possessions or an average value of possessions as it could mean you pay more than you need to.

There are other parts of the policy to all consider such as personal possessions cover – if you have expensive jewellery, bicycle cover, legal expenses cover and garden cover. Most insurers will make you give specific details about any item you want to cover worth more than £1,000 in your home.

Buy Home Insurance

The internet is the best place to look for home insurance as you can easily scour the market and visit Norwich Union Home Insurance who cover 1 in 5 UK homes, Churchill Home Insurance, Direct Line, AA Home Insurance, or use one of the price comparison sites to do the work for you.

Many internet home insurers offer discounts if you buy online, and make sure you research the market every time your renewal is due, as you could save money shopping around for cover.

Related Sites of Interest

Swinton Home Insurance
Virgin Money Home Insurance
Direct Line
AA Home Insurance
More Than Home Insurance
Zurich Home Insurance
Churchill Home Insurance
Norwich Union Home Insurance
Liverpool Victoria Home Insurance
Saga Home Insurance