When buying a home, it can be incredibly difficult to complete the transaction quickly while also achieving optimal value for your hard-earned cash.

It may also be difficult to account for all of the factors associated with property ownership, including home insurance. After all, quotes will depend on several key factors, while there are different types of coverage of contents and your material possessions and the structure of the property.

We’ll explore contents and buildings insurance below while asking how you get the best quote for both types of product.

 

 

What’s Home Contents Insurance Cover?

Contents insurance is typically synonymous with renters, as it relates to policies that only cover your own possessions and the items that you retain within the home.

This excludes the structure of the property and its gas or electric appliances, as renters will often rely on private landlords to assume responsibility for structural issues or external damage caused by weather or third parties.

With this type of advanced insurance cover, you can protect yourself against the theft or loss of your possessions, while also safeguarding you against damage caused by vandals or third parties.

Various factors are taken into account when pricing contents insurance. The combined value of your material possessions is a huge factor, of course, as is the area in which you live and the value of your property.

Understanding these factors is key, as it enables you to take practical steps to get the best value quote.

For example, investing in home security systems can help to improve your credentials in the eyes of insurance providers. This may include installing a functional circuit of cameras (either internal or external), along with an alarm system, electronically controlled gate entry or smart technology applications such as sensors.

Similarly, we’d recommend accurately calculating the value of your contents before asking for quotes. This affords you an understanding of what to expect and ensure that you can recognise good value offers when comparing prices.

 

What About Buildings Insurance Cover?

As we’ve already touched on, buildings insurance covers the cost of repairing damage to the various structural elements of your home.

This includes garages, sheds and even fences around the perimeter of your home in addition to your house, while the cost of replacing interior components like cables, drains and pipes is also included.

There are multiple causes of damage that are directly covered by buildings insurance. These include instances of extreme weather, fire and explosion, along with theft and vandalism carried out by another person.

Frozen pipes and subsidence should also be included in your buildings insurance policy, while your coverage may also account for rare instances of vehicle or aircraft collisions.

Interestingly, some factors impact buildings insurance that can’t be accounted for or changed. These include the location of the property and its value, with lower value homes in deprived areas or those that are positioned close to the coast and placed at risk of extreme weather events more likely to drive a higher insurance premium.

However, as you’ll only ever need to take out buildings insurance in instances where you own the property, you can potentially save money and get more bang for your buck by taking out combined insurance cover.

This will create a bespoke package that includes both contents and buildings insurance, which is likely to be more competitively priced and lead to a much more favourable quote from the perspective of property owners.

 

How to Get the Best Quote on Your Home Insurance is a feature post