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Buildings & Contents Insurance
Home Insurance is a Mortgage Lender Requirement
If you are buying a home with a mortgage, your lender will usually require suitable buildings insurance to be in place as part of the purchase, while contents insurance can protect the belongings inside your home. Our home insurance specialists provide a free advised service, helping you compare available buildings and contents insurance options and understand the cover, excesses, limits and exclusions before you buy. Home insurance can often be arranged quickly, but it should not be treated as a simple tick box purchase, as choosing cover online without advice could leave important gaps or restrictions you may only discover when making a claim. We help you put appropriate cover in place with clear, specialist guidance from the outset.
Protect Your Home And The Things Inside It
Home insurance is designed to provide financial protection when specified events cause loss or damage. What you need will depend on your home and what you want to insure.
Homeowners often arrange buildings and contents insurance together, although either can be purchased separately. If you rent, you will usually only need cover for your belongings. Leaseholders should first find out whether the building is insured by the freeholder or management company.
Before choosing a policy, check what is covered, how much you would need to pay towards a claim and whether any limits or exclusions could affect you.
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Access The Most Suitable Cover at The Most Affordable Prices
Our protection specialists can scan our providers, once we understand your requirements and find you the right insurance that fits your needs.
Request a call backThe Home Insurance Process
Step 1: Tell Us About Your Home
Tell us a bit about the home you want to insure and who lives there. We’ll also need to know how you use it, whether you’ve made any previous claims, and anything specific you’d like your policy to cover.
Step 2: Review The Available Options
An adviser will talk through the policies available based on the information provided and highlight important differences in cover and cost.
Step 3: Make your decision
A new job, a change in pay, taking out a mortgage or having a child can all affect how much you rely on your income. If your circumstances change, we can look at your policy again and check whether the cover still makes sense.
What Is The Difference Between Buildings And Contents Insurance?
Buildings Insurance
Buildings insurance is for the property itself. It may help with repair costs after a fire, flood, storm or burst pipe. Subsidence and vandalism can also be covered, depending on the policy.
Contents Insurance
Think about everything you’d pack if you moved house: your furniture, clothes, television, laptop and other belongings. These are the items covered by contents insurance. Cover for accidental damage or belongings taken away from the home may be available as standard or as an optional extra.
Combined Buildings And Contents Insurance
If you need both, you can arrange buildings and contents insurance under one policy. You will have one renewal date and one set of documents to keep track of. Before going ahead, check the cover limits, excesses and exclusions.
Which Type Of Home Insurance Might You Need?
- Homeowners may need buildings and contents insurance, either separately or as a combined policy.
- Homebuyers will usually need buildings cover to begin from exchange of contracts, although the timing can differ in Scotland. Your solicitor, lender or adviser can confirm what applies to your purchase.
- If you rent, your landlord will usually insure the building. You can arrange your own cover for furniture, clothes and other belongings.
- Leaseholders may already have buildings insurance through the freeholder or management company. Check your lease and ask what cover is in place before arranging a separate policy.
- Landlords normally need insurance designed for a let property rather than a standard owner-occupier policy.
These are general examples. Your responsibilities and the cover available will depend on the property, your tenure and the individual policy.
Talk Through What You Need
What Can Buildings And Contents Insurance Cover?
Buildings policies commonly cover the structure and permanent fixtures against specified events. Contents policies can cover belongings kept in the home against risks such as theft, fire and certain types of damage. Depending on the insurer and policy, optional cover may be available for:
- Accidental damage to the building or its contents
- Personal belongings used away from the home
- Home emergencies
- Legal expenses
- Bicycles, jewellery and other higher-value items
The events covered, claim limits and exclusions differ between policies. Wear and tear, gradual deterioration and damage caused by poor maintenance are generally not covered.
Ask About Available Cover How Much Cover Do You Need?
Your home’s sale price is not the figure used for buildings insurance. You need to think about what it would cost to rebuild the property from scratch, including clearing the site, materials, labour and professional fees.
For contents cover, try to picture what it would actually take to replace everything you own. Walk through your home room by room and have a proper look inside cupboards, wardrobes, the garage and any sheds or outbuildings. It’s often the smaller, everyday items that you don’t immediately think of, but when you add them up they can make a significant difference to the overall total.
It’s also worth making a separate list of anything more valuable, such as jewellery, watches, bicycles, artwork and electronics. Many policies cap how much they’ll pay for individual items or groups of valuables, so you may need to specify certain things separately.
Get Help Reviewing Your Cover The headline cover amount is only one part of a policy. Before proceeding, check: Some policies are described as offering unlimited cover, but exclusions, excesses, single-item limits and other conditions can still apply.Cover Limits, Excesses And Exclusions To Check
Why Clients Choose The Mortgage Broker For Home Insurance Advice
Home insurance is not only about the price shown on a quote. The excess, cover limits and exclusions can make a real difference. We’ll ask about your property and the belongings you want to insure, then talk you through the options available.
Buildings, Contents or Both?
Not sure which cover you need? We’ll explain the difference and help you work out whether buildings insurance, contents insurance or a combined policy fits your circumstances.
The Details, Explained Clearly
Excesses, single-item limits and exclusions are easy to overlook. Your adviser will point out the details that matter, so you understand what you would be buying.
A Quote Based On Your Home
Insurers need more than an address. We’ll ask about the property, who lives there, how it is used and any previous claims before looking at the available options.
Valuable Items Accounted For
If you’ve got jewellery, watches, bikes or artwork, we’ll help you work out how they’re covered. We’ll go through the limits with you and let you know if anything needs to be listed separately, so there are no surprises about what’s included.
Help With Unusual Properties
Homes aren’t all the same, and some are trickier to insure than others. If your property is listed, non-standard, or has had issues like flooding or subsidence, we’ll talk you through what’s available and help you find insurers who are comfortable with it.
Talk It Through Before You Decide
Once you have an option to consider, we’ll explain the cover and answer your questions. You can then decide whether you would like to go ahead.
Tell us about your home and what you want to insure. We’ll help you understand the available cover and the details worth checking.
Meet Our Protection Advisers
Our protection advisers can review the cover you already have and check whether it still fits your life today. They will look at what has changed, whether anything is missing and whether you are paying for cover you no longer need.
Request A Buildings And Contents Insurance Quote
What would you like your home insurance to cover? Give us a few details about your property and belongings. We will help you understand the available cover, important policy conditions and the next steps before you decide whether to proceed.