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A few things you need to know about home insurance

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Published: 22Jul2007
Word count: 538
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Can you think of anything in your life, outside of your family of course, more worthy of protection than your home? It's not just a case of material worth but increasingly of massive personal significance. Think of all the time we spend these days hunting down somewhere that we feel fits the bill perfectly. So much consideration goes into the process of finding the dream home these days – location, size, suitability and increasingly that much discussed but hard to pin down ‘wow' factor. It's hard to imagine a more devastating blow than suffering significant damage to your home or its contents. All this means that home insurance should surely be a top priority.

Making sure you end up with the right policy to fit your needs and that you feel is cost-effective can be a complicated process though, it would be nice to think you could take the easy route and default on a standard policy but, really, there's no such thing. You'll need to check though any prospective insurer's levels of cover and various exclusions. But let's start by breaking the subject into the two principal types of cover – Building Insurance and Home Insurance.

Building Insurance

Building insurance should cover more than simply the main building and include any outbuildings such as garages as well as gates, patios, sheds and fences. It's important to give any exclusions or clauses, and there will almost certainly be quite a few, a thorough examination. Make sure you know what's covered and what isn't. Don't over-insure yourself; the sum should be the cost to rebuild rather than what the property is worth. In certain cases the insurer will only pay out the cost to rebuild anyway. A rebuild cost should be pretty cheap and easy to come by so make sure you get it right. Also take into account the likelihood of rebuilding costs increasing over time especially if you make any modifications. And if you're after a quick money saving tip, think twice about paying with a direct debit, it's entirely possible you'll be charged up to 30% interest. A good alternative is to pay using a 0% purchases credit card.

Contents Insurance

Once again it is important to be certain that you are insured for the right amount. It may seem like a lengthy process to asses the correct value of everything but it really is worth compiling a comprehensive check list. It's quite possible that your insurer will put a limit on individual items, if this is the case and a single item is worth more than an imposed home contents limit try to negotiate an increase or, failing this, you'll have to insure it separately. Check precisely what your contents are insured against – theft and fire should be standard but you should also look to include cover for additional threats like storm and flooding damage. Check out the possibility of combining building and contents cover with the same insurer, this will obviously save you time and hassle but could also get you a discount. Don't just plump for a combined deal for convenience sake though; a good policy for contents could be teamed up with a less impressive deal for the building or vice-versa.

Don’t renew your existing home insurance policy until you’ve got a quote from Asda Finance. Once you’ve seen our best price, you won’t want to look elsewhere.

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