Home insurance

This depends on whether you have a mortgage. If you do, buildings insurance will almost certainly be a requirement of your mortgage lender. You’ll need a policy in place before your lender agrees to release the funds for a house purchase.

They don’t normally insist on contents insurance, but it’s worth considering to cover costs in case anything happens to your belongings.

Home insurance policies don’t usually cover accidental damage as standard, but it’s often available as a policy add-on for an extra cost.

You can get accidental damage for buildings and contents insurance. It can cover things like accidental spills on carpet, or a TV that’s accidentally broken.

Yes, you can. Making a claim might impact your no-claims bonus, which can mean your premiums increase. But you can usually find cover even if you’ve made a previous claim.

Claims for things like flooding or subsidence might mean you have fewer options, so it’s worth comparing policies to help find cover that suits you.

If you’ve inaccurately estimated your home’s rebuild cost, this could lead to you being underinsured. In the event that your home needed rebuilding, this could mean that your insurer doesn’t cover the entire cost, leaving you responsible for covering potentially thousands of pounds worth of fees.

If you underestimate the value of your contents, you could be left out of pocket if anything happened and you needed to buy replacement items. It’s important to make sure that any expensive items are covered by your policy, as you might need to list them as high-value items. Failing to do so can leave your most expensive possessions unprotected.

To find out how much contents insurance you might need, it can be useful to use a contents calculator. This helps you go room-by-room and add up the value of everything you own, so you get a more accurate estimate of how much you’d need to protect your belongings.

It’s often possible to transfer your home insurance to your new house. If you’re renting, you’ll need to let your insurer know that you’re moving before your move date. If you’re buying a house, you’ll need buildings insurance in place from when you exchange contracts, so you’ll need to notify your insurer and make sure your policy is transferred in time for this.

You might find that your costs change when you move. This is because your premiums are based on things like your property location, size and security.

If you don’t want to transfer your existing policy to your new home, you should cancel your cover once you’ve completed on the sale of your new house, or (if you’re a renter) once your belongings have been moved from your old property.

Yes, your home insurance will usually cover working from home if you work an office job doing clerical or administrative work. This includes working from a laptop or making calls.

If you run a business from your home, store any stock, or have clients visit your home, you’ll usually need specific business insurance.

Buildings insurance covers the structure of your home and any permanent fixtures. This includes the roof, walls, hard flooring like LVT or wood, and kitchen or bathroom fittings.

Contents insurance covers removable things, like carpets, rugs, curtains, and your personal belongings, like gadgets and kitchen appliances. An easy way to remember what contents insurance covers is this: if you tipped your house upside down, anything that falls out is covered by contents insurance.

The most accurate way to find out your home’s rebuild value is by hiring a RICS surveyor to come out and survey your home.

You can also use a rebuild cost calculator. Ours estimates your home’s rebuild cost using Experian data. We’ll also estimate your property’s rebuild value for you when you run a quote. The ABI and BICS also have a free rebuild cost calculator that you can use.