• Buildings insurance covers the structure of your home and fixed fittings
• Contents insurance covers your possessions inside the property 

What does contents insurance cover?

Buildings insurance covers the cost of repairing damage caused by fire or smoke, storms, floods, falling trees, subsidence or vandalism. 

You should have enough buildings insurance to cover the cost of rebuilding your home from scratch.

Anything that is part of the fabric of your property should be insured, such as:

• The physical structure, such as the walls, ceiling and roof
• Permanent fixtures such as a fitted kitchen and bathroom
• Some policies will cover outside structures such as garages, sheds, and fences – but not all

What does contents insurance cover?

Contents insurance covers the cost of replacing belongings inside your home if they are stolen or damaged by, say, fire or flood.

There are two main types

1. An indemnity policy. Pays out for the value of your item taking into account wear and tear. So for example, a claim for a rug bought for £500 five years ago would lead to a payout of a smaller amount than that.
2. A new-for-old policy. The payout would be enough for a brand-new rug.

The following are covered as standard in contents policies:

• Furniture – for example, beds, sofas or wardrobes
• Cookware and glassware 
• Soft furnishings such as curtains
• Flooring materials – carpets and rugs
• Removable fittings you would take with you if you moved, such as curtains and rugs
• White goods such as fridges, washing machines and dishwashers
• Electronic goods – TVs, laptops, phones and games consoles 
• Leisure products such as toys, sports equipment, bikes and books
• Art and jewellery
• Clothes and shoes
• Garden equipment – for example, tools, lawnmowers, garden furniture

If you own valuable items such as artwork, sports equipment or musical instruments, you may need to pay higher premiums to insure these to their full value.

Some policies also cover you for loss outside the home of possessions such as mobile phones, cameras or jewellery. But you may pay more for this

Accidental damage or home emergency cover are usually optional extras.

Do I need home insurance?

It is not a legal requirement to have home insurance. But it will give you peace of mind that your home and possessions are protected if disaster strikes.

In any case, if you are taking out a mortgage, most lenders will insist on seeing proof that you have buildings insurance before they will lend to you.

Types of home insurance for specific circumstances

Home insurance is worth careful consideration if you are a:

• Homeowner
• Renter
• Landlord
• Student
• Flat sharer
• Holiday homeowner

Anyone owning or renting a property should consider taking out cover.

But there are some more specialist types of home insurance. We outline these below.

Landlord insurance

A standard buildings insurance policy usually won’t be suitable if you are a landlord, because other people will be living in the building – not just you, the policyholder.

However, there are policies created specifically for landlords that might cover multiple properties on one policy and that insure against events such as:

• Public liability, if a tenant is injured because of an injury in your property that is judged to be your responsibility, such as a loose paving stone.
• If there is a fault in your property, such as a burst pipe, that affects a neighbour.
• Damage to furnishings. And the cost of alternative accommodation for tenants if the property is not fit to live in because of an insured event such as fire or flood.
• You can also choose add-ons. These may cover for loss of rent, malicious damage or legal expenses.

Tenants’ insurance

As a tenant renting a house or flat, you won’t normally need buildings insurance because this will be your landlord’s responsibility.

Instead, look at home insurance for renters, often called tenants’ contents insurance, which will cover your belongings.

You may pay more for this if you live in a house-share where people are coming and going and your stuff could be at greater risk of theft.

You can also get tenants’ liability insurance. This covers you if you damage fixtures, fittings and furniture in the property, so you can avoid losing your deposit.

Student contents insurance

The advice service Save the Student reported in September 2021 that 36% of students have been the victims of theft in halls of residence or shared houses.

They are seen as prime targets for thieves because there will be a lot of high-value items, such as laptops, phones and bikes, all in one place.

Some of these possessions may also get left in communal areas, and some student houses may not be fully secure.

That’s why specialist student contents insurance exists – to protect those essential items you may not be able to afford to replace.

Look for a policy with “walk-in theft” cover if your bedroom door doesn’t lock – no forcible entry has to occur to make a claim.

Your parents’ content insurance policy may also cover some of your valuables away from home, so check this too.

Listed buildings insurance

There is a certain prestige that comes with living in a listed building. But the flipside is that restrictions on these character homes can make them expensive and time-consuming to repair.

A listed buildings insurance policy takes this into account, giving you the right level of cover should your property suffer damage and need specialist materials and labour to repair it.

It can also include alternative accommodation for you in case you can’t live there while repairs are being carried out.  

High-value home insurance

If your home and its contents are worth a lot, not only are you potentially at greater risk from theft, but standard home insurance policies might not give you a high enough level of cover.

Some policies, for example, will only let you claim up to £1,000 to replace an individual item.

If you have got several items worth more than this, such as jewellery, watches, fine art or antiques, it’s probably worth considering a specialist high-value home insurance policy.

Just like with a standard policy, you can get buildings and contents cover separately, or choose one policy that includes both.

Some of these high-value policies offer protection for homes worth £1m upwards, and some offer unlimited cover.

High-net-worth contents insurance might cover you for valuables worth £100,000-£250,000 or more, or allow you to claim for £5,000 or more per item, for instance.

Insurers may require individual items to be professionally valued before they agree to cover them.

Non-standard construction

Some properties – those with thatched roofs, timber frames or anything outside the usual brick construction – are often deemed more damage-prone and expensive to repair, so can cost more to insure.

If you own such a property, you may wish to look at specialist insurers that deal specifically with non-standard houses.