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Home Insurance
In terms of home insurance, there are two distinct types: one comes as part of your mortgage arrangement (buildings insurance) and the other (contents insurance) is an optional agreement. Although the two types can be purchased individually, it may be less of a headache to get them both from the same provider, and avoid buying through a third party - like a bank - as they will take commission over and above the lender's fees.
Buildings insurance, as the name suggests, is there to cover everything from structural issues to fittings such as your bathroom suite or garden fence - in other words, all the permanent fixtures in your house. You are obliged to take out this kind of insurance, but you don't have to go to your mortgage lender for it and often it is worth shopping around for the best deal.
Buildings insurance provides cover for a range of risks - fire to flood, vandalism to burglary - but it is also vital to check what is not covered: storm damage and bungled DIY jobs are unlikely to be.
Contents insurance is there to cover all of the mobile assets of your household, which includes anything from electrical items to clothes, but will only offer to pay up to a given limit and accidental damage is not always covered.
There are two choices of contents insurance: 'replacement as new', where the policy-holder pays more but gets their goods replaced with new ones, and 'indemnity cover' which is cheaper but allows for the depreciation in value of the goods over time in the size of the final payout. More valuable items, such as artworks or jewelry, are better covered separately.
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