It’s essential to have the right type of home insurance. If you own your home and have a mortgage, then your mortgage provider will usually insist you have buildings insurance in place (which you can buy from any provider) for the length of your mortgage.

While neither buildings insurance nor contents insurance is a legal requirement, it’s always advisable to have both to protect your property and belongings in case anything unexpected happens – for example, you have a fire or your home is burgled.

If you’re renting, then buildings insurance is usually the responsibility of your landlord. It’s advisable to have contents insurance to protect your personal belongings.

Landlord insurance can include buildings insurance to cover a property that you own and rent out. You can also take out contents insurance to cover your belongings against damage or theft if you rent out a furnished property.

When you take out buildings insurance, make sure it’s based on the cost of rebuilding your home and not the market value of your home (the rebuild cost is likely to be a lot less than the market value). If you don’t know what the rebuild value of your house is, we’ll help you to work it out when you start a quote with us.

When you take out contents insurance, try to be accurate when you work out the total value of your possessions. If you overestimate, you could end up paying for more insurance then you need. Read our guide on how to estimate the value of your home contents for more information. If you start a quote with us, you can also use our calculator to help you work out the total value.