Home Insurance

Home insurance broadly covers two distinct types of insurance: buildings insurance and contents insurance. Buildings insurance covers the policyholder against damage to the structure of their home, while contents insurance covers the policyholder for loss of or damage to contents kept within the home. Home insurance is not compulsory, but is highly recommended, as the cost of home repairs can be very high if a serious issue is encountered, and because most of an individual's belongings are held within their home.

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If you are in doubt about the value of having home insurance then national news headlines in 2007 regarding the floods in the north east and Thames valley are a good indicator of the dangers we must all guard against. Unless your home is situated on a dangerous flood plain, all home insurers offer flood cover, which provides payments to replace water damaged belongings and building work needed on flood damaged structures.

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However, home insurance does not just protect against flooding. The buildings cover aspect of home insurance also typically provides protection against lightening strikes, storm damage, theft, explosion, escape of water or oil, vandalism and subsidence. Policies can also pay towards essential maintenance and upkeep of permanent structures and fixtures.

In addition buildings insurance can cover the cost of living in temporary accommodation while your house is being repaired due to one of the above issues and, if selected, this cover can pay for repairs to utility pipes on your property. Ultimately, buildings insurance can pay to finance the rebuilding of your entire home if necessary.

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While the buildings cover portion of home insurance covers the structural integrity of your home, the contents insurance part covers your belongings. In a similar vein to buildings insurance, contents insurance provides cover against fire, smoke damage, lightning, theft, flood and escape of water or oil. However, it will also cover lose by theft and, if selected, some policies will cover accidental damage. Select policies also provide cover for cash stolen from the home.

Look for home contents insurance

There are also a number of extras that can be added to home contents insurance to make policies even more extensive. These include cover for financial costs associated with neighbourly property disputes (disagreements over boundary fence placement etc.), extra accidental damage cover that incorporates home DIY mistakes, and some policies offer the optional addition of covering cash and credit cards when carried outside of the home.

Home insurance can also provide financial assistance for restoring home security after a break-in. This can include window and lock replacements.

Typical home insurance providers offer up to £1,000,000 in buildings insurance cover, meaning that repair work or total rebuilding work that costs up to a million pounds is covered, and contents cover that stipulates damaged or lost belongings will be replaced by new equivalents.

Whatever your home insurance needs you can ensure that you find the best prices using Bullhorn's dedicated online home insurance comparison service. By spending just a few minutes filing in your needs on Bullhorn's straightforward and comprehensive search facility, the cheapest quotes to cover your building and contents insurance needs are just a click away.