What is home insurance?
The best way to answer, 'What is home insurance?’, is to explain what happens if you don’t have it, or you have a policy that doesn’t cover all the things that could go wrong.
You will sometimes see home insurance referred to as ‘house insurance’. In fact, storms, fires, floods, broken pipes and other incidents can affect any building you live in. Whether that is a:
- Detached, semi-detached or terraced house
- Bungalow
- Cottage
- Flat
- Apartment
From roof damage caused by high winds, down to subsidence issues with your foundations or walls, your home can suffer significant problems. Without home insurance, you would face substantial costs for repairing or rebuilding your property.
Also, the same issues, as well as burglaries or incidents of accidental damage, can result in you having to replace expensive equipment, such as furniture or personal belongings you keep within your property.
For this reason, home insurance usually includes two essential elements:
- Buildings insurance
- Contents insurance
Many homeowners buy policies that include both (combined home insurance), but you can separate them if you need to. You could even have buildings and content insurance with separate providers.
Let’s look at what these two types of home insurance cover in more detail, and when you may only need contents cover.