Tenants have a luxury afforded to them that homeowners do not – they are able to live in their home free of the burden of costly repairs and maintenance jobs. Whether the electrical circuit burns out, there’s a creeping damp in the walls or the boiler conks out, tenants are able to call their landlord or letting agency and get them to sort out the damage.
Landlords will have a buildings insurance policy on whatever properties they own, so what kind of cover does that provide the tenants inside if theft, flood or fire occurs? Quite simply, there’s no cover. The term ‘buildings insurance’ does exactly what you might think – it takes care of the bricks and mortar and nothing more.
Therefore, if your house is burgled, your stuff – no matter what it is – won’t be covered at all. It doesn’t matter whether or not you’ve carefully logged your 200-strong, £1,500 DVD collection and taken photographic record of your brand new £2,400 Mac. If you haven’t got home contents insurance, you won’t be reimbursed if they’re stolen or damaged as a result of a break-in.
Similarly, if there’s a house fire – whether or not it’s your fault – and your belongings are incinerated or suffer smoke damage to any degree, your landlord’s buildings insurance won’t cover you for that, either. Nor will it for any of the things home contents insurance does, such as explosion, lightning or earthquake, storm or flood damage, subsidence, or water/oil leaks from heating systems.
With so many things that can potentially go wrong, there’s a strong case for getting a good home contents insurance policy. There are plenty of great deals to be had, and it needn’t cost the earth.
Buying online is a sure-fire way to save money and, with price comparison sites like MoneySupermarket working to compare up-to-date quotes from hundreds of policies, you’ll be able to find the cheapest and most appropriate deal for you in a matter of minutes.
With a home contents insurance policy covering everything from electrical items such as TVs and computers, personal effects such as DVDs, record collections, clothing and memorabilia, valuables like jewellery and ornaments, furniture, kitchen equipment, furnishings such as carpets and curtains and cash, there’s a lot that can go wrong if you don’t have a policy.
While it’s true that home insurance can’t bring back those items of sentimental value, it does cover costs that can amount to tens of thousands of pounds. Don’t risk losing everything you’ve worked hard for – take a look at what’s out there.