Home insurance is a key requirement for homeowners, covering both buildings and contents insurance. But how to buy home insurance? We take a look.
Why buy home insurance?
House fire
Consider your house structure, the buildings.
What if there was a fire in your house? Or if it was damaged in high winds, in a storm or through heavy snow?
Would you be able to pay for the repairs?
Consider the contents in your house.
As a start, look around the living room and see all the valuable items – perhaps the widescreen TV, the leather sofas, the expensive ornament.
What about your jewellery?
Your pictures, framed and hanging on the walls. Or you laptops and other gadgets?
Would you be able to repair your buildings if they were damaged or replace your valuable contents if they were damaged or stolen?
Where can you buy home insurance?
Home insurance is offered by many providers, leading to strong competition to get your business, particularly if your requirements are considered ‘standard’ by the insurance providers.
You can buy home insurance online, for example directly from insurance companies such as Aviva, or via comparison websites.
You can buy from an insurance broker, an expert in insurance who can help you understand your needs and advise you on the best home insurance cover to meet your needs.
How about home insurance comparison websites?
Buying home insurance
Over the last few years there has been very strong marketing of the benefits of home insurance comparison websites – sites such as Confused.com, Gocompare.com and Comparethemarket.com.
Such sites enable you to enter your house risk details once and then provide you with a range of quotes from which you have the option to choose the one that best suits your needs and then buy the insurance policy there and then.
If you have a standard set of home insurance requirements and therefore you meet certain assumptions that insurers set out, you are likely to get a number of quotes from these comparison sites and could well get some good deals.
Be careful to make sure you get the insurance cover you really need – the cheapest premium may not necessarily be the best for you.
If your requirements are not standard, it is unlikely you’ll get automatic online quotes provided.
Buying non standard home insurance
Do you have a high value collection?
One reason that your requirements for home insurance may not be considered standard is if you have items or collections of higher value than perhaps the average.
This could include jewellery, furs, precious metal items such as gold and silver, art work and collections of valuable items such as stamps, coins, watches, steiff teddy bears or maybe Clarice Cliff.
If either collectively or individually their value is greater than limits set by insurers you will not be able to get a standard quote.
Some insurers for example will not quote under a standard home insurance policy if you have individual items worth more than £2,000.
Do you have more than one property or a high value property?
Another reason could be because you need to insure a property that is considered high value or perhaps you have more than one property to insure, perhaps a holiday home that is left unoccupied for more than a set period.
Is your house built of non-standard construction?
Buying thatched cottage insurance
If your house is built of standard construction, of bricks and a tiled roof for example then standard buildings insurance is likely to be suitable for you.
However, if your house is not of standard construction, for example it has a thatched roof, rather than a tiled rood, you are likely to require specialist insurance.
In these circumstances your home insurance requirements may be better covered by High Net Worth home insurance or high value home insurance or a specialist insurance, perhaps for thatched roofed properties for example.
In these cases you’re likely to benefit from getting professional insurance advice and guidance from an insurance broker.
An option is to buy High Net Worth home insurance or specialist home insurance via an Insurance Broker
MoneyHighStreet has partnered with a leading insurance broker, W B Baxter Insurance Brokers Ltd, to offer High Net Worth home insurance advice and products via a top quality service.
Contact Baxters and get Free advice about your high net worth home insurance, understand what your best options are and as appropriate buy home insurance.
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Media Netrix Limited is an Introducer Appointed Representative of W B Baxter Ltd, an insurance intermediary authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). W B Baxter Ltd is bound by its rules in the conduct of its general insurance mediation activities. Details of W B Baxter Ltd’s authorisation (registration No 146480) can be checked by visiting the FSA’s website http://www.fsa.gov.uk/register or by telephoning 0845 606 1234.
Please note that as an Introducer Appointed Representative of W B Baxter Ltd, Media Netrix Limited is not able to give you advice on any general insurance products or the W B Baxter Ltd services.
The registered office of W B Baxter Ltd is 263 Cranbrook Road, Ilford, Essex IG1 4TG. Registered No 277519.
