Insurance

You can now insure yourself against almost any eventuality. Insurance protects our families, homes and possessions, but as with all financial products, consumers need to be confident in making the right choices by comparing policies, checking the small print and shopping around for cheap deals on home insurance, life insurance, car, van and motorbike insurance.

Buildings Insurance If you are considering buying a property, a mortgage lender will not agree to lend you money unless buildings insurance is in place. If you are the freeholder (you own the building and the land that it stands on), it is your responsibility to arrange this insurance.

If you are a leaseholder (which usually means you live in a block of flats) it is the responsibility of the freeholder to arrange the cover, so ensure they have done this.

Your property is the lender’s security on the loan, so it will understandably want you to have that property insured against damage from fire, subsidence or heavy storms. Your lender will usually offer to sell buildings insurance, though you may get cheaper cover elsewhere. It certainly plays to shop around for the best home insurance deals

Contents Insurance Contents insurance provides cover for your possessions. You need to consider whether you want a new-for-old policy or cash, and assess the value of your possessions to make sure that you are not underinsured or overinsured. There is no short-cut route to determining the value of your possessions. You will have to take a bit of time going from room to room and assessing what everything is worth.

Most people prefer new-for-old policies, because they get an exact replacement or even an upgraded version of the goods lost. You don’t have any of the frustration of having to shop around for the goods you have lost as you do when you receive cash in place of your lost goods.