Home Buildings and Contents Insurance

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A great deal on home Insurance

It’s our job to ensure that you have the insurance protections in place that will protect your most valuable possessions. Obtaining home buildings and contents insurance isn’t just about hoping for the best on the policy that you have purchased.

For many people insurance is that piece of paper that they hope they never have to use, it makes sense to ensure you have the best available insurance coverage and that you understand what you are buying, simple things like what you are covering, does it protects your contents on a new for old basis or just as the item stands with reductions for wear and tear, how much should you insure for, what is the rebuild cost of your home property, all these might seem simple points but you must get them right, and that’s where we can help you.

What does home insurance cover?

Home Building and Contents insurance are designed to protect against damage caused by various perils, perils on an insurance policy are wide-ranging but common ones may be fire, storm or in more recent times flood, even damage caused by water in the home such as burst pipes, accidental damage is available too, putting the Christmas tree back in the loft can, of course, be fraught with danger.

Contents Insurance for your home can become complex, the contents themselves, valuables, valuables limits, personal effects are taken out of the home such as jewelry for instance can soon mount up in value, pedal cycles need insuring as does personal money away from the home.

This is where personal help and advice from a broker is essential, helping you to understand what you need to insure for, avoiding one of the main problems with insurance which is avoiding underinsurance.

How does underinsurance work?

Most people have heard of underinsurance, however understanding how it works and what it means to you can be quite complex, but we can help you get through this.

Underinsurance whether for buildings insurance or contents insurance works in the same way, it’s commonly referred to as the average clause, it’s in almost all insurance policies, and here is a very simple example.

You insure your home for a particular figure, let’s take £200,000 this is to reinstate the property fully. There is a particularly bad storm that damages your roof, the cost to repair the roof is £10,000. The insurer appoints a loss adjuster; these are people who agree on costs on behalf of the insurer and will generally help in the speedy process of getting the repairs carried out and minimise further losses and costs.

However, when the adjuster arrives there is a problem, he says that the house or property should be insured for more and suggest that it’s nearer to £400,000.

Whilst the cost of repairs is £10,000, the maximum the insurer is going to pay is £5,000 less any excess, and this is why. Underinsurance on the building has occurred because the value for which the building is insured is 50% of what the actual amount should be. So, in simple terms, rebuild cost should be £400,000, not £200,000, because it’s 50% out then the maximum the insurer will pay is 50% of the actual loss leaving you the policyholder to meet the rest of the cost, its sounds rather unfair but as you have only paid for a lower amount the insurance company isn’t just going to give you a cheque.

Of course, this is a very simple example but there are ways where you can avoid underinsurance, and help and advice is available to you.

The contents of your home can be underinsured too in the same way so you must calculate your contents on their “as new” values not what you paid for them or what you think they might be worth. Once you know how Underinsurance can easily be avoided.

What types of home insurance is available

Whether you live in a two up two down, a log cabin, a thatched house, a mansion or a castle, or even that futuristic home hidden in the landscape, there is an insurance policy that will fit your requirements.

The building of your home can be built of many different materials, typical brick and block with a slate or timber roof are traditional even today, but sometimes there are different types of building structures, from the centuries-old wattle and daub where mud and straw were used between oak timbers, to modern timber frame constructed premises where materials are used for the sake of the environment. Having access to a very wide panel of standard and specialist insurers DCJ will help you find the best policy type to meet the requirements of your buildings and contents insurance.

Buildings & Contents Insurance

Typically a standard home insurance policy would be based on the number of bedrooms you have, all you have to do is ensure the sums insured, the replacement value for everything you have fits the policy type, many provide standard limits, as an example, for valuables in the home such as TV’s and other infotainment systems. Items taken out the home, pedal cycles insurance, as well as money and credit cards you have with you all the time.

More than just home insurance

Home insurance isn’t just about buildings and contents, it’s much wider than that with many insurance covers as optional extensions, policies to fit larger and more expensive properties to those that are thatched or have in the past experienced subsidence.

High net worth Home Insurance

When the standard just doesn’t cut it, a High Net Worth Home insurance policy allows you ultimate flexibility, designed with high-value buildings and contents in mind, these types of policies go beyond just your home you can if you wish to add everything from high-value jewelry, watches or unique collections, right through to collectors vehicles if required.

We can provide a range of High Net Worth home buildings and contents insurance options, typically bespoke to your requirements.

                High-Value Buildings – no upper sum insured

                High-Value Contents Insurance

                Works of Art, Oils, Sculptures

Collections

Watch & Jewellery Insurance

Cover automatically worldwide for items away from the home too.

Properties with history of subsidence

Sometimes a property may experience or have experienced subsidence; this can be due to many factors, underground workings such as mines which over the years cause buildings to develop cracks. Weather can also play a big part in buildings subsidence, this can be caused by long spells of dry weather combined with heavy rainfall.

As trees grow they can not only develop an extensive root network but can also drink much more water.

Most buildings insurance policies will include subsidence insurance as standard, the problem arises when subsidence has occurred and the cover is needed, this is when you need to be dealing with a broker than assist you as it requires more work than just putting information into an online system. Speak to us about how we can help you with your subsidence insurance requirements.

Insurance Cover for properties in a flood area.

This has become a real problem for not only buildings insurance insurers in recent times but also homeowners.  The term flood can encompass all types of water problems and it’s not always about standing water, even buildings on a hill can flood, albeit temporarily which is referred to as flash flood, it does a lot of damage in a short period and is gone as quickly as it arrived.

With organisations such as the environment agency who can now predict and pinpoint more easily where a flood may occur this enables insurers to better decide on how they offer insurance, unfortunately where they once didn’t have a problem, they now do.

Home contents and buildings cover for homes that have been affected by flood can be more difficult to insure.

There are specialist insurers that are prepared to insure buildings and contents in flood areas, speak to us about getting insurance if you have suffered flood damage in the past.

Home Renovation insurance

Sometimes your home just isn’t large enough, there are many ways in which your home can be extended, upwards, downwards and in increasing numbers downwards, especially where space is at a premium.

Your everyday home insurer isn’t going to like this so you need specialist insurance that will provide insurance cover for the existing building, the fire insurance, the storm or flood cover you would expect, this is commonly referred to as existing structure insurance, the cover will be required for the new works for the many perils nature can throw at it, but the materials used in its construction need to insure against theft for instance.

Sounds all complicated doesn’t it, the thing is it’s this type of specialist cover that you are going to need whether you are just renovating an existing property or it’s self-build insurance.

Self Build Home Insurance

When the traditional box won’t do, it’s time to build your own, whether that’s not quite the traditional shape or it’s a totally unique building your own home comes with all the benefits of making something no one else has got.

Just like renovating a home, you need specialist insurance, of course, this is available online like other types of home insurance but why leave this to chance, you can deal with an insurance broker that provides options and most of all that all-important advice.