Insuring my house!

If you’re a property owner, or just about to be one, you must understand the pro’s and con’s of insuring it. When you exchange contracts, you become responsible for that property, from that very second, and into the future. The majority of people will need a mortgage to buy a house and as such buildings insurance is a legal requirement. If you own your house outright you will almost certainly want to protect such a significant asset.

Tenants can look away now – you don’t need to know or worry about buildings insurance… you may find our articles on contents insurance useful.

Is buildings insurance necessary?

WHAT IS BUILDINGS INSURANCE? 

Buildings insurance is the insurance you take out against the physical structure of the property. It covers any damage that’s caused to the walls, roof, floors, doors, windows and ceilings and any permanent fixtures and fittings – for example your fitted wardrobes, bath, and your kitchen sink. It also covers the infrastructure – such as the electric cables and water pipes and drains. 

Policies cover the structure as standard. However, you can choose to include many more items to your policy, including damage caused by fires, floods or storms, accidents, alternative accommodation while home repairs are made, swimming pools, gardens, subsidence/heave and frozen/burst pipes.

It can be usual for providers to amalgamate buildings and contents insurance together and call it “home insurance”. This is great if you’re a residential property owner, but if you’re a landlord or tenant, the insurance policies should be independent and taken out by the two parties separately. 

ARE YOU A TENANT? 

The only people who need to worry about buildings insurance are property owners. So, if you’re tenant, you don’t need to worry, as it’s your landlord’s responsibility. (It is, however, a tenant’s responsibility to take out contents insurance – see Contents Insurance Mr Insurer page). 

DO YOU OWN YOUR OWN HOME?

Congratulations! Being on the property ladder is no mean feat in this climate! If you own a leasehold flat in a larger building, buildings insurance should be covered by the freeholder. The freeholder will either be an individual or a management company and you should absolutely check that the building is insured. 

If you own a share of freehold flat – you must check that you as a group have got insurance for the building. If you own a freehold house (congratulations again), you can get the best deals by taking a dual policy but as ever always make sure you use a comparison site to get the right deal for you. GoCompare, Money Supermarket, Confused.com, Money Saving Expert are all websites we like! But it is also worth seeing if you can get any cashback from websites like TopCashback and Quidco. Just to confuse matters some companies do not work with these kind of websites and offer the best deals when you contact them direct like Direct Line. 

A key tip when getting the appropriate level of insurance is that you are covered for the total rebuild value not the market value. On the most part the cost of rebuilding your home is far less that the cost of buying your house. Therefore knowing an accurate ‘re-build cost’ ensures you only buy insurance for that value which is far cheaper than the market value. Don’t be pushed by the insurance company and only buy the level of cover you need.  

WHAT HAPPENS IF THE PROPERTY IS EMPTY FOR A LONG PERIOD OF TIME? 

You may need to take out “unoccupied property insurance” which is supplementary to your buildings insurance. There are lots of reasons why you might need to take this out, for example the empty property is your holiday home, or you inherited a property, or it’s on the market and you have moved on to a new home and left it empty, or you’re doing massive renovation work and have to move out while the builders are working, or you’re away on business or a sabbatical. There’s a good page on Compare the Market about unoccupied properties insurance. 

Remember to always be truthful with your insurer as if you are found to have made a mistake or deliberately lied your Insurance is not valid. This could result in a small cost saving day 1 costing you the house were the worst to happen further down the line.

IS BUILDINGS INSURANCE A LEGAL REQUIREMENT?

If you own the property outright, it’s up to you and it’s not a legal requirement. However, you would be taking a serious gamble not to insure your property, and no one would advocate doing that. 

If you have a mortgage, your lender will 100% require you to take out buildings insurance. As soon as you exchange contracts, the property is your legal responsibility and the insurance protects your investment, which when you have a mortgage, is also the bank’s investment. 

ARE YOU A LANDLORD? 

If you own a property and let it out, you also are legally responsible for the building. Your tenants should independently insure their contents, but you must take out buildings insurance

ARE THERE TOOLS OUT THERE TO HELP ME UNDERSTAND ANY RISKS MY PROPERTY HAVE?

Lots of the advice and comparison sites have free tools you can use, for example Money Supermarket tools to help you know burglary hotspots, home insurance price indexes, working out your house age its effect on home insurance costs etc. 

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