Home Contents Insurance

Home contents insurance is an insurance policy that covers the contents of your home against loss, damage or theft. It doesn’t matter whether you own the home or rent it, a home contents insurance policy protects your items that are inside the home you live in while they are there.

A home contents insurance policy is sometimes called a personal property insurance policy. If you rent your home, it can also be called a renters policy, although in a renters policy you will usually be covered for damage or loss to your personal property as well as whatever damage you may cause to your landlord’s property.

If you think that the items in your home don’t have much value, think again. If anything happened to them or they were to suddenly disappear, how much would you have to spend to replace everything? Take a walk through your home and imagine if you needed to buy everything again – the furniture, the carpet or rugs, the TV sets along with the DVD players, your computer(s) and maybe a laptop, all of your clothing and your children’s toys, electronics equipment, bicycles, jewelry, and on and on. When you really think about it, why wouldn’t you have a home contents insurance policy?

A complete home inventory is one of the most important things you can do to protect your belongings. Keep accurate records of major purchases including the store receipt. This can come in handy when you need to file a claim and also at tax time to prove a loss. Do you have a video camera? Do a walk-through of your house and narrate the different items you have while capturing them on camera. Take photocopies of any receipts and your written inventory, and keep a copy in a safe deposit box or a relative’s home. Don’t keep the only copy of your inventory in your home. In case of a fire or natural disaster, you’ll lose the only record you have.

Most standard home contents insurance policies cover your personal property for its purchase value which depreciates over time. Be sure to consider buying a Replacement Cost policy which will insure your belongings at the price it would cost you to buy the items today. It’ll cost a little more, but it may be worth it if you ever find yourself needing to replace stolen or damaged items at today’s prices.

We’ll share with you the benefits of home insurance including why you should have it and your options for coverage, we’ll explain home insurance in simple terms, you’ll learn some cheap home insurance tips and we’ll explain building insurance too.