Because something like car insurance can often be a bit tricky and more expensive to arrange, protection for the home can sometimes take a back seat. In particular people who are renting for the first time may put little emphasis on getting insurance cover in place because the move and process itself is so unfamiliar. Some people even end up moving into a house only to realise after they have been handed the keys and they don't have any contents protection in place. But the UK home insurance market is straightforward and depending on someone's circumstances, insurance can be very cheap.

Remember that home insurance is actually a term for two different types of cover, buildings protection and contents protection. Not everyone will need both types. Buildings cover refers to the actual structure of the property, plus the fixtures and fittings, and may not be suitable for people who are renting, for example. Contents protection refers to the actual belongings generally kept in the home, including furniture, computers, books, CDs and DVDs, clothing and other general belongings. Likewise, people who own a property and rent it out may not need this or may need a limited form of it.

A common misconception within the UK Home Insurance market is that there is a law in place saying somebody must have buildings cover if they are buying a house. While of course this is sensible, it's not technically a legal requirement - there is merely a commonplace condition of a mortgage lender supplying a home loan.

As a result banks and other lenders can often actually try to supply the mortgage applicant with their own form of home insurance at the same time as they supply the lending. While it's always worth paying attention to deals which are offered to you, this method of sale may not always provide the best value and a potential policyholder may be best off looking elsewhere at a number of other different policies.

Looking closely at buildings cover, this kind of policy will actually protect the structure of the property - that is the roof, four walls and its general integrity. The circumstances normally protected against include vandalism, fire, and flooding. However, because some parts of the UK are prone to flooding, protection for this outcome can be more expensive in some areas than in others, and rarely may be completely unobtainable. This is always worth checking carefully.

Then there are some policies which pay out for damage caused by earthquakes, and some that don't. Something else which might worth checking is whether or not the property will be protected if it was damaged by a falling tree, or other forms of storm threat, for example.

A UK home insurance policy like this will also protect the fixtures and fittings of the home, which typically refers to anything which would not be taken with somebody if they were moving house. This can include light fittings, kitchen and bathroom units, and generally anything which is not freely movable, including internal doors. Related to this is the maximum sum insurable on a policy, something which pretty much every deal includes and is essentially the agreed amount it would cost to rebuild a home from the ground up if it was completely destroyed by a flood or fire. This is important to get right for obvious reasons.



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