Making Sure You Have The Right Insurance For your Home
Buying your first ever home is without question a very exciting and nervous time. Unfortunately you never know for sure if everything will go through until you are in possession of the front door key.
My wife and I have been together for nearly twenty years and we are parents to 10 year old twin girls. For the entire time we have been together we have always lived in rented accommodation but of course our dream was to own our very own home, but it’s very difficult and with myself being self employed it meant we would need a larger than a normal deposit. After years of saving we finally had enough money for a deposit and about 18 months ago I think the stars aligned perfectly as we found a property we loved at the right price and we took the plunge and made an offer to buy.
We were both without question very nervous and hoped that everything would go perfectly and that the purchase of our first home would go without a hitch. Sadly that is not a given and things can go wrong even during the purchasing process. This could cost you a lot of money. Of course this can be covered by insurance and once the purchase goes through and you own your new home you will need other types of insurance. This is article: What Type Of Insurance Should you Get When Buying A House, is very informative and helpful as it covers every aspect in detail.
So I am now going to highlight a few insurance policies that you will need when purchasing your new home and some insurance policies you will need when you are a homeowner.
1. Home Buyers Insurance
Home buyers insurance is very important because as I have already mentioned during the purchase process lots of things can go wrong and you could end up out of pocket if the purchase fell through.
We will probably have paid out for conveyance fees, solicitors fees and other costs such as land registry fees. This can easily amount to a lot of money.
Home buyers insurance is usually taken up for up to six months and will cover you for most aspects of purchasing a house but won’t cover you for everything so make sure you know exactly what you are covered for and not. For example, if you can’t get a mortgage and go ahead with the house purchase you will not be covered by home buyers insurance.
2. Building Insurance
Building insurance is a legal requirement in the UK for mortgage purposes and you most likely need this in place before you exchange contracts because mortgage lenders will require this.
Building insurance covers you against repairs and damage to your property or in worse case scenario your home needs re-building completely so it’s very important that you are covered for the full amount of a re-build. It’s also worth noting that not everything is covered in home building insurance so make sure you read the policy to see if there are any exceptions.
3. Home contents insurance
Nowadays nearly all homes have many expensive items such as televisions, laptops and phones. In fact the list is endless. If you sat down and added the cost of replacing your personal possessions it would probably shock you because it will run into many thousands of pounds.
This is why a home contents insurance policy is an absolute must have. A home contents insurance policy covers you against theft or damage of any personal items that are not part of the structure of the building. It covers against the cost of repairing or replacing the item. You can also have included accidental damage to your possessions included in your home contents policy. This is vital especially with young children which we found out when one of our twin girls swung a toy which she let go of and it crack the television screen!
Of course ideally we don’t want to have a problems with our home and never have a need to use the insurance policy, but peace of mind is so important that should the unexpected happen you are covered and won’t be faced with a large bill that maybe you won’t be able to afford.
What sort of insurance do you have for your home? I would love to hear in the comments below.
