You might be surprised to learn how many homes have the latest technology but haven't insured their belongings in case of theft or damage. If you want to keep your personal belongings safe, you should insure them with a home contents insurance.
What to Protect
A home contents insurance policy lets you insure any or all of the things in your home. Still, if you have personal items in your home worth more than a certain amount of GBP, you should talk to your home contents insurance provider about them. In most cases, property worth more than a certain amount needs to be declared separately (and, in certain cases, such as with expensive diamond engagement rings, they may need to be insured independently).
Itemise Your Possessions
Once you've decided to buy home contents insurance, you need to make a list of all the things in your home. This is called a "inventory." A really good tip here is not to put all of your things in one room and then make a list of them. Instead, do this by going from room to room. So, if damage or theft only happens to one part of the house, your inventory will be broken down by room. Even better, try walking through your home with a video camera and recording all of the things in each room. Then, you can keep a copy of the video with the stock. But if you don't have a video camera, taking pictures of your things with a still camera is better than not taking any pictures at all.
How to put a price on your things
It is important to remember that home contents insurance covers the cost of replacing the lost, stolen, or broken item. It doesn't take anything from the past into account. So, if you have expensive items in your home, you should have them valued by a third party, preferably an insurance-approved valuer, and keep a copy of the valuation receipt with your insurance policy. You can figure out the value of the other things in your home by how much you paid for them or, better yet, by going to the stores and seeing how much each of them would cost to buy. This is the amount you'll be paid if the item is lost or damaged.
How to get insurance for the things in your home
Once you have figured out how much your things are worth and made a list of them, you can go online and get quotes for home contents insurance based on their value and what you want to have covered by the policy.
What will the premium for insurance pay for?
Most insurance policies will cover you if the thing you insured gets lost, stolen, or broken. In this case, the damage could be caused by something like a bad storm or flooding, or it could be because the boiler burst. You should also read your policy carefully because some home contents insurance policies cover items that are lost outside of the home, like when you are driving with them in the car.
