Whether you are buying a new house or you have lived in the same place for some time, you should have both house and contents insurance. Some home owners may have had to insure their house as part of their mortgage agreement because the lender likes to know that their investment is safe in the event of fire etc. You can get house and contents insurance as separate policies or you can get the two together.

Some people think that because they have house insurance their furniture and possessions are also insured but this is not the case. Most house insurance policies are really building insurance that is to say that the insurance covers the cost of repairing, rebuilding or replacing your house under certain circumstances. Most house insurance policies also cover the home owner for any damage that occurs to neighboring homes if there is a fire in the house.

Home owners need contents insurance in the event of fire or theft. If someone breaks into your home and steals some of your possessions then you cannot claim for them on house insurance alone, to do that you need contents insurance. You also need contents insurance so that you can replace your belongings in the event of a fire. If you have some extra valuable possessions such as jewellery or antiques then you may need a separate policy for personal possessions.

The type of cover you get with house and contents insurance may vary from one insurance provider to another. You should never sign a contract for an insurance premium until you have read all of the small print on the contract. The small print on such an agreement is where the exclusion clauses are to be found. An exclusion clause means that you are not insured for what ever situation is mentioned in that clause. Insurance companies differ on what factors they include and exclude and the only way to get the kind of house and contents insurance that is right for you is to do some research.

You should get more than one quotation for your house and contents insurance and then you need to see which cover is best suited to your needs and your budget before you make a decision. What is, on the face of it, the cheapest insurance policy, may not be the most cost effective in the long run if it has a lot of exclusions. What you need is a policy that is fairly straightforward and that does not exclude any of the essentials. Everyone should have both house and contents insurance for their own peace of mind and because they may not be able to afford to replace their house and belongings without that insurance.