Buildings insurance

It's not a legal requirement, but in some instances you may be required to have buildings insurance in place. Regardless of your situation, it's worth considering both buildings and contents insurance. Without buildings insurance, any damage to your home could cost you thousands.

You have a mortgage

Mortgage lenders may expect you to have this insurance before you exchange in order to protect against the cost of potential damage to your home. If you own a flat, having buildings insurance may not be necessary.

You own your home outright

You may not have a mortgage lender requiring you to have buildings insurance anymore, but it's still really worth considering. Look at it like protecting your investment, you could risk spending thousands by not having a policy in place if something happens to your home.

You're a landlord

As a landlord, it's worth considering specialist buildings insurance. A standard policy could be invalidated if something happens to your property while you're renting it to a tenant and you need to make a claim.

You're the executor of a will

This is someone who is named in a will as legally responsible for handling the estate of a person who has died. This process is known as probate and the property may be left unoccupied. There is a specialist home insurance policy to cover a property in this type of situation.

You rent

If you're renting a property, your landlord should have buildings insurance in place as it is their responsibility. Instead, a contents insurance policy is worth considering as it covers the cost of replacing your belongings if they’re stolen or damaged.

If you own a leasehold flat

Typically a freeholder or a management company can arrange buildings insurance and charge you service fee. This isn't always the case, so you must check your agreement. If you're responsible for finding cover, there are specialist policies available to you.

Otherwise known as policy exclusions, each buildings insurance policy has its own list of what you won't be able to claim for. Generally, most insurers won't include cover for:

• Wear and tear

  This happens over time and is unrelated to sudden intentional or accidental damage. A gradual damage claim is likely to be rejected by an insurer.

• Poor maintenance

  There's almost always a job to do around the house, neglecting the smaller jobs can turn into bigger issues over time. Keeping everything around the house in check can help prevent more costlier repairs that are unlikely to be covered.

• Poor workmanship or negligence

  It's likely to depend on what the issue is and when the work was done, but faulty workmanship is unlikely to be covered. If a builder has breached any terms, you could be entitled to have repairs or replacements completed free of charge but you will need to speak with the builder.

• Renovations

  If you're completing renovation work at your property, a standard buildings insurance policy might not cover you if anything happens. You should check your policy first, but you may need to get a specialist policy for renovation work.

• Frost to external pipes and brickwork

  Frost occurs when cold weather rolls around, this is a typical exclusion as it's not sudden or unexpected.

• Rising damp

  Rising damp is seen by insurers as a sign of gradual decline in the condition of the property. This is why it isn't generally covered in buildings insurance.

Personal belongings aren't covered by buildings insurance and a separate policy could be required unless you get a policy that combines both.

The rebuild cost of your property is typically estimated with a number of factors in mind, including:

The age of your property

An older property or a listed building could increase the rebuild cost. Specialist materials may be needed to carry out building work and planning approval could be necessary for properties of significant architectural or historic interest.

The building materials used

Most properties are built from brick or stone with a slate or tile roof. Using other materials could be more expensive due to their availability and specialist nature.

Type of property and the number of doors, windows and rooms

All of these factors can relate to the size of the property. There are several types of houses in the UK such as terraced, semi-detached and detached. The number of doors, windows and rooms are considered as the more there are, the more it could cost to replace them.

Other features

There are other parts of a property that could affect the rebuild value such as a conservatory, porch, solar panels and garage, for example. The more features you have, the greater the rebuild value could be.

There are a number of ways you can reduce the cost of your buildings insurance policy:

• Not over-insuring

  Before you compare quotes, we'll ask you about the total rebuild cost of the property and how much it would cost to replace your home contents. You can use a calculator to accurately estimate a rebuild cost, overestimating tends to lead to more expensive insurance costs.

• Exploring policy options

  There a range of additional benefits you can choose from, limiting these to what you need can help bring costs down. Consider every question carefully - features offer you more cover, but they're likely to come at an extra cost.

• Paying annually

  As convenient as it is to pay for your home insurance in monthly instalments, it's almost always more expensive. Insurers charge interest and an admin fee on top of your base insurance costs simply for paying in instalments. If you can afford to do so, paying in one lump can help save money.

• Comparing quotes

  It's always worth comparing quotes from a list of providers, this way you can save money and contrast policy features. Consider not auto renewing your policy, shopping around is likely to help you find a better deal than your renewal quote.

• Making your home safer

  Owning security features reduces the risk of your property from being burgled. This can help lower your buildings insurance costs while offering you extra peace of mind.

• Building your no-claims bonus (NCB)

  By avoiding making a claim on your insurance for a year, you normally get a discount on the price you pay at renewal. You can continue earning a bigger discount for every year you don't claim for up to five years. Generally your NCB still applies even if you switch insurers.

In most cases you'll have a range of optional benefits you can include in your policy, but these likely come at an extra cost. Exactly what is included as standard can vary between insurers, so it's worth checking your policy before you buy.

Optional benefits include:

Accidental damage cover

Usually a buildings insurance policy covers you for sudden damage by weather, fire or crime. It wouldn't cover accidental damage such as stepping through the ceiling while working in the attic, for example. Adding this to your policy can help cover unintentional incidents.

Legal expenses cover

Taking a case to court can be expensive, the legal expenses benefit is there to help cover the costs. There are a number of ways it can help, but most importantly for buildings insurance it covers disagreements about property.

Home emergency cover

There for emergency issues or urgent repairs, it covers the cost of needing to call out a tradesperson to fix the issue.

Boiler breakdown cover

Boiler breakdown cover helps protect you from repair costs when your boiler breaks down. It can cover urgent repairs, callout charges, labour and spare parts. It's worth considering especially for boilers not covered by warranties.

Alternative accommodation cover

You may find yourself in a situation where your home has suffered damages from a storm or flood. If your property is unsafe to live in, you may need alternative accommodation until the damage is fixed. This is exactly what this type of cover provides.

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