Whether you are insuring a new home that you have just moved into with brand new furniture, or you are insuring a home for the first time, there’s a chance you are going to run into a type of insurance that you haven’t heard of before because the world of insurance can get very confusing. Two of the most common, yet also most confused pieces of insurance are home insurance and contents insurance.
To be fair, they are often bundled together as home and contents insurance, but each one is its own separate type and they have some differences in what they cover. This article is going to go through each one and help you figure out the differences.
What Is Home Insurance?
Home insurance covers your house and any other structures that might be on your property, including your fences, ground swimming pool, and shed. Home insurance covers several events that can cause loss or damage to your home and the outside structures.
These events can include fire, a theft that is carried out or attempted, a burst pipe, an impact on the home such as a fallen tree, earthquakes, and vandalism on your property.
Home Insurance can also cover your garage, home extensions, domestic fixtures that are permanently attached to your house, and other structures. If loss or damage occurs to them due to the above events, then they are insured.
Home Insurance Extras
You can get flood coverage to protect your items from flooding, as well as a sum insured safeguard. If the sum that is insured is unable to repair or replace the damage to your home, then the total can be increased by up to 25% to cover it.
What Is Contents Insurance?
Contents insurance, on the other hand, covers the belongings that go inside of your home, such as your clothes, furniture, and electrical appliances, along with valuables like jewelry, sunglasses, and cameras. If these items are damaged or stolen, you can be covered up to the amount of your contents sum insured.
While you might not be able to get contents insurance on everything, you should at least get it on the items inside of your home that you see as valuable. That way, you will be compensated in case those items get damaged or destroyed.
Content Insurance Extras
Additionally, you can get a personal effects cover that can insure portable items that you are taking away from your home, protecting them from loss and damage while on vacation. If you are storing your items in a commercial storage facility, you can also get commercial storage coverage to keep your items safe
Advantages of a Combined Home & Contents Insurance Policy
A combined home and contents insurance policy is a lot like peanut butter and chocolate. Both are fantastic on their own, but why wouldn’t you have them together? Because if something like a fire or an earthquake, or even a thief breaks into your house or damages your home, they probably are damaging the contents of your home as well.
Having everything covered under that one policy will protect everything you own and care about, so that if or when an event that is covered does happen to your home, everything is defended. If you have the chance, then get both, especially if you can use a good company like iSelect.
Make Sure To Pick Both
Once you understand what each policy covers you can better pick which one will work for you, although in the case of home and contents insurance, you should focus on getting both because they will fully support one another.
