Home insurance for beginners

The Times has a great beginner's guide to home insurance. There are two main types of home insurance; building and contents.

For those of you too lazy to read the article here are some brief highlights:

Building insurance

• Most lenders insist that you have this before offering a home loan.
• Protects the bricks and mortar of your property plus permanent fixtures like fitted kitchens and bathrooms.
• Also covers garages, greenhouses and sheds, but not usually boundary walls, fences and driveways.
• Protects a home from fire and damage by third parties.
• Not all policies cover storm and flood damage, burst pipes, water leakage and subsidence.
  Based on cost of rebuilding a property rather than its market value.
• Most policies will provide you with alternative accommodation should your home become uninhabitable.
  

Contents insurance

• Not compulsory, but advisable.
• Protects your possessions - anything from electronic goods, furniture and jewellery, to sports equipment and the food in your freezer. Increasingly, garden plants and tools are insurable too.
• Covers fire and third party damage, as well as theft, but may not pay out for damage caused by storms, flooding, frozen pipes and other leakages.
• Some policies cover legal costs should you or someone else sustain injury in your home or if you have a dispute with your neighbour.