UK Buildings Insurance

Any Loss or damage to the actual structure and fittings of your home is covered by Buildings Insurance.

Contents Insurance aims to cover damage or loss to your personal possessions, basically those things that can be moved from home to home, Buildings Insurance covers the house itself and anything that is not usually transportable from home to home, eg windows, doors, the structure of the building.

Should your property be destroyed by fire, or rendered uninhabitable by such a destructive event as a flood, then you should make sure you have a policy that will cover you for repairs or even the complete rebuild of your home, your policy should also cover alternative accommodation in such unfortunate cases. Market value and rebuilding cost are different things. The Rebuilding cost of your home could be more or less than its market value. Most insurance companies will assist you in making sure you have adequate rebuilding cover. Building Insurance is index-linked to make sure your policy can keep up with inflation and grows every year, but you should still review your own policy making sure you have adequate cover as house prices can rise rapidly.
Listed buildings require a professional valuation.

Mortgage providers will usually insist that you have buildings insurance before they agree to lend you any money. Buildings Insurance also gives you piece of mind should anything drastic happen to your home you are able to do something about it.
Leasehold property is usually the freeholder’s responsibility to arrange buildings insurance, but they then usually pass on the cost of such a policy to the leaseholder.