Contents Insurance

Contents insurance is a type of insurance product that covers the items that you have - the contents - of your home.

There are a range of different providers of contents insurance out there on the market, and as with many insurance products there are lots of things to consider such as the total level of cover that you require, and any specific cover that is needed for particularly valuable items such as jewellery, artwork and similar items.

Typically you would expect that when you take out home insurance you will get cover for things like: household goods, whereby belongings will be replaced on a new for old basis. There are usually exceptions to what gets covered under the household goods category so for instance things like clothing might get excluded. As with all these things, a careful reading of each specific policy is needed to understand what household and personal goods are included under the cover and what the exceptions are.

Items in the garden may also be covered, depending on the policy, but usually up to a much smaller value than what is covered in the home - again it varies from policy to policy so you'll need to check and if you need particularly high cover for garden items then you'll need to mention it and be prepared to pay extra. There may also be a cover for actual cash in the house - again up to a certain level, so if you keep cash in the house then you'll need to see how much is covered and whether you need to up that.

Damage from things such as lightning, fire and smoke damage will also often be covered by a contents insurance policy.

Most providers have a summary table of what is and isn't offered under the cover - usually the value is something around the £50,000 mark for the contents insurance.

As mentioned above, there are also various types of content that can be covered by separate types of specialist insurance products within the contents insurance umbrella. Typically this is for those who have items of significant value in a particular given category.

So, for example, there are specialist jewellery insurance products out there for those who have high value items of jewellery. And for those with high-tech equipment, there is computer insurance, and indeed TV insurance and more besides.


In summary, there are a lot of considerations when it comes to taking out contents insurance, and it pays careful reading of what is and isn't included in a policy when deciding which one to take out. And remember that if circumstances change, then you'll need to let your insurer know so that you will still be covered in the event of needing to make a claim.

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