Congratulations! You’ve got your first home – now let’s make sure it’s properly protected. Picking out furniture and figuring how to work the boiler is great, but there is one thing that you shouldn’t forget: home insurance. Having the right home insurance in place ensures that your new home and everything in it is protected against any unexpected events.
For first time buyers especially, home insurance can feel overwhelming. What insurance do I need when buying a house? What type of cover do I need? How much should I insure my home for? What common mistakes do I need to avoid? In this article we’ll walk you through all you need to know about first time buyer home insurance to help you make the right choices and secure the best protection for your new home.
What is home insurance?
If you’re a first time homebuyer, understanding all about home insurance is essential. Home insurance (also known as buildings and contents insurance) is a type of insurance policy designed to protect your home and its belongings from a number of risks, such as damage from fire, theft, storms, and accidents.
What insurance do I need when buying a house?
Home insurance typically covers the building and its contents as a combined policy. However, these two cover types can also be arranged on their own.
Buildings insurance
Building insurance covers all of the structural elements of the property, including permanent fittings such as the roof, walls, outbuildings, bathrooms etc. It typically covers damage caused by flooding, falling trees, fires, storms, theft and vandalism. Buildings insurance is required as a condition of your mortgage or other property finance.
Contents insurance
On the other hand, contents insurance covers all of the items that you can move within your house. This includes furniture, electronics, and jewellery. These contents are typically protected against events such as fires, floods and theft. Contents insurance can also protect you against accidental damage or protect items that you regularly take outside for the home, including a mobile phone and bikes. These can sometimes be optional extras, so make sure to check over your policy.
Combined insurance
Combining building and contents on one policy is best should you require both needs covering. Having both allows you to protect the entire home and everything within it for one single payment (or single monthly payment). Combined cover often works out more competitive from a cost point of view , and should you need to make a claim, you will only ever need to pay in excess. And don’t forget, by having one single combined buildings and contents policy, you’ll save yourself far less admin.
Where should I buy first time buyer home insurance?
In the past, a first time homebuyer was required to buy building insurance directly from their mortgage lender, but now you have the freedom to shop around for all three types of insurance! You can buy home insurance from a variety of sources including insurance brokers (like Nest GI), direct insurance providers or comparison websites.
When should I buy first time buyer home insurance?
You should have buildings insurance ready for when it’s time to exchange contracts. For contents insurance, it’s best to have it ready for when you start moving your belongings into your new home. While most policies cover your belongings during transit, this is normally only the case if they are moved by a professional moving company and under certain conditions.
First time buyer home insurance exclusions
It’s important to know that home insurance doesn’t provide cover for absolutely everything within your new home. Some common exclusions you may come across include:
- General wear and tear/gradual damage such as damp, rot and rust.
- Negligence e.g. leaving a window or door open that allows burglar access.
- Damage caused to garden fences is excluded from many policies.
- Poor workmanship from those you may have hired to fix something in your house.
Pest infestations generally aren’t covered in home insurance either, but you may be able to protect yourself against this by adding home emergency cover.. As well as this, leaving your home unoccupied for more than 30 days isn’t covered, but if this is needed consider unoccupied home insurance.
What other first-time buyer home insurance do I need?
Home emergency cover may also be something to consider. It covers the cost of urgent repairs in your home, such as a boiler or heating system breakdown, blocked drains, electrical faults, and things such as broken windows.
Need help navigating first time buyer home insurance?
As a first time homebuyer, figuring out home insurance can be tricky on top of everything else. But if you need a little bit of extra help, you’re in the right place! At Nest GI, we guide you through every step of the process, helping you find the right cover that fits your needs and your budget.
Whether you’re unsure about what type of policy to choose or just simply need advice on how much cover you need, we’ve got you covered. Get in touch with us today and let us make your home insurance journey as easy as possible.
