Building Insurance UK- Information and Insurance
Introduction to Building Insurance – building insurance in the United kingdom is available from a large variety of sources. Traditionally, homeowners purchased their home buildings insurance from either their mortgage lender or via a broker. In recent years, the Internet has become a popular medium for obtaining quotations online and there is a large variety of contracts to choose from. Although insuring your home is not a compulsory insurance by means of law, if you have borrowed money to finance the purchase of your home, then the lender will almost certainly ask you to buy an insurance policy to protect the property and have their interest duly noted. There are many varieties of building insurance contract available to purchase on the market, in simple terms though they are divided between domestic policies (for residential homes) and commercial policies( to cover shops and offices etc). There are a number of hybrid building insurance contracts to cover such things as Holiday Homes & Buy to Let Properties and Blocks of Flats.
As mentioned above, in respect of residential building insurance, up until fairly recently mortgage providers would expect you to insure the property via their block scheme, nowadays most building societies and lenders will allow you to insure the building with a company of your choice (they may expect you to pay a small fee if you do not accept their own insurance but this is usually a one off) and thus you are free to choose from a wide range of building insurance product providers. You can approach an insurance company direct for a building insurance quotation, or as has been the preferred option for many years, contact an insurance broker who will have access to a large number of insurance schemes. In recent years ” Direct” Insurance companies have become very popular in the United Kingdom for providing home insurance polices covering buildings, and very recently we have seen the rise of aggregator style companies, that are able to offer a wide range of quotes online.
When it comes to choosing a home building insurance policy, the good news is , they all are fairly similar in the range of perils they will protect you against. The basic cover choices you can make are usually deciding between standard building insurance perils, which includes a limited range of accidental damage and a policy with full accidental damage cover. There are few optional extras with building insurance cover for a residential home, you may be able to add on legal expenses cover and sometimes, home emergency cover. To obtain your quotation, you will need certain underwriting information to hand, most you will already know and will be common sense, the one that sometimes need a bit of thought is the rebuilding (or reinstatement value ) of the property. This is not to be confused with the market value of the property and for most people a sum insured is mentioned in their lenders home buyer survey. If you have no mortgage on the building, you can either contact a local surveyor or use one of the many online guides to calculating your own rebuilding cost. The rebuilding cost must cover the total amount to reinstate the building including an amount for architects & surveyors fees and for site clearance.
Items included within the definition of buildings and thus which must be included in the sum insured are ; Any permanent structure used for domestic purposes within the grounds of the home including fixtures & fittings and decorations, domestic fuel tanks including gas, LPG and oil tanks, swimming pools, outbuildings, gates, hedges walls & fences, paths & drives, radio & television aerials, satellite dishes & fittings. If you have a garage or outbuilding that is located away from the main premises, you will need to mention this to the insurance company as it may not be covered automatically. The fittings at the home would include the central heating system, bathroom fixtures and fittings and a fully fitted kitchen. You are usually free to choose your own level of excess when it comes to building insurance polices although you will find that most sections of the policy document already have a compulsory excess attached. Its is important to make sure your building sum insured is accurate, to insure that your policy gives you full protection.
