What is Household Insurance?
Household insurance covers damage from incidents such as fire, theft, and vandalism to your house, usually adjacent structures like a garage or shed, and your personal belongings. It covers living expenses if your household becomes temporarily unusable.

Household insurance is a policy designed to cover your home and if applicable its contents against the possible risks. There are two types of household insurance - contents insurance and buildings insurance.

Contents insurance for your household is designed to cover your possessions if in the home in circumstances where you suffer a burglary or you have an accident where damage is caused. Buildings insurance is designed to cover the actual building you live in- the bricks, roof, floors, doors and windows and the general building structure from naturally occurring events and where applicable accidental damage.

The Environment Agency has flood maps and a postcode checker to assess the risk of flooding to your street as this could effect your insurance and even make it harder to find insurance. Click here to check if you live in a flood risk area

Do I need household insurance?
If you have a mortgage, your lender will insist you have buildings insurance. Its up to you as to whether you take out contents insurance but work out how much all your possessions are worth and you will probably find that the monthly insurance payment is a small price to pay for the peace of mind from having your home contents insured. You don't always have to take out your lender's own insurance, and it is often cheaper not to but to find an independent insurance company. If you rent your home then you won't usually need buildings insurance as your landlord will normally take responsibility for the household insurance.

What do I need to know?
When you purchase Household Insurance, your insurer will usually issue documents such as:

• The Policy Document - sets out in full the terms and conditions of your policy

• The Policy Handbook - contains more details about your insurance Read and make sure you understand your insurance policy document. If there are insurance terms you are not sure of then check the explanations in the Insurance Glossary

How to choose the right policy for you?
Buildings insurance is compulsory if you have a mortgage but contents insurance is up to you. Check of exclusions, excess levels and if you value your possessions, make sure they are adequately covered. Below outlines the different types of cover available:

Buildings Insurance Policies usually cover:

• Natural events such as fire/flood, storm or lightning
• Burglary or damage from attempted burglary
• Subsidence or heave
• Burst pipes, water tanks or boilers

Contents Insurance Policies usually cover:

• Loss of possessions resulting from a burglary
• Damage to possessions caused by burst pipes, water tanks or boilers
• Damage to possessions arising from fire/theft or natural events

Make sure you have all the information you need before getting a quote using our Household Insurance Checklist

Where do you buy your insurance?
Make sure you shop around and get at least five or six quotes to ensure you are getting competitive quotes. But don't just look at the price, check what is covered under the policy and check the value of the possessions you want to protect are actually covered by the insurance policy.