Home Insurance in the UK

After the sizable investment you have made in buying your home, furnishing and decorating it, you can insure yourself against risks with a home insurance policy. Generally these policies are broken down into two major components; buildings insurance and home contents insurance. The buildings insurance covers your home's bricks and mortar, that is the home itself. Home contents insurance covers most other things contained within your home.
If your property is used as security for a loan (a mortgage or another secured loan) then it will likely be a requirement that you arrange and maintain suitable insurance cover for the building for the term which the loan covers. This requirement ensures that should something untoward happen to your home, for example a fire or a flood, the value of your property (and your lender's investment) is not adversely effected.
Contents insurance covers your possessions inside your home, for example furnishings. Cover is provided either on a 'like for like' or a 'new for old' basis. A like for like basis will provide you with monetary compensation equivalent to the value of your insured item just before it was damaged whereas new for old will provide you with monetary compensation which would allow you to replace the damaged item with an equivalent new item.
You should read the small print of your policy carefully to check whether it covers related items, commonly included items will be garage or outbuildings contents, personal money, garden contents, food in the deep freezer, loss of fuel or water. If you have any items of particular importance you may want to ensure that they are covered by your combined standard house insurance policy or arrange additional insurance. The type of valuable item commonly held in homes would be jewellery including engagement or wedding rings.
It is worth shopping around for cheap home insurance quotes. Often specialist insurers are able to offer better cover or cheaper premiums than that provided by the banks and building societies as 'default' options attached to mortgages.
Insurance premiums are influenced by the area in which you live, low local crime rates will be reflected in your premium. Insurers often provide a no claims bonus of up to 50% for those who have not made claims against their policy over the last few years.
Cheap home insurance quotes arrangements are available for students, who may or may not be covered by their parents house insurance policy while away at University or College. These often focus on possessions which students are likely to have, e.g. Computers or bikes.