Contents Insurance

Contents insurance is insurance that covers damage or theft of moveable things in your home, such as your furniture, electrical appliances, pictures, clothes, and other personal belongings. A more exact definition is basically anything you would bring with you if you moved house. Some contents insurance policies will also cover the theft of cash and credit cards from your home too, though that usually costs extra. Some policies will also cover certain types of flooring, such as fitted carpets.

While you can opt for a policy that covers your home contents by itself, most people opt for a combined policy that includes buildings insurance as well. As with buildings insurance, it is important to have a realistic idea of the values involved; you don't want to be under insured, and find your claim doesn't actually cover the cost of replacing your damaged or stolen belongings, especially since, by that point, it will be too late to do anything about it. You also don't want to be over insured, and end up paying too much for your policy, without getting any additional benefits.

However, you should be aware that most insurance providers also impose a minimum level of cover anyway, which is usually somewhere between €15,000 and €50,000, or a value expressed as a percentage of your buildings insurance cover (e.g. 20% of the declared reinstatement value of your home).

Most contents insurance policies provide generalised cover for all the items in your home but, if you have some very valuable items, such as expensive jewellery or high-value antiques, these should be specifically mentioned on your policy, with an individual value declared for each one. Most companies will let you declare a value yourself up to a certain point, above which they will insist on an independent appraisal.

Before you buy contents insurance, you should always check that the policy covers your items on a "new for old" basis. That means if, for example, your television is stolen, you will be allowed to claim for the cost of a new television of the same type, even though it will likely cost more than your older television may have been worth at the time it was taken. Most policies include this provision anyway, but some don't, or they may reduce the amount you can claim for to allow for the wear-and-tear of the older item.

As well as the damage or theft of individual contents in your home, most policies of this type also allow for optional extras, such as covering the cost of food that may have been spoiled if a freezer breaks down or there has been a prolonged power failure, damage to items you have temporarily removed from your home (such as when moving house), and accidental damage of the type not usually included in standard policies (such as if you accidentally drop a laptop computer onto a hard floor).

However, most policies of this type will not cover you (at all) if your home is unoccupied for a specific period of time (usually 30+ days), or if your home was not properly secured at the time of a burglary. You also can't claim for the cost of normal wear-and-tear to any of your belongings.