Family legal protection on contents insurance?

tawse57

Hi all,

A bit of a dummies question here. I moved into a rented hosue 12 months ago and took out contents insurance with Directline. As part of this i opted for their family legal protection for an additional £24 on the policy.

Well, the policy is up for renewal in 2 weeks and, um, I am just wondering what benefit, if any, I have in having the family legal protection?

Also, I accepted their default 35K contents as the sum insured but looking around 'my things' I don't have 35K of belongings in the house - anyone know what the average amount that people insure for their contents?

Thanks,

T.

lisyloo

Whether you want/need the legal cover depends on your situation.
If you are a cyclist, bear in mind that you probably have no other insurance, so it might be useful if you every need to sue someone.
There really is no right or wrong answer, but unless you cycle it's no big deal not to have it.

but looking around 'my things' I don't have 35K of belongings in the house

Bear in mind that "contents" refers to anything that's not fixed.
If your lanlord provides a fully furnished place then that might not be an issue.
Bear in mind that some items will be replace "new for old" so you need to bear in mind the new cost of replacement in some cases.

anyone know what the average amount that people insure for their contents?

There really is no average.
Many people in their own homes would be including carpets, furniture, kitchen appliances so their figure may be much higher than yours.
£35K is pretty low, but if your landlord supplies all the furnishings then that is one explanation.
Don't forget things like jewelry and if you have lots of cds, dvds etc. then those can all add up.
It's really a case of looking round and totting up.
You can't do it exactly but if you sai 60 dvds @ at average of £8 each then you'd reach a figure pretty quickly.
In my opinion it's better to be slightly over insured than under insured.
Obviously you don't want to pay over the odds, but it's better to err on the side of caution.

Troubled_Joe

You need to look at exactly what it covers, although I suspect that the benefit on a rented property will be negligible.

I've done a few cases funded by home insurance policies and the cover has been a godsend to people with boundary disputes or claims against tradesmen but I'm struggling to think of a scenario in which a tenant would claim.

Ignite

It's well worth having the legal cover. In terms of rented property, many policies cover legal disputes with the land lord etc and also have cover for employment disputes. Personally I would not take out a policy without it.