Estimate contents cost for home insurance

playaz

I am in the process of doing my home insurance (first time buyer) - my home will be pretty much bare when I move in and I am bringing very little stuff of my own into the house.

I have worked out my items i'm bringing with me such as laptops, TVs etc.. but as I don't have beds/cupboards/carpets/curtains etc so not sure how best to deal with everything else..

Is there an 'average' UK contents amount I could use? I have no idea what is a conservative value... 15k perhaps?

Any advice would be appreciated

Pete9501

Just been looking at what our insurance costs will be when / if we move next month.

Seems contents insurance quotes come with a minimum £50k of contents which is way more than we need. Whether you can negociate any less is debatable.

Have a shop around on the comparison websites, but Swinton for us.
Pete

G_M

Pete9501 wrote: »

Seems contents insurance quotes come with a minimum £50k of contents which is way more than we need.

?????????

:huh:

Some insurers provide standard levels of cover for either buildings and /or contents insurace.

Some suggest a level of contents cover, based on number of rooms etc.

Some leave it up to the client to coose their level of cover.

OP, make a list of rooms. For each one, think about all the things you will be buying/putting in there, and estimate the cost/values.

Add up the totals of each room.

Or use an online calculator:

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/home-insurance/contents-calculator/

https://www.hiscox.co.uk/home-insurance/contents-insurance/contents-calculator/

https://www.aainsurance.co.nz/contents-insurance/contents-calculator/

Timeflies

Bear in mind it needs to be the total value of your contents, not the value of contents you might reasonably expect to be lost or damaged in the event of a claim.

When a friend was recently burgled, instead of just verifying the value of the laptop, car etc that had actually been taken, the insurer's representative spent a long time looking at books, clothes, stamp collections, coming up with figures that were much higher than the owner was contending. If the insurer thinks your contents are worth £100k, and you only insured £60k, they'll propose to reimburse 60% of the value of what you lost, as you were "under-insured." My friend spent a long time arguing down the value of remaining items (insurer: that must be £1000 worth of shoes, owner: no, really, these are mostly from Primark - £12 each).

Have a look at the wording of the policy re wear and tear, old for new etc. E.g. a friend gives you a 5 year old sofa for nothing when you move in - if it's destroyed, are you expecting to receive zero (what you paid), the second hand value of a 5 year old sofa, or the value of a new sofa? Your contents "value" needs to match the basis on which they pay out.

stator

I would suggest Co-operative Insurance, AA Insurance and Endsleigh insurance, they seemed to be the only competitive insurers for me when I was insuring a small sum on contents insurance. I think I had £10k to begin with and gradually increased it to £30k as I filled my house up with more crap.
I don't think it makes that much difference to the policy price, you should be able to get it for less than £100 per year (at least in the places I have lived for the past 10 years) so don't be worried about over insuring, you'll just claim for what needs replacing.