Content insurance for carpet - council property

md-200

*i have reposted this to this board as I may have posted it on the wrong one

Hi guys,

I am not sure if this is the right place to put this but please redirect if necessary.

So I am currently renting a council flat and will be looking to buy it later down the line. I am due to get newly fitted carpet next week, however I just wanted to know whether you guys think it would be a good idea to have contents insurance for the carpet. I don’t have much pricey valuables apart from besides a tv, cooker and a fridge lol. 

I am just not sure whether it would be worth it as the carpet cost entirely will be around £950. I live on the second floor and have a neighbour that lives upstairs so I do worry, should a leak happen I would be screwed.

And if so, do you know of any good contents insurance providers? 

What do you guys think?

Thanks

Ditzy_Mitzy

I had a basic, contents only insurance policy when I lived in a leasehold maisonette.  From what I recall it was very cheap: £10 or £12 per month, although I can't now remember what the maximum allowances were on it.  Such policies tend to set a ceiling value per item claimed for; it's fine to claim a couple of hundred for a smashed Wedgewood vase, less so for damage to a priceless Ming etc.  The carpet, being worth less than £1,000, ought not to trouble the maximum allowances on the usual sort of policy. 
Mine was with Lloyds TSB and then transferred somewhere else following the action to break up the monopoly.  TSB, maybe?  The price stayed the same so it wasn't worth making a fuss. 

MovingForwards

Use a comparison site to see what prices you are looking at for contents insurance.

pinkteapot

OP - make sure the policy includes Accidental Damage cover (not always included as standard, will be available for an extra fee if not). 

Standard contents insurance will cover it for theft (no-one is going to nick your carpet) or fire (unlikely). The most likely reason you'd claim for a carpet is because you've thrown your dinner all over it. You want Accidental Damage cover if you're going to bother insuring it.

Aretnap

md-200 said:

I am due to get newly fitted carpet next week, however I just wanted to know whether you guys think it would be a good idea to have contents insurance for the carpet. I don’t have much pricey valuables apart from besides a tv, cooker and a fridge lol.

I'd always recommend contents insurance - and not just for the carpet. If the worst happened and your flat burned down, what would it cost to replace all your possessions? The three things you've listed probably already come to more than the carpet.Then start totting up your non-valuable stuff - your clothes, your furniture, the computer/phone you wrote this post on etc and I bet it will quickly get up to a surprisingly large amount. Remember that while things like your clothes and furniture might be getting old, unless you plan on replacing your worldly possessions from a charity shop (or a skip), you'd have to replace them with new stuff. And yes, the vast majority of contents insurance policies will cover the cost of replacing old stuff with new stuff (check by looking for the words "new for old" in the policy documentation).

A basic contents policy is usually quite cheap (tens rather than hundreds of pounds per year) so unless you have enough spare cash lying around to replace a lot of things at once I would regard it as money well spent.

md-200

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

I had a basic, contents only insurance policy when I lived in a leasehold maisonette.  From what I recall it was very cheap: £10 or £12 per month, although I can't now remember what the maximum allowances were on it.  Such policies tend to set a ceiling value per item claimed for; it's fine to claim a couple of hundred for a smashed Wedgewood vase, less so for damage to a priceless Ming etc.  The carpet, being worth less than £1,000, ought not to trouble the maximum allowances on the usual sort of policy. 
Mine was with Lloyds TSB and then transferred somewhere else following the action to break up the monopoly.  TSB, maybe?  The price stayed the same so it wasn't worth making a fuss. 

Oooh, sounds good. I bank with NatWest so I will give them a ring and see if they offer similar. 

Cheers!

md-200

pinkteapot said:

OP - make sure the policy includes Accidental Damage cover (not always included as standard, will be available for an extra fee if not). 

Standard contents insurance will cover it for theft (no-one is going to nick your carpet) or fire (unlikely). The most likely reason you'd claim for a carpet is because you've thrown your dinner all over it. You want Accidental Damage cover if you're going to bother insuring it.

Jeeez, didn’t even think about that. Such a good point. Thanks! 

md-200

Aretnap said:

md-200 said:

I am due to get newly fitted carpet next week, however I just wanted to know whether you guys think it would be a good idea to have contents insurance for the carpet. I don’t have much pricey valuables apart from besides a tv, cooker and a fridge lol.

I'd always recommend contents insurance - and not just for the carpet. If the worst happened and your flat burned down, what would it cost to replace all your possessions? The three things you've listed probably already come to more than the carpet.Then start totting up your non-valuable stuff - your clothes, your furniture, the computer/phone you wrote this post on etc and I bet it will quickly get up to a surprisingly large amount. Remember that while things like your clothes and furniture might be getting old, unless you plan on replacing your worldly possessions from a charity shop (or a skip), you'd have to replace them with new stuff. And yes, the vast majority of contents insurance policies will cover the cost of replacing old stuff with new stuff (check by looking for the words "new for old" in the policy documentation).

A basic contents policy is usually quite cheap (tens rather than hundreds of pounds per year) so unless you have enough spare cash lying around to replace a lot of things at once I would regard it as money well spent.

Really great insight! You pretty much covered all the questions I could have asked haha