Three-bedroom home insurance

Home insurance is very important if you want to protect your home and your possessions from natural disasters, mishaps and theft. And if you have a mortgage, your lender will almost certainly insist that you take out a home insurance policy.

Two main types of three-bedroom home insurance are available: buildings insurance, which protects the structure of your property, and contents insurance, which protects fixtures, fittings and your possessions. These are often sold as a single policy known as combined home insurance, but you can take either one out separately.

This guide explains everything you need to know about insuring a three-bedroom home.

Buildings insurance

Buildings insurance covers the structure of the property. This includes the roof and walls of the building, and any permanent fixtures inside it, such as fitted kitchens, bathroom suites and built-in wardrobes. If you want, it can be extended to include outbuildings, gardens, pools, ponds and patios.

Buildings insurance reimburses you for damage caused by flooding, fire, subsidence, storms, vandalism, leaky pipes and faulty electronics.

Ultimately, you are insured for what it would cost to rebuild your three-bedroom home from the ground up – so it covers the cost of all the materials and labour, but not the value of the land itself. However, if your three-bedroom home is part of a block of flats, you probably won’t be able to buy a buildings insurance policy – blocks with multiple owners are usually considered too hard to insure individually.

It’s generally up to the person who owns the home to buy buildings insurance; renters don’t usually get it because the landlord is responsible as the owner of the property. However, buildings insurance is very likely to be a condition of securing a mortgage from your bank or building society when you come to buy a house.

Home insurance tends to increase in price for houses with more bedrooms, with each additional bedroom adding to your overall premiums. Three-bedroom homes are amongst the most common in the UK, which is reflected in the average price in the chart below:

According to MoneySuperMarket data correct as of Sep 2020

Contents insurance

This type of insurance protects the possessions you have in your three-bedroom home, and includes any items that you would take with you if you moved house – including white goods and carpets. It even extends to things such as bed linen, clothes and children's toys.

Because of this, you'll need to provide your insurer with a figure that’s as accurate as possible for what you believe your contents are worth. You will then be insured for this sum. It's vital that you give an accurate estimate of the value of your possessions: if you underestimate, your possessions may not all be covered when you make a claim. If you overestimate, you’ll be paying higher premiums than you need to.

This may sound hard, but there are ways to make it work. Go through each room in the house and note down what's in it. Then use a mix of receipts for purchases or online prices to come up with an approximate figure of what the total contents would cost to replace.

Insurers will usually specify an upper limit on the value for single items, which is generally set at £1,500. You don’t need to list any items that are worth less than this, but items that you think are worth more, such as art or jewellery, will need to be specifically mentioned.

Additional types of cover are also available if you need them, including:

• Personal possessions cover: Covers your belongings when you bring them with you away from home. For example, if you lose your laptop or phone while you were out you could claim on your household contents cover
• Accidental damage: This pays to repair or replace possessions damaged by accident – for instance if you or a guest knock them over

How to get the best deal on your three-bedroom home insurance

Every insurance policy is slightly different. They offer a varying level of cover and provide different benefits at different prices. For this reason, it's well worth shopping around for a range of quotes on the cover you want to get the best price.

It's often possible to get a discount on your three-bedroom insurance if you buy your buildings and contents insurance policy together from the same provider. However, you should separate price enquiries to compare. It's also possible to bring the cost of your premium down by raising the excess amount. Just make sure you'd be able to cover the excess if you did need to claim or it will be a false economy.

You can also get cheaper insurance if you make sure that your three-bedroom home is safe and secure by having approved locks and a burglar alarm. Being part of a local Neighbourhood Watch scheme can also help to lower your premium. Finally, if you pay for your insurance annually it will tend to be cheaper than if you pay on a monthly basis.

Compare home insurance

One of the best ways to save money on home insurance is to compare deals with MoneySuperMarket. All you need to do is give us a few details about yourself and your home, and we will show you a range of deals from across the market.

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