Choosing Correct Council House Insurance

Insurance is required to cover your items of value in the event of an incident. Its important for people living in council house to understand what type of insurance they need.

Home insurance is split into two main types: Contents insurance and building insurance.

Generally moveable items in your home need to be covered by home contents insurance. This might included your electrical items such as computers and hifi. Other items like your soft furnishings, carpets and home appliances would also be covered.

The two main types of contents insurance are ‘indemnity’ and ‘new for old’. The least expensive is indemnity cover. The insurance company will value your items when a claim is made rather than the items original price tag. For example, if a 10 year old television gets damaged resulting in a claim, the payout would reflect the age of the television.

The indemnity cover is less expensive. This cover only reflects the items value at the time of a claim. For example, the insurance cover would only payout the value of your 15 year old carpet, not a brand new replacement. The value of a carpet which is many years old is likely to be much less than a new replacement.

Home contents only covers possessions inside of your house. To cover the house structure building Insurance is needed. A council house tenant will not need to be involved in this. The council or housing association will arrange buildings insurance. If an incident occurred resulting in damage to the fabric of a house the council would make any repairs via their own insurance. Exceptions might occur if the damage was caused by negligence from the tenants actions. The landlord may seek to get compensation from the tenant to cover repairs if proof of negligence existed.

Housing associations and council house need not be concerned with buildings cover. If they want to insure their possessions then a new for old policy is probably the best option. It might be more expensive but you will then have a cover that is worth having that will enable you to buy decent replacements to cover your losses.