Fire & General Insurance – covering your home, car & personal items

Most people understand the necessity to insure against loss for assets such as their house, car, business or personal items such as home contents, boats, caravans or jewellery.

Ideally, whatever you value should be covered by some sort of insurance. Most items can be insured (each insurance company will have its own terms and conditions) if it has value and you wish to have some financial protection against its possible loss or damage.

An FSB⁴ adviser will be able to recommend insurance based on what your requirements are.

What am I covered against?

How much general insurance do you need?

You should have enough insurance so that in the event of a claim arising from loss or damage, your insurance will help you return to the same position you were in before.

You need to provide your insurer with an accurate account of all the belongings you wish to insure and choose the type of cover you want... indemnity value, which is the value at any given time, taking into account the age and condition of the item; or replacement value, which is the cost of fully repairing or replacing the item.

Some insurance companies provide checklists so you can compile a detailed list of all your belongings and their value. Be careful not to under-value as you won’t get enough in the event of a claim to replace what you had, but also be careful not to over-value items as you’ll pay higher than necessary premiums and insurance companies can easily find out the market value of items anyway.

Types of insurance policies you may need