To not have home insurance.

[PiperIsOrange]

I am renting, so any damage on the house is covered by HA.

I just don't see the point.

My parents have just moved and asked what my insurance is like, I said I didn't have it and they read me the riot act.

I just paid the £70.

It was around £6 a month.

£1.50 is nothing for a week, people spend more than that on a sandwich from greggs.

I didn't have contents insurance at one point when I was renting.

Burglars came. They took my laptop, printer, jewellery, TV, £50 cash and a pile of other stuff. Cost me a fortune to replace it and some of it I've never managed to replace.

I seriously regretted not having insurance and I've had it ever since.

However if its a gamble you're wililng to take I suppose you're not being unreasonable

I don't have to have the all singing all dancing fully comp policy with key cover and windscreen cover etc

Whenever I've checked, third party has been more expensive for me than fully comp.

Contents insurance costs me £100 a year. I could afford to replace £30k contents myself, but I can't afford to pay someone say £1 million if they sued me for something, so I have contents insurance mainly for the legal cover it gives me.

I'd like to see the odds for a fire though. I to get what you mean about smoke damage but as a HA tenant you get smoke detectors and they are checked every year.
Are you out at work all day or away a lot?
If you are a low flood risk, low burglary ( and they don't nick sofas and washing machines on the whole) it's only fire to worry about. I would definately look at the stats for your area and think about the property you are in and are around you. We are all new build so electrical fires are low risk.
However I did once home to find the sofa smoking gently as a glass candle holder had caught the sun and was just about to burn a hole through it. So accidents can happen.

Our fire was a freak accident. The fire assessor had 30 years experience and he said they didn't come to fires like this often- not the area, not the kind of people, not even the type of appliance that caught fire! Obviously fires are more common if people smoke indoors/drink excessively and are reckless but there's always a risk. FWIW we had hard wired smoke detectors - saved our lives by waking us but didn't stop the fire damage being significant. I'm so glad we were fully covered even if we were low risk.

Bear in mind that you may be liable for damage to a neighbours property too, so if you have a fire say, then you could be liable for replacing your neighbours destroyed posessions. Insurance would cover you for this.

I've just dealt with a contents claim as a result of a flooding incident- single pensioner in a tiny house, we're looking at a settlement of over 18K- that's very light for that type of loss. it really is unreal when you start adding it up. Very, very, very silly not to have it imho.

People say, "I have nothing worth stealing". Well, it doesn't have to be a theft. Contents cover also typically includes damage caused by fire, flood, escape of water, escape of oil, storm (more obviously needed for items in your garden), malicious damage, explosion, impact and so on. Make sure your policy had accidental damage extension as this is the most broad heading of cover and can get you out of many a hole. We dealt with a family who had a bird get in through a window, scratch the fuck out of a pile of wooden furniture and poo all over the curtains and sofas. Insurance paid for the repairs and cleaning. Honestly, you never know what's around the corner.

I've got contents insurance for my rented flat. I bought everything new when I moved here. my cover is for around £50k and I pay around £7 a month

My brother is a fire fighter. He says it's heart breaking when you go to a house fire and the house is destroyed. He's been to so many where the owners have been devastated because they have no insurance

He was at one a few years ago in December. House was gutted everything gone including all the Xmas pressies. He said the home owner was in floods of tears. They literally had the clothes they were wearing and nothing else and no way of replacing things. They were also without anywhere to stay as most insurance cover will pay for alternative accommodation if it's needed

Ah in the case of fire you have to prove that there was negligence on the part of the property owner or that they started it wilfully. The neighbours' Insurers would be liable in most cases anyway. For most other perils you're right though, and neighbours' Insurers would begin recovery proceedings. And if you think the initial costs are high, wait until you see what their solicitors charge!

Very few of the chea contents insurance policies will pay out sufficent if there is a fire or flood

We are all new build so electrical fires are low risk

I admire your confidence. I also admire your confidence that someone nearby won't do something stupid such as overload adaptors, leave mirrors on windowsills, smoke in bed, leave chargers plugged in etc etc etc.

if you under insurance you risk your payout being reduced even for small claim so if you insurance for 20K and when assessors come round they reckon you should have had 40K insured they will only payout 50% so if your claim was for 10K ( well under 20K) you will still only get 5K - excess as you were 50% under insured so please estimate contents correctly

woollyjumpers You're probably still going to get the best deal from a comparison site (though it's usually worth checking with Direct Line too). If you haven't had insurance for a while you need to answer that question as '0 years'.

I go through Swinton , they have managed to get me more cover for less money on several occasions . Will heed teacupdrama advice though and have another look at how much everything would cost to replace . Its the odd things that you forget , like the christmas tree and decorations up in the loft , how much would it cost to replace all your birth certificates and passports etc .

The other thing to consider is on our insurance we have cover for if we need temporary accomodation , the HA could put you anywhere if the house was uninhabitable , so you could end up in a hostel in another city .

I phoned aa and told then i had a x amount and wanted contents insurance for £50 for the year. They agreed. Did the meerkat first to find cheapest known insurance.

I would honestly recommend going and getting a quote face to face. This really will ensure that you're getting the level of cover required. Most banks and building societies have an Insurance Specialist in branch.