How much home contents insurance do you have?

[SlightlyMadSweet]

Cos I have £20K and when I add up my contents room by room it seems v high. But then I think that all of our posessions must be worth more than that. I know that we all sit on a different part of the scale as far as affluency goes, so we all need different cover, but trying to guage whether I am a million miles out....

We have a 3 bedroom house and £20K cover

So what do you have?

Ours is about 75K I think. Plus we have individual items specified like DH's bike & my wedding ring. Haven't got round to adding my eternity ring which I got hand made to match wedding one for our tenth anniversary. We'll be married 12 years in August oops!

We're in a 4 bed & have loads of junk but no fine art pieces really, lots of electrical things but when you add up clothes, furniture, gadgets etc it's probably way higher than you'd expect.

What you have to work out is what it would cost to buy everything in your house - so furniture, books, DVDs, CDs, carpets,curtains, clothes, kitchen stuff, appliances etc. 20k doesn't go very far if you think about the worst case scenario of standing in the street in your nightie and nothing else salvagable from the house.

I think that 50k is more realistic, but you really have to go through the house and think about it, costing CDs at a tenner, shoes at 30 quid, remembering that you have to think about the situation of just having to go out and buy it and not trying to pick up at boot sales etc. I made that mistake in my first house - all I'd had new was a futon and a washing machine so had 10k of contents. When I had a small claim for burglary they took one look at my books, and as they value paperbacks at 5 quid and hardbacks as 15, that took my contents way over it, and I only got a proportion of my claim paid.

we have unlimited cover for contents, however, if I had to factor in furniture, clothes, dvds/cds (these are probably around £1000 on their own), toys, bedding, new kitchen utensils, stuff in loft, jewellery, tvs,computers etc etc I think we'd need around £50k

Where did all of you purchase your home contents insurance - through a broker or direct from an insurance company? Would appreciate specific recommendations, as I had a nightmare scenario with a junior broker last summer, and finally gave up. I am currently without home contents insurance, and know that is very silly and very risky.

Ours is direct. Brokers can be great if you have specific needs, such as antiques, collections etc, but obviously aren't as cheap.

Ours is actually with our mortgage provider, we shopped around for a while & they really were the best cover.

An insurances assessor (who came to look at my burst pipe damage) last week told me in total loss situations (fire etc) he has NEVER in 30 yr met someone with enough cover!

We have 50K with many items (jewelry and artworks) specified but are increasing it by 50%+

I think ours is £100k, 6 bed detached, cooker alone cost £9k No posh antiques or anything, but if you added up even stuff like ds's 40 odd PS games at £40 a pop, it comes to a surprising amount.

I get mine through a broker through my employer so that doesn't really help.

Marmaduke....thats interesting cos I had heard that overvaluing can be as bad as undervaluing.

We did originally add it all up (and actually double it).

Thing is I know how much my setee, TV, computer etc costs...bu when it comes to carpets/curtains etc. I probably underestimated as I had never fitted them oursleves...

I shall have another look.

We switched recently to Halifax - they offer unlimited contents insurance as long as you specify particular high risk items like jewellery/TV/Art etc. Probably not the cheapest but if we were to ever need it then we wouldn't be worried about the cover being enough.

Thing is a get a v v v v good discount through a broker associated with work.

I have had 3 other quotes (on the same basis as my current cover) and the cheapest is nearly double what I am currently paying.

I need to stay with this insurer on a cost basis, but I need to ensure my cover is adequate.

Will try to do a new itemised list, and double it I think.

£20K IMO nowhere near enough for a 3 bed house.

Our contents cover (2 bed terraced house) is £45K.

We are in the process of finishing off our claim because of last years flood. We have just scraped in under our claim limit (capped at 50% because only the ground floor was flooded).

Don't forget things like carpets, kitchen units etc

Yeah I think it is things like carpets/curtains/kitchen suit/bathroom suit that I am missing.

We also did teh estimate a few years ago and probably didn't have to account for all the crap toys and parafenailia that goes with the DCs.

Rough breakdown of our claim to give you an idea. None of our stuff was at all 'posh', just valued at 'new for old' status

New kitchen: £5500
Carpets etc: £1000
Furniture (suite, dining table, bookshelves etc) £5000
Redecorating: £1000
Storage during renovations: £750
Garage contents (tools, kids bikes, lawnmower etc): £2000
Possessions (everything not listed above): £6500

Total £21750

Just checked, they capped our contents claim at £24750 makes up approx 55% of the property.

Doh, some missing text!

Just checked, they capped our contents claim at £24750 because the ground floor makes up approx 55% of the property.

TY v much. That is really helpful

I suppose you hae to factor in fitting of kitchens/bathrooms etc. even if we did them ourselves currently?

Just looking.....do you have to factor in redecorating too? Would that not be buildings?

50k plus rings and some jewellery as extra.

Kitchens and bathrooms count as buildings though I seem to remember because they're permanent fixtures.

When we moved abroad replacement value came to over £80k , nothing particularly flash, excluded white goods, carpets and fixtures too. Clothes come to more than you think (at least £100 per mens suit, shoes etc) , cd/dvds, books , toys, gadgets/pc/hifi/tv, sports stuff)

Fitting the kitchen - buildings.
Kitchen itself, with appliances - contents.

Wooden floors - buildings.
Carpets and laminate flooring laid on top - contents.

Replastering and making good etc - buildings.
Redecorating to original standard - contents.

Accommodation expenses if you have to move out for renovation work - buildings.
Storage of possessions moved out because of renovations - contents.

Can you imagine the fun I have had in the last year?

£50k
Just got v good deal with ING if you are getting quotes - half the price of the AA's allegedly lowest quote with the same underwriter