Conveyancing Services

If your property is freehold, your mortgage agreement may actually stipulate that building insurance is a condition of the contract, so if you fail to take out suitable insurance you could be putting your mortgage at risk.

Of course, if you don’t live in the property yourself but rent it out to a tenant then you might not want to insure the contents – particularly if you rent it unfurnished.

In that case you’d probably be better off taking out landlord insurance, while your tenant would take their own tenants’ insurance policy.

On the other hand, if you live in the property yourself but you own the leasehold rather than the freehold (for instance, if you bought a flat or an apartment), then building and contents insurance might not meet your needs either, particularly if the freeholder has already taken out insurance on the building. Your solicitor should be able to double check this for you.

If you do own the freehold on your home, though (whether it’s a bungalow, a semi-detached property or a terraced house) then you’ll probably want to insure both the building itself and the contents of that building.