Home Insurance Quotes Glossary

Getting home insurance quotes online is easy, however there may be a number of terms used you're not familiar with.

Some of the most commonly used home insurance terms are listed below to help bring a little more clarity to the subject.

Buildings insurance

You can choose to buy buildings insurance on its own or as part of your overall home insurance together with contents insurance.

As the name will tell you, building insurance covers the building itself for things such as fire, flooding and storm damage.

With some home insurance policies you can take out optional accidental cover. For example you may have been fixing your TV aerial and accidentally damaged some of your roof tiles.

Construction type

One of the questions you'll be asked when sourcing home insurance quotes is about the construction type of your house.

The vast majority of houses are standard construction i.e. brick, concrete and stone with slate or tiled roofs, but there are some homes in the UK that aren't, such as pre-fabricated houses.

Contents insurance

Your contents insurance quotes may be listed separately or as one cost together with your buildings insurance.

Contents insurance simply insures the contents of your home so things like TVs, jewellery and cash up to a specified value against perils such as fire, flooding, storm damage and theft.

There is usually an option to take out accidental damage cover with your policy which insures you for things like red wine spillages on your carpet or knocking over a valuable vase.

Insurance premium tax

Some home insurance quotes will give you a breakdown of costs which includes insurance premium tax. This is a tax imposed by the UK government on home insurance policies.

No claims discount

If you haven't made a claim on your home insurance previously, you should have built up a no claims discount. This is the amount of money your insurer will deduct from your policy cost because you're seen as a low-risk policyholder.

Personal possessions

As part of your home insurance quote you may have asked for extra cover to protect your personal possessions away from home.

This is likely to include things such as mobile phones, laptops, MP3 players as well as credit cards and bicycles.

Rebuild costs

There will usually be a figure for rebuild costs on your home insurance quotes. For insurance purposes the sum insured required for buildings is the rebuilding cost of the property, not the actual market value.

The terms listed above are just some of those you'll come across when sourcing home insurance quotes. If you do get a quote online and are not sure what a specific term means, don't be afraid to pick up the phone and seek clarification before purchasing any policy.

Author Bio: The Co-operative Insurance provides thousands of home insurance quotes to UK residents every year and offers discounts to customers who take out combined buildings and contents insurance policies. Visit http://www.co-operativeinsurance.co.uk/servlet/Satellite/1203668836269,CFSweb/Page/Insurance-Home to get your home insurance quote.