Contents insurance

Contents insurance is a type of home insurance policy that will provide cover for loss or damage to the possessions in your home that aren’t a part of the building (as this will be the property owner’s responsibility to insure). You can also usually add cover to protect items away from the home temporarily, such as mobile phones and laptops.

Living in a rented or leased home?

Do you have favourite belongings - such as clothes, electrical items and furniture - that you couldn’t live without?

Then you may want to consider taking out contents insurance to ensure you’re not left too out of pocket should your favourite items get stolen or damaged.

Renting your property furnished?

Contents insurance can also provide cover for landlords’ fixtures and fittings that you are legally responsible for under your tenancy agreement - this is called tenants’ liability insurance. Endsleigh’s contents policies provide up to 10% of the sum insured for tenants’ liability cover!

It can be tricky, figuring out what’s covered under buildings insurance and what’s covered under contents insurance. Contents insurance would most commonly cover belongings such as your furniture, clothes and jewellery, but it’s important to remember that most contents policies will have a single article limit – meaning that any items that are worth over a certain amount (such as an expensive painting or musical instrument) will either need to be noted as a ‘specified item’ or covered under a more specialist policy, such as private clients insurance or musical instrument insurance. Endsleigh’s unspecified single article limit is £1,500.

Contents insurance usually provides standard home insurance cover to protect your belongings, including cover against risks such as fire, theft, storm and flood.

Some contents insurance policies also include tenants’ liability insurance to protect any belongings in the property that the landlord owns.

Endsleigh’s contents insurance covers you for:

• Protection against fire, theft and flood, with optional cover for accidental damage
• Malicious damage, with tenants’ liability as standard
• Alternative accommodation
• Contents cover away from the home

What is Endsleigh’s single article limit for contents insurance?

It’s important to remember that most contents policies will have a single article limit – meaning that any items that are worth over a certain amount (such as an expensive painting or musical instrument) will either need to be noted as a ‘specified item’ or covered under a more specialist policy, such as private clients insurance or musical instrument insurance. Endsleigh’s unspecified single article limit is £1,500.

Does home contents insurance cover mobile phones?

Your mobile phone will not automatically be covered under your house contents insurance policy, but can be added for a small additional charge under the ‘personal effects specified by you’ section. This will provide cover for theft, loss or damage to your mobile phone both inside and outside of your home, depending on the level of cover selected.

Does contents insurance cover theft of my belongings outside the house?

Your contents insurance with Endsleigh will provide cover for items in your garden up to £500, such as gardening equipment and tools.

If you wish to cover contents outside your home, such as watches, money and other portable items, you can add one of the following optional covers:

Unspecified Personal Effects – this will cover your portable items, such as money, jewellery and watches, away from the home, anywhere within the UK and worldwide. Single article limits will apply as shown on your policy schedule.

Specified Personal Effects – this will cover portable items specified by you, both inside and outside the home, anywhere within the UK and worldwide.

Does contents insurance cover items in my garden?

Yes, Endsleigh’s house contents insurance policies will provide cover for the contents in your garden, such as your gardening equipment, up to £500 per policy.

What about my bike?

You can also add bike cover to your contents insurance policy with Endsleigh.

Alternatively, if your bike is more valuable or you require more extensive cover, you may wish to take out a standalone bicycle insurance policy.

Is carpet covered under contents insurance?

We’re often asked if carpets need to be included under your contents insurance policy.

Unfortunately, carpets are a bit of a grey area. It’s not like you can always rip them up take them with you to another property, which implies they should be covered under your buildings insurance. However, in a lot of cases your carpets will be covered under your contents insurance, so it’s important to factor this in when calculating the value of your contents.

Confusingly, floor coverings such as laminate would be considered part of the building, so if you’re unsure you should speak to your insurer or check your policy documents.

Does contents insurance cover new for old?

‘New for old’ contents insurance is cover that provides the equivalent value of an item that has been lost, damaged or stolen in the event of a claim. This means that wear and tear will not be taken into account when assessing the value of your belongings.

This is a particularly useful cover, as it means even if your items have depreciated in value, you won’t be left out of pocket should you need to make a claim.

Certain sections of our contents insurance policy provides a replacement on a ‘new for old’ basis in the event of a claim. However this does not apply to clothing, for example, where a deduction will be made for wear and tear. Please check the full terms and conditions of your policy to find out more about how we settle claims.

Endsleigh’s contents insurance policies will provide cover for accidental damage to audio, television and video equipment in your home, including:

• Television sets and aerials
• Video recorders
• Satellite receiving equipment
• Hi-fi systems
• DVD players

Although our contents policies don’t include accidental damage cover for the rest of your belongings as standard, this can be added as an optional extra – for example, to provide cover should someone spill a drink on your new rug.

What is accidental damage for home insurance?

“Accidental damage” is any sudden or unexpected damage that happens to your belongings by an “outside force” – such as a spilled drink or dropped mobile phone. Remember, this is different to “wear and tear” damage, which is the natural devaluation of your belongings over time due to aging and general use.  

Should I add accidental damage to my contents insurance?

While contents insurance will cover most types of damage, such as fire, theft or flood, not having accidental damage in place could leave you out of pocket should someone (for example) spill a drink on your expensive new rug.

Whether you should get accidental damage cover will largely depend on how much you’re going to want to pay to replace your favourite belongings should they get accidentally damaged!

We are unable to provide the following covers:

• Wear and tear or costs for maintenance
• Damage caused by your pets
• Your excess as stated in your policy documents
• Cover will be restricted if your property is left unoccupied for more than 30 days
• Theft or vandalism caused by you or any person who is lawfully in your home

What optional extras can I add to my home contents insurance?

Not everyone requires the same cover for their contents, which is why we provide flexible cover options for our customers. You can choose to add the following covers to your policy with Endsleigh:

Gadgets and items away from the home

If you have any items worth over £1,500, you’ll need to specify them on your policy. This includes items such as antiques, works of art, jewellery or collectors’ items.

Legal cover

Add legal cover to your policy, which will provide support should you find yourself in a dispute relating to employment, contract and property issues or clinical negligence. We'll appoint a law firm on your behalf and you can claim up to £50,000 for legal representation.

Home emergency

Reassurance for a range of problems such as a break in, or central heating that doesn’t work (as long as it’s been regularly serviced). Simply call our 24 hour emergency helpline - we’ll assess the situation and send out one of our recommended contractors.

Accidental damage

Prone to accidents? You can also add accidental damage cover to our home contents insurance policies, helping you to make sure you're covered for all those little mistakes that can be expensive to fix. So, if a hot iron falls off the ironing board and burns the carpet, or if you spill liquid on your laptop, you can feel secure in the knowledge that you're not going to be out of pocket.

Before you get a home contents insurance quote with Endsleigh, it’s useful to have certain information to hand to make the process quicker and easier.

It’s also important to give an accurate view of the value of your belongings when you get a quote to avoid under or over-insurance – after all, you don’t want to be spending more on contents cover than you have to!

Here are a few simple tips for getting a contents insurance quote with Endsleigh:

1. Calculate the value of your contents

The value of your contents can be surprisingly easy to underestimate, so the simplest way to calculate this is to go through each room and do a rough total of how much everything is worth. You can find out more about calculating your contents cover in our FAQs below.

2. Check the security at your property

This can be a stumbling block for lots of people as there are loads of different types of alarms and security systems out there - which makes it all the more important to get this right on your home and contents insurance quote!

Find out more about insurance requirements for door locks here.

3. Find out the building’s construction

Even if you’re not taking out buildings insurance, you will still need to tell us a bit about the building so we can properly assess the risk. For example, does the property have a flat roof or is it located in a high-risk flood zone? Having this information to hand will speed things up when you get your contents quote.

4. Any extras?

Having all your contents cover under the same roof can be extremely handy, so have you considered what optional extras you might need? For example, is your bike and mobile phone protected? What about your keys? If you’re prone to losing them, you could add Key care for just £1.78 per month!

The cost of your contents insurance will be based on a number of factors, including:

• The total value of your belongings and what you’re insuring
• Whether you want to add any extras – for example, do you need to add extra covers like Key care or home emergency?
• The postcode of your property
• Your personal details (claims history, credit check etc.)
• Security features, such as alarms and smoke detectors

Do you get No Claims Bonus with contents insurance?

Similarly to car insurance, you may be able to access discounts on your contents insurance policy the longer you don’t make a claim, usually up to a maximum of five years.

There are lots of easy ways to reduce the cost of your contents insurance in the UK. Here are just a few:

1. Increase your excess

Increasing your voluntary excess amount can sometimes reduce the cost of your overall premium - just make sure you can afford to pay the excess you choose in the event of a claim!

2. Don’t over-insure

Take the time to properly calculate the value of your contents so you can make sure you take out the most cost-effective policy for you.

3. Consider your contents cover options

Our policies are flexible so you can add or remove the cover you need and get your premium right.

4. Pick how you pay

Choose whether you pay monthly (via Premium Credit) or annually.

5. Build up ‘no claims bonus’

Similarly to car insurance, you can usually build up ‘no claims bonus’ if you haven’t made a claim on your home contents insurance

6. Compare contents insurance quotes

Just because it was the first quote you got, doesn’t mean you have to take it – comparing quotes and cover options is always the way to make sure you’re getting the best contents insurance for you.

The question you’re probably asking yourself is “how much contents insurance do I need?”

The amount of contents insurance you need will be based upon the total value of the belongings you keep in your home. The easiest way to calculate the value of your contents is to go through each room and do a rough total of how much everything is worth - you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised by the total value of your wardrobe once you’ve thrown in a few coats and jumpers!

Here are just some of the items you might want to include in your evaluation:

• Furniture, such as tables, sofas, bed, wardrobe etc.
• Your TV and other electricals, including DVDs and video games
• Personal belongings, including books, pictures and other ornaments
• Curtains, carpets, rugs, bedding and other soft furnishings
• White goods and kitchen electricals, such as your washing machine, oven, fridge, freezer, toaster etc.
• The contents of your kitchen cupboards - cutlery, crockery, glassware, pots, pans, cooking utensils etc.
• Your clothes – and don’t forget about your shoes!
• Any extras – such as your exercise equipment or gardening tools

If you have any higher value items that need to be specified on the policy or insured separately – such as fine art or jewellery - you may need to have a valuation carried out by a specialist that you can provide to your insurer in the event of a claim. Please note that the valuation needs to have been carried out in the last 5 years.

Here at Endsleigh, we try to make the claims process as quick and easy as possible for our customers, from first notification to final pay out. Here’s how the process works:

• Notify us of your claim as soon as possible - to help speed up processing your claim, make sure you answer all questions truthfully and can fully explain the circumstances of any claim. To notify us of a new claim, please visit our claims centre.
• Send us your evidence - take photos and videos of whatever you’re claiming for as soon as the damage occurs. Remember, the more solid the evidence you have, the quicker it will be for us to process your claim.
• Pay your excess – Depending on your contents policy, you’ll likely need to pay a small excess. Your dedicated claims specialist will let you know how to make payment.
• Receive your claims payment – once your handler has received and reviewed all evidence relating to your claim, they should be in a position to arrange payment or replace your damaged items (whichever is specified by the terms and conditions of your policy).

How soon can you claim on contents insurance?

You can make a claim on your policy as soon as you confirm your quote and pay your premium. There is a 14 day cooling off period with contents insurance, but it’s important to bear in mind that you will not receive any return premium for your policy if you choose to cancel after making a claim.

If you’re a student at university, you may find student contents insurance more suitable to protect your belongings while you’re living in uni halls or accommodation.

This is for a number of reasons:

• You’ll be able to arrange cover for just the belongings in your room, rather than the entire house.
• Endsleigh’s student contents policies are flexible so you can add on your gadgets (such as mobile phones and laptops) to access up to 15% multi-gadget discount
• You may also be able to get a discount on your student contents insurance with your TOTUM card

Before taking out your own student contents policy, you should also check whether your accommodation provider has arranged any insurance for you whilst you’re staying with them. If they have, this cover is sometimes provided by Endsleigh. Check your student cover here.

I live in a shared house – can I get contents insurance for just my room?

If you live in shared accommodation, you may only want to take out cover for the belongings in your room, rather than the entire property.

In this instance, our gadgets and possessions insurance may be more suitable. This policy will allow you to build your cover to include personal possessions, laptops, mobile phones and more.

It can be tricky, figuring out what’s covered under buildings and what’s covered under contents insurance.

Contents insurance usually provides standard home insurance cover to protect your belongings - such as your furniture, clothes and jewellery - against risks such as fire, theft and flood. Some contents insurance policies also include tenants’ liability insurance to protect any belongings in the property that the landlord owns.

Buildings insurance, on the other hand, provides cover for the structure of the property, rather than the belongings inside – again, against risks such as fire, theft and flood. Buildings insurance will usually be the landlord’s responsibility to arrange.

Do I need buildings insurance as well?

If you’re a tenant, you will not require buildings insurance as this will be your landlord's responsibility – essentially you cannot insure something that you doesn’t belong to you, or that you do not have a financial interest in.

If you’re a leaseholder, it will still be the responsibility of the landlord (or ‘freeholder’) to provide insurance for the building – although they may charge this back to the leaseholders as part of the property’s management fees.