Contents insurance

If you’re living in a rented or leased home, you will only need to protect any contents in the property that you personally own – it’s the property owner’s responsibility to insure the buildings. Contents insurance is a type of home insurance that covers your personal belongings, rather than the structure of the building.

Contents insurance provides cover for the loss or damage to the possessions in your home which aren’t a fixture or fitting of the building, but bear in mind that this doesn't cover wear and tear or damage to the property's fixtures and fittings. This type of insurance will cover your possessions, which are described as the items you would want to take with you should you move. For example, furniture, personal items and valuables and electrical goods.

If you’re renting or leasing a property and have belongings, such as clothes and furniture, that you want to protect, then you may wish to take out contents insurance.

It may also be a requirement of your tenancy agreement that you have tenants’ liability cover in place to provide cover for any belongings that your landlord owns in the property, but that you are responsible for - for example, if the property is furnished. Our contents insurance policy includes up to £2,500 tenants’ liability cover as standard.

Contents insurance for tenants

Endsleigh’s contents insurance policy is most suitable for renters or leaseholders looking to cover the contents of their entire household. If you’re a student looking to protect the contents in your university accommodation, you can find out more about student contents insurance below.

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.

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

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

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.

You can also choose to add cover away from the home for items such as bikes, mobile phones, laptops and more.

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.

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

1. Increase your excess

Increasing your voluntary excess amount can sometimes reduce the cost of your overall premium

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 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 house contents insurance

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

• What’s the value of my contents? You can find out more about calculating the value of your contents below.
• What security is in place at my property?
• What construction is my property? Even if we’re not covering the buildings, we’ll still need to know basic information about the structure.

It’s a difficult thing, calculating the value of your possessions, and it’s something that’s easy to underestimate. 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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

‘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.