Our homes are our most precious asset. So, it makes sense to protect our home from any calamities. This is where home insurance comes into play. While home insurance is a broad term, there are several subcategories under it. It’s essential to understand the different types of home insurance so as to choose the best one for your needs. 

Two important categories in home insurance are home structure insurance and home content insurance. Both these terms have an integral role to play in protecting your home. 

• Home structure insurance covers the actual structure of your home, which includes only your home but also your garage, compound wall, ceilings, floor coverings, outhouses etc. Simply put, home structure insurance offers coverage to the skeleton of your home.  
• Home content insurance refers to insurance coverage only for the loss or damage caused to the contents inside your home. Here, content refers to household items that are used mainly for your domestic use including furniture, clothing, appliances, furnishings and not fixed electrical products.

You might have confusion as to whether these policies offer a similar type of coverage or are they different? Understanding the key features of each of these insurance types would help you to decide the most viable option for your home, i.e., whether you should opt for any one of them or a combo of both.

Key Differences between Home Structure Insurance and Home Content Insurance

Conclusion

A house is a prized possession for many. It is therefore important you ensure the safety of your home and its contents. One should go for home structure insurance or home content insurance as per their need for protecting their homes or even both if the need be. Such policies can be brought through either offline or online modes.

FAQs

1. What constitutes the definition of a building?

The insurance policy defines the building as a structure of standard construction unless otherwise specially stated. The building is one, above plinth and foundation but does not include land on which it is constructed.

2. What is meant by building insurance? 

Building insurance policy refers to a policy that undertakes coverage for any damage to the structure of your home like walls, floor, roof, furniture and fittings etc. Any repairs undertaken for your house can also be part of the insurance if the insurance provider has given provision for it as part of the building insurance plan. 

3. Does one require home insurance?

Home is a prized possession for the people who own it as a lot of their efforts (physical, financial and emotional) goes into building or constructing a home. So, if you own a home or are renting out a property, then it is considered prudent to have home/building insurance. 

Your mortgage usually considers insurance as a requisite condition, not including such a condition can entail risk for your mortgage and home. In case you don’t own the home and have taken it on rent, you need not have building insurance as it is the landlord’s responsibility to have building insurance in place. However, as a tenant, you can still opt for home content insurance to safeguard your domestic household goods from damage/loss.

4. Does one require home insurance if they own a leasehold flat?

In case it is a leasehold flat that you own, then such building/home is normally insured by the landlord as he/she owns the freehold. Your solicitor/legal advisor could provide you with the right legal advice as to whether for your leasehold flat, you would require to take out a home/building insurance policy. 

If the flat is one in which the leaseholders have clubbed together to buy a part of the freehold from the landlord, then there may be the requisite to go in insurance cover for the flat. This can be done on an individual basis, as it works out cheaper and easier to avail than take out a group/block policy that goes on to cover all the leaseholders. An insurance broker would be the right person to help you to make the right decision on the type of insurance cover most suitable for your leasehold flat.

5. What has to be kept in mind before going in for a home insurance cover?

Whether going in for home structure insurance or home content insurance for your home, always verify the pros and cons of the insurance policy terms and conditions, before opting for such a policy. 

One should bear in mind that a home structure insurance is comprehensive insurance coverage, therefore, is more expensive than a home content policy. On the other hand, a home content policy covers only some aspects of the damage or loss to the household items. Also, the exclusions as part of the insurance policy provided by the insurers keep on changing from time to time, so one reads it every time a new policy is undertaken or an old policy is renewed.

6. Can I purchase a home insurance policy online?

Most of the insurance providers have now provided the option for online purchase of both home structure and home content insurance plans. Check out with your insurance provider or go to their company website wherein all such information is provided.