If it’s your home

If you’re purchasing a property in England & Wales, your building insurance should be in place at the point you exchange contracts with the seller of the property as this is when you become legally obliged to buy.  Buildings insurance is usually the responsibility of the property freeholder to arrange. If your property is leasehold, you should check your lease, and you can find out more through the Leasehold Advisory Service.

In Scotland, your buildings insurance should be in place at the point you complete the purchase of the property.

Taking out contents insurance before moving in could also protect you if anything was to be damaged in transit. 

If it’s a buy to let property

NatWest home insurance and most ‘home insurance’ policies don’t cover buy to let properties or a landlord’s belongings in a rental property. If you need to protect a buy to let property, you should look for specific landlord insurance cover.

If you apply for buildings insurance, although not in all cases, you may be asked to enter a rebuild cost of your property. This is the cost you would have to pay to completely rebuild your home from the ground up. 

It’s important to remember, the price you pay for your home and its rebuild value are different. When you purchase a home, the main value of the home is in the land, which is not part of a rebuild cost.  The rebuild cost focuses on the raw materials and labour required to build a house.

To help you get a free accurate estimate of your rebuild cost, you can use the calculator available on (link: Buildings Cost Information Service's) (BICS).

Contents insurance

Similar to buildings insurance, you may also be asked for an estimated ‘sum insured’ value of how much it would be to replace all your belongings.

The cost of home insurance varies.

For buildings insurance, some of the key considerations that drive that cost will be the rebuild value and whether you live in an area prone to flooding. This is then reviewed to assess how likely you are to make a claim and what that will cost the insurer. 

For contents insurance, the cost may vary depending on the key factors such as the sum insured, the area you live in and any extras you may decide to opt (such as legal cover).