Is home contents insurance just a waste of money ?

QMy daughter has just moved into a rented flat. I think she should get contents insurance, but her dad thinks it’s a waste of money. Do you agree?

A Contents insurance can often feel like a waste of money — until you have an incident or burglary and face having to find hundreds or thousands of pounds to replace the items. The key question is whether your daughter can afford to replace all her belongings, or even some of them, from her savings. If she can’t then the answer is to get insurance.

According to research by Nationwide Building Society, half of renters have no contents cover and the average value of their contents is £25,126. While your daughter is unlikely to have belonging of that value, it is amazing how quickly it adds up.

You don’t say if the flat is furnished our not. If it is, the landlord will have contents insurance for the furniture they provide. In either case they will also have building insurance to protect the fabric of the property, in the case of a leak for example. Remember though: if her actions cause damage to other flats in the block she could be liable to pay for the damage.

As a rule of thumb, contents insurance covers the stuff you can move out of the house easily and buildings insurance the rest, such as sanitary wear and doors. You can also choose accidental damage cover as an add-on to both these types of insurance which will cover against broken toilets, DIY accidents or smashed laptop screens for example.

Your daughter should ask her landlord what insurance is in place before she starts buying her own. She may also find that buying her own contents insurance is a condition of the tenancy agreement she signs which solves the dilemma.

Contents insurance doesn’t have to cost a lot. It starts as little as £59 a year, depending on where in the country you live. It is worth using a comparison site such as moneysupermarket.com or gocompare.com. She should consider all risk cover as part of the insurance which will cover her belongings away from home. Make sure the single items limit is high enough to cover expensive items such as any jewellery or a good bike. If she works from home, even part of the time, she needs to tell her insurer or she could invalidate her cover.

If the flat is furnished and all she is bringing is clothing and personal items then there is an argument for buying insurance only for expensive gadgets.

Insurers such as protectyourbubble.com, gadgetinsurance.com and switchedoninsurance.com will cover everything from phones to cameras, laptops and e-readers.

Items are also covered if she takes them on holiday. protectyourbubble.com for example charges £15.99 a month to cover three gadgets — she’ll pay extra for loss cover and then an extra from £2 a month for additional gadgets.