Home insurance

Buildings, contents, or both — insured for what it would cost to rebuild and replace, not what the house would sell for.

Rebuild value

Buildings are insured for the rebuild cost. The Society of Chartered Surveyors publishes a guide each year; for a three-bedroom semi-detached house in Cork the current guide figure is about €290,000. Insuring for the market value usually means paying for cover you do not need.

Contents

Contents cover starts at €30,000. Individual valuable items over €2,000 — jewellery, bikes, instruments — must be listed separately. Accidental damage and cover for items away from home are optional extras.

What we need for a quote

The year the house was built, the number of bedrooms, the type of construction, the rebuild value, whether it has an alarm, and any claims in the last five years.

Rented-out and holiday homes

A standard home policy does not cover a property you let to tenants or a holiday home you occupy for less than three months a year. Both need a landlord's or holiday-home policy, which we arrange separately. Tell us if any part of your home is let, including a room under the rent-a-room scheme.

Flooding

Insurers use flood maps at the address level. Some Cork addresses are declined for flood cover by most of the panel; where that happens we tell you which insurers will still quote and on what terms.