Whilst having a home insurance policy is not a legal requirement, your mortgage provider may insist that you have coverage for the duration of your mortgage. Home insurance is like a safety net which covers you against something happening to your property or its contents.

Whether you take out buildings, contents or combined policy is completely up to you, and depends on your personal situation.

If you own your home and pay a mortgage, it’s likely that your mortgage provider will insist on you having buildings insurance as a way to protect their investment. If you rent, it’s likely that your landlord will have buildings insurance so you’ll only need contents insurance.

Of course, homeowners also want to insure the contents of their home - if this is the case, a combined buildings and contents insurance is what you need.

Accidental damage cover insures you against damage that occurs suddenly as a result of an unexpected and non-deliberate external action. That’s the official definition, but in realistic terms that can mean anything from a smashed vase to hammering a nail into a water pipe.

Whether you need it or not is entirely up to you - if there are small children in the property, it might be worth the extra cover as they’re often the culprit for much of the accidental damage that happens in our houses.

Content insurance should cover anything you’d take if you moved house, including things like carpets and curtains. Take a reasonable estimate of everything you’d take with you if you were to move and add it together to get the contents value of your home.