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Home insurance protects you if something drastic happened to your home, such as a blaze, burglary or storm damage.

What cover you need will depend on your circumstances. For example, if you’re renting or own a leasehold property, you usually won’t need buildings insurance to cover the structure of your home, as this will be the responsibility of the landlord or freeholder – though do check.

When it comes to contents insurance, everyone should consider this as it protects you against loss or damage to your personal belongings.

To help break it down further, there are three main types of home insurance:

• Buildings insurance. This covers the structure of your home and permanent fixtures and fittings.
• Contents insurance. Turn your home upside down and everything that falls out would typically be covered. Everyone should consider this, though if you’re renting. 
• Combined buildings and contents. This is one policy to cover both types above, and is a common choice if you own your home’s freehold, as it’s usually cheaper. It can also make claims easier as there’s only one insurer to deal with. 

Not usually, but it depends on the nature of your work. There’s normally no need to inform your insurer if you’re doing clerical work, such as working on a laptop and making calls.

However, if you have visitors to your home who are there as part of your work, or you have stock you’ve brought home (for example, if you’ve a mail order business which you’re now operating from home), those won’t be covered. If either of these apply, you’ll need to check if you can pay a premium to have the visitors/stock covered, or you may need to get an extension to your usual business insurance. 

This depends on your insurer. Many let you make changes online, but not all .

You’ll usually be charged for altering a policy, such as removing an add-on or increasing your contents cover. The fee you’ll pay (and for which changes) will vary by insurer, but are typically between €10 and €50. You’ll usually find changes made online are cheaper than calling. 

If you’re heading off and leaving your home unoccupied, you may find your cover is restricted or you may not be covered at all.

Almost all insurers restrict the days you can leave your home unoccupied for while still covering you – usually 30 days. Leaving it empty for long periods makes it more at risk of burglary, and the cost of any claims greater as any damage can be left undetected for weeks.

Firstly, always contact your insurer as soon as possible after noticing the damage or theft. As per the question above, when claiming, you may have to pay towards repairs and replacements, known as an ‘excess’, so check your policy for the full information.

You’ll need to provide details of the circumstances surrounding any loss or damage, plus any evidence of that. Take photographs of the damage to your home, contents or car, or film the footage. This may help provide proof.

If your possessions have been badly damaged or stolen, any photographs of you with a particular item when undamaged, or held by friends or relatives, will demonstrate you owned it. You can also use receipts, credit card bills or bank statements as evidence.