Do students need house insurance?

If you’re a student just starting university, you might be curious if you’ll need house insurance. 

Students tend to own a lot of expensive electronics and live in shared accommodations, so they're usually more at risk of theft. That's why it's a good idea to get some kind of insurance to protect your belongings against loss, theft and damage. 

Here’s everything you need to know about getting house insurance as a student. 

What is house insurance?

House insurance is designed to protect your home and belongings. It can cover the cost of repairing your home if it’s damaged. It should also cover repairing or replacing items in your home if they’re damaged or stolen. 

There are three main types of home insurance:

●      Buildings insurance. This covers the physical structure of your home and fixtures and fittings.

●      Contents insurance. This covers your personal belongings, but only when they’re inside your home.

●      Combined. This includes both buildings and contents insurance.

What insurance do students need?

Students won't need building insurance as this will be covered by your landlord or accommodation provider.

However, students can benefit from contents insurance. This’ll protect you if your possessions are lost, damaged or stolen.

Contents insurance usually covers:

●      Mobile phones

●      Laptops and tablets

●      Gaming consoles

●      Furniture

●      TVs

●      Clothes and jewellery

●      Books

●      Musical instruments

●      Other valuables 

Students may be able to purchase a standard contents insurance policy provided they have an industry-approved lock on their room. However, these policies will often only cover belongings in a locked room rather than communal areas like the kitchen or living room. 

Many insurance companies offer student house insurance designed primarily for students living away from home in shared, rented accommodation. Student home insurance only includes contents insurance.

To qualify for student house insurance, you must be in full-time education at a university or college in the UK. Also, you often can’t insure any single item over a set amount, usually around £1000. So, this is something to consider if you have many high-value items.

Students should also consider gadgets or personal possessions cover, which protects your most expensive possessions from loss, theft, and damage when you're out and about. You can add this to a contents insurance policy or pay for it separately. This is worthwhile to protect expensive electronics like laptops or mobile phones. It's worth bearing in mind that you may already have some gadgets protected through accidental damage cover or mobile phone insurance.

Why do students need home insurance?

If you’re a student, you might think there’s no point bothering with insurance. However, according to Save the Student, almost one-in-ten students have been robbed or experienced a break-in. So, home insurance can offer you peace of mind about your possessions and expensive gadgets. 

Even if you don’t think the risk means home insurance is worthwhile, it’s still best to protect your most expensive belongings through gadget or personal possessions insurance. This might include your phone, laptop, headphones and bicycle. These items are commonly lost, damaged, or stolen outside the home. 

How to find the best deal on student home insurance?

An easy way to find a good deal for student home insurance is to use a comparison site like Money Supermarket. This’ll let you quickly look at all your options and find a deal that suits you best.

Another way to ensure you get a good deal is to choose a student-specific insurance provider. This’ll ensure you’re protected in your shared accommodation and won’t include extras you don’t need. A great option is Cover4Insurance which was voted the UK’s ‘Best Student Insurance Provider’ and lets you easily add on extra gadget insurance.

When comparing student insurance policies, consider how many items you need to protect. Choose a policy that covers all your belongings or lets you add them to your policy as extras. Also, check the policy will replace or repair your belongings if they are stolen or damaged.

Another critical aspect to consider is your policy excess. Your excess means the amount of money you have to pay in the event of a claim. For example, suppose you have a £100 excess, and your computer is stolen. In that case, your insurance might offer you the cost of the computer minus the £100 excess.

A higher excess usually means you’ll pay less for your policy and can be a good option if you rarely lose or break items and think you'll claim rarely. However, if you know you tend to be careless or clumsy with your belongings, a lower excess might be the way to go.

Are students covered under their parent's home insurance?

You might wonder if you're still covered under your parent's home insurance policy. Some home insurance providers will protect students' possessions under their policy's 'temporarily removed from the home' section. However, ensure your parents carefully check their home insurance policy to determine if it covers students and to what extent. Don't make the mistake of just assuming it does.

Importantly, this cover only protects belongings if your parents' home is your permanent address. Some policies also have rules about how often you must return home to qualify to use your parents' policy. 

Does university accommodation cover students’ belongings?

Some university accommodation includes basic contents insurance, so it’s essential to check if your university offers this. For example, Endsleigh insures over 500,000 students through their accommodation provider. 

How UniHomes can help

You might already be stressing about sharing utility bills with housemates and trying to set up confusing direct debits. In that case, it can feel like contents insurance is just another payment to worry about. 

UniHomes has thousands of the best student properties across the UK (from trusted landlords and letting agents). Importantly, all of them are offered with bills included, so you don’t have to stress. This means you can focus on getting the right insurance for all your valuable possessions and brand-new gadgets while we sort out your boring utility bills!