Can you imagine if your house burnt to the ground and you lose everything, your carpets, TV, clothes, furniture - In essence everything down to your knives and forks is gone. Sentiment cannot be replaced, but the items themselves can, and that is why you need Home Insurance.

If you have a mortgage on your property, it will be a requirement of the mortgage that you have adequate Buildings Insurance in place. If your house was to burn down and you did not insure it, your house will have to be rebuilt at your own expense, and you will still have to continue paying your existing Mortgage, as well as a second loan to pay for the rebuild.

When it comes to your Home Insurance, you have to make sure that you are adequately insuring your Building and Contents to their true value.

It can be very difficult to estimate the value of your Contents Insurance, so it's best to bear in mind that the UK average insurance levels are £10,000 per bedroom. If you have a 3 bedroom property, then you are looking for a minimum of £30,000 of cover. Use these guidelines even if you don't believe you have "that much stuff", it is surprising in total loss claims how things add up, and the cost of having a few extra thousand pounds worth of cover is minimal.

Buildings Insurance is a different thing. Your rebuild value is very specific to your property so unless you know the rough rebuild cost then we recommend you use rebuild calculator such as this one on the BCIS website (The Building Cost Information Service).

If you really have no idea of the reinstatement value, then to be safe you can look for a "blanket" cover. Home Insurance providers offer several policies which will offer you Buildings Insurance of up to £300,000 or £500,000 or in some cases "unlimited". It's fine to over insurance yourself.

Also, you may have a valuation report if you purchased your home recently, and a reinstatement value should have been documented for lending purposes.

The quality of Home Insurance contracts varies greatly. You should always be looking at the exclusions.

Ensure for instance that you take a policy with enough cover when it comes to the sheds, garages and outbuildings.

If for example you buy cheap home insurance, you may find that you only have a few hundred pounds worth of cover here, and if you may have a shed full of bikes, a petrol powered lawnmower, and expensive garden furniture, this would not be a suitable policy for you– but you won't realise until your claim is refused.

Home Insurance providers have to make profit from their product like all business, so if they reduce the price of their Buildings and Contents Insurance, then they have to reduce the quality of their policy, and the likelihood of paying out.

Also beware of sales gimmicks. "£50 Cash back" is not a great deal on your Home Insurance, if they are charging you £100 more per year! You would save money buying a Home Insurance Policy that is being marketed on its strengths, and suitability to you, not luring cash gimmicks.

Recently a branded Home Insurance provider began to market features such as "replacement of house locks if you lose your keys", "accidental Damage on smashed windows as standard", be very careful, these features actually exist on 99% of all Buildings and Contents Insurance policies as standard, so what's the real message? "We have nothing unique, and are relying on our customers not noticing or reading any small print of the Insurance products they buy". BEWARE!

The Main Insurance essentials are ALL Major Perils.

Fire, Smoke Damage, Storm, Flood, Theft, Attempted Theft, Malicious Damage, Vandalism, Impact & Collision, Subsidence, Heave and Landslip, Escape of Water Or Oil, Earthquake, and Lightning Strikes.

Never forget that as a property Owner you are legally liable for anyone's loss or injury as a result of your property – so you must have Property Owner Legal Liability Insurance. This normally comes as standard up to £2 million.