Don’t be a party pooper! Sort out your home contents insurance

We all love to party – and with the weather starting to look up, many of us will be thinking about our summer shindigs. However, this means that it’s also a good time think about your home contents insurance – and the type of cover that may suit you best.

Whatever you’ve got planned for your get-together, accidents can and do happen, especially when alcohol’s involved. What starts as quiet barbeque with friends and family can quickly turn into a boozy bash, especially when your nan’s had one too many sherries and Aunt Flo is regaling everyone with drunken tales of her failed marriage. Unfortunately, spilled wine, beer and spirits can be difficult to get out of your carpet or furniture.

And, of course, we’ve all read the news reports about how teenagers’ parties can quickly get out of hand. If you’ve ever seen popular youth drama Skins on Channel 4, you’ll know what we’re talking about. Your son or daughter may be planning to have a few friends over for a get together, but thanks to the huge word of mouth potential of Facebook and Twitter, things can and do get out of hand. Parents have come home from weekend’s away or holidays to find their whole house trashed and a shame-faced teenager tearfully explaining how everything went wrong.

Of course, there are plenty of ways you can avoid these types of events, but they can and do happen to anyone. For this reason, it’s a good idea to review your home insurance provisions and decide what may work best for you. For example, with accidental damage cover, you’ll get money back to repair any destruction in your home.

Then, of course, there’s the issue of how much cover you’ve got for your home. Although it may sound like an obvious point, many households fail to increase the value of their home insurance when they make a big purchase. However, this approach can have disastrous consequences. If your home burns down, taking £50,000-worth of stuff with it, if you were only insured for £40,000, this is the maximum you’ll get back.

Which could leave with you with the choice of whether to replace stuff yourself or go without life’s little luxuries. And could quite quickly get you out of the celebratory mood – meaning it could be more important than ever to get your home insurance sorted before you get the party started.