Home insurance: What you need to know to cover all bases

'Go over your paperwork and relate it to not only your own situation but the current property and construction market'

When it comes to annual bills, passivity is a cunning enemy. Home insurance renewal is a perfect example of how we can blithely waste money at best, and weaken our position at worst, if there is a life-altering happening endangering or even routinely damaging our home or property.

The paperwork bleats weakly in the inbox and drifts to the front doormat. Bounced on to a drawer we decide that it’s handled, done, dusted. I had a very nasty wake-up call last year when I finally bothered to take enough time to read over our recently refreshed policy of several years vintage.