The problems in Egypt at the moment may seem light years away to those of us living in the UK but it does once more illustrate the value of home insurance. In fact the situation brings into question just how you would manage without insurance of any kind?

The newspapers and TV pictures are reporting daily on the throngs of people parading up and down Tahrir Square in the middle of Cairo, whilst behind the scenes families try to maintain normal life. After all, bills still have to paid, mouths have to be fed and work has to be done.

All of this is not so easy when parents have to stand guard outside their properties all night to prevent looters making away with their household goods. It becomes difficult to take children to school and therefore almost impossible for adults to go to work. No-one can consider leaving their children at such a time.

One or two ex-pats have been on TV describing the worrying scenes and at the same time telling how difficult it is to get back to the safety of the UK.

It couldn’t happen in the UK, could it?

Oh yes it could! We may think that events we watch from a corner of our living rooms can’t happen here, but you can never be sure, just look at the damage caused by the recent student protests in London. One thing you can be sure about though is that even the most basic of home contents insurance policies will cover the owner’s goods against theft.

All the events that you watch on TV and think “It couldn’t happen here” are routinely built into insurance policies. For instance, earthquakes, riots, explosions, tsunami’s, looting, in fact anything that would appear to be a disaster that just could not happen in the green fields of England, you have actually covered yourself from the financial implications of, when you bought your home owner insurance.

How much of my home insurance is spent on this type of cover?

Although the majority of policies offer such cover, policy providers, just like you and I, consider the risk small, however, any risk is significant. So the fact is it does not cost you much at all. Perhaps a better question would be, can I afford not to have such cover?