What does home insurance cover?

Key takeaways

• Home insurance provides financial protection for your home and belongings against risks like fire, flood, storm damage, and burglary

• Home insurance can cover the structure of your home, your belongings, or both, depending on whether you choose buildings, contents or combined cover

• Additional cover options include accidental damage, legal protection, home emergency, garden, bicycle cover, and ‘away-from-home’ cover for your possessions

What does home insurance cover?

Home insurance can cover your home, your belongings, or both, against risks such as:

• Fire damage

• Flood damage

• Storm damage

• Burglary and vandalism

• Escape of water from burst pipes

• Damage from subsidence or heave

You’ll need to check your policy documents for the exact cover, limits and exclusions.

What does home insurance not cover?

Home insurance does not cover every type of damage or loss, and common exclusions include:

• Wear and tear

• Lack of maintenance

• Deliberate damage

• Damage caused by pets

• Mechanical or electrical breakdown of appliances

• Theft by guests

• Incidents where you have been negligent

• If your home is left unoccupied for longer than your policy allows.

What are the most common claims on home insurance?

What are the different types of home insurance?

There are two main types of home insurance: buildings insurance and contents insurance.

Buildings insurance covers the structure of your home and permanent fixtures and fittings, such as fitted kitchens and bathrooms.

Contents insurance covers your belongings, such as clothes, furniture, electrical items and sports equipment. A simple way to think about contents is: would you take it with you if you moved house?

Which type of home insurance do I need?

No type of home insurance is mandatory by law, but your mortgage lender may insist you buy buildings insurance as a condition of the mortgage.

• If you own a house, you’ll usually need buildings insurance to protect the property itself. You may also want contents insurance to cover your belongings

• If you own a leasehold flat in a block of flats, your buildings insurance will normally be arranged by the freeholder or bought as a joint policy with the other flat owners. You’ll need your own contents insurance

• If you rent, your landlord is usually responsible for insuring the building. You’ll need your own tenants’ contents insurance if you want to cover your belongings

There are also other types of home insurance that apply to specific situations:

Landlord insurance: This cover protects landlords from risks associated with owning a rental property. It usually includes buildings insurance and any of the landlord’s possessions in the rental property (i.e. furniture). Some policies also include cover for missed rent payments.

Home emergency cover: This type of insurance covers the costs of labour, parts and repairs if you have heating, plumbing or drainage issues. You can buy home emergency cover as an add-on to your home insurance, or as a separate standalone policy.

Tenants’ insurance: Renters or tenants insurance is a type of contents insurance, designed to cover a tenant’s possessions in a rented home.

Students’ insurance: This type of insurance covers the possessions you keep in your room in private student accommodation or university halls of residence.

What additional cover can I add to my home insurance?

There are various extras you can add to a home insurance policy, including:

• accidental damage insurance

• legal protection insurance

• home emergency insurance

• garden insurance

• bicycle insurance

• high-value items insurance

You may also want to take out personal possessions insurance, which covers your belongings when they're outside of your home. This type of cover would protect you if your mobile phone was stolen at a restaurant, for example.

How can I reduce the cost of home insurance?

• Shop around and compare different policies and premiums

• Pay your home insurance premium annually rather than monthly

• Combine buildings and contents insurance in one policy, as this is often cheaper than taking out two separate policies

• Building up a no-claims bonus can make your premiums cheaper in future, although it might not be worth claiming for smaller amounts

• Set a higher excess (the amount you pay towards any claim)

• Improve your home security