Buildings insurance

While your mortgage lender will almost certainly require you to buy buildings insurance, you aren’t obliged to buy it from their preferred insurer. In fact, you’ll probably be able to find cheaper insurance by shopping around and comparing prices.

If you own a leasehold property, you might find that the building is already insured by a landlord who owns the freehold. If you’re not sure, your solicitor can advise you.

In certain blocks of flats where leaseholders have joined forces to buy a portion of the freehold, you might have to buy your own buildings cover.

Most buildings insurance policies do not cover rising damp, unfortunately. It’s unusual for home insurance policies to cover any kind of gradual deterioration. 

You can still get buildings insurance if you live in a flood risk area, but your premiums are likely to be quite a bit more expensive. You can find out more in our guide to flood insurance.

If you want to extend or convert your house, or make significant renovations, you should tell your insurer before the work begins. You will probably be able to make changes to your policy, but it’s best to inform them first, in case anything goes wrong and your policy is invalidated.

If you are leaving your property empty for more than 31 days at a time, you will probably need a specialist unoccupied home insurance policy.

If you haven’t been able to get the information from the title deed to your home, which should have been obtained by your conveyancer or estate agent when you bought it, the easiest way to check the age of your home is with the government’s Land Registry service.

Garages are considered separate structures for the purposes of buildings insurance, and you’ll have to list it as such when you apply. You should still be able to get cover, but it’s not wise to claim it as another ordinary room.

Buildings insurance is available to people who own listed buildings or those made from non-standard materials such as thatched roofs, though the chances are you'll have to pay a little extra due to the extra risk, and the extra rebuild costs.

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But you might have other questions. Do we provide access to all the companies operating in a given market? Do we have commercial relationships or ownership ties that might make us feature one company above another?

We commit to providing you with clear and informative answers on all points such as this, so we have gathered the relevant information on this page.

We aim to show you home insurance quotes from as many insurance companies as possible, so that you can find the right policy for you.

Unfortunately, we can’t promise to show quotes from every insurance provider, because not all companies want to be included on comparison websites.

We won’t offer you advice or make a recommendation, but we will provide you with all the information you need to help you decide which is the right policy for you.

You can find out more about how we work here.