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Non-standard home insurance is a catch-all term covering all sorts of houses that won’t be protected under standard home insurance.
It applies to houses that aren’t built in the usual way, for instance if they have a thatched roof. Likewise, it’s useful for homes built in risky locations, such as known-flood risk areas.
You also need non-standard home insurance if you have certain personal circumstances, including past convictions or bankruptcy.
There are many types of ‘non-standard’ properties for the purpose of insurance, and it’s hard to list every one. However, the following categories are commonly covered under non-standard insurance:
Homes with unusual construction are probably the most common reason to buy non-standard home insurance. But what constitutes non-standard construction?
If you have a non-standard home, you need specialist cover for the simple reason that repairing it or rebuilding it would be more expensive than for a standard property. This is either because the materials themselves are rarer or more expensive to make, or because they require specialist skills and craftsmanship to repair or replace.
Furthermore, many non-standard constructions require more maintenance than normal, or their materials may just be more prone to damage. All of these factors increase the risk that your insurer will have to pay out, which has the effect of driving your premiums up.
You may also need to take out specialist cover if the following applies to you:
There are three main types of home insurance: contents insurance, buildings insurance and combined insurance. The good news is that all three are available for non-standard homes.
Contents insurance protects your belongings, including fixtures and fittings. How much it costs mostly depends on the value of what you own, but if you live in a flood-risk area or a high-crime area, you may pay extra. Additionally, insurers tend to assess your security measures, and your non-standard home may be judged to be more or less secure than one of regular construction.
Buildings insurance protects the structure of your home, and the price of your premiums will be heavily influenced by non-standard construction. Buildings insurance covers how much it would cost to rebuild a property from the ground up, including all the building materials – but it doesn’t include the value of the land it’s on, or the location.
If you own a non-standard home, it’s probably a good idea to get a surveyor to assess the rebuild value. If you get your estimate wrong, you will either end up without sufficient cover – or paying too much each month.
Combined insurance is simpler: it is a single policy that combines contents and buildings insurance which you buy from the same insurer. These policies are often – but not always – cheaper than buying separate policies from separate insurers.
It’s very hard to say how much a non-standard home insurance policy costs on average. Each home is different, and has different maintenance and coverage requirements. However, there are several factors which affect home insurance costs in general:
There are many optional extras which you can add to your home insurance policy for a small additional cost. Common choices include:
Non-standard home insurance tends to be pricier than insurance for regular homes, but there are still things you can do to cut costs:
The best way to find a great deal on non-standard home insurance is to shop around using MoneySuperMarket.
We’ve partnered up with specialist insurance provider InsureMy, and we work with several brands who can get you the non-standard insurance you require.
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