Home Insurance

Home Insurance is cover to protect your building from damage caused by storm, flood, fire etc or cover to protect the contents of your home for similar perils. Home Insurance policies often also include Public Liability.

Home Insurance is important whenever you own a home as it protects against unforeseen circumstances such as floods, fire, storm damage etc. This gives you peace of mind that if something unfortunate does happen to your home, you have insurance in place to help you recover.

As to protect their investment, most mortgage lenders now demand that their customers at least have Building Insurance. However, the structure itself is not the only thing worth protecting; if you want to be covered if you’re burgled or for if your contents (including fixtures, fittings, carpets, furniture etc) are damaged, you’ll also need to look at insuring your contents also.

At Cover4Insurance we have a number of different insurance providers, so we'll provide you with affordable quote options so you can choose a home insurance policy that best suits your needs.

Cover available can include: Buildings:

• Upwards of £500,000 rebuild cost.
• Up to 3 years cover for alternative accommodation if you are unable to live in your accommodation.

Contents & Valuables:

• Cover upwards of £250,000.
• Worldwide cover (including accidental loss).
• Legal expenses cover.

Things To Consider About High Net Worth Home Insurance

One of the most important aspects of household insurance is making sure that the amounts of cover namely the sum insured is the correct amount for the buildings/items you need insuring.

As you may or may not know the sum insured is the maximum amount that the insurer will pay, and if the amount is set at a lower level then in the event of a claim it would not be paid in full.

As a broker, we work with several different insurers to help devise products that will ensure that you are not underinsured when the worst happens.

As a valued customer we believe that you should be dealt with as a person, not a claim statistic and choose our insurance partners based on the service they provide if the worst happens. Our partners will allocate a Personal Claims Manager to your claim so you have one point of contact if you need to make a claim.

Additional Benefits available:

• 24 Hour Home Emergency Assistance.
• Hired marquees cover.
• Hole in one cover.
• Identify fraud cover.
• Travel Insurance.

In certain cases, we may also send out one of our specialist Account Managers to assess your insurance needs. The account manager will be able to review your cover requirements and make recommendations based on these, meaning you can rest easy that your sums insured are covered. The account manager will also be able to make recommendations on your security requirements and place values on those precious items such as art collections.

What is buildings insurance?

Buildings insurance is basically cover for the household structure plus all the items that are generally not removable.

Basically the foundations, walls, floors, doors, windows, roof, plumbing, electrical wiring, insulation, fitted kitchens and fitted bedroom units.

The buildings also include garages, sheds, greenhouses, walls, paths and driveways.

What is contents insurance?

Contents insurance is basically everything you would take with you if you moved, such as:

All the contents of your home such as Computers Equipment (Laptops, Tablets, iPads etc), clothes, furniture, electrical goods (TV’s Cinema iPods etc) artwork, jewellery, food and drink to name a just a few. Basically it’s everything in the property that you own.

If you own a thatched property then you know that you will need specialist insurance for this type of home.

Although some of the covers will be the same as a standard house insurance policy such as cover against fire, flood, storm, lightning, theft etc. you will need the specialist cover due to the increased fire risk/hazard that comes with a thatched property. Flames can spread more quickly through dry thatch than a regular slate or tiled roof causing more damage.

You need to make sure that your home is covered properly by a specialist thatch property insurance as any repairs or replacement of damage to the property would have to be carried out by specialist tradespeople.

With the most common cause of fires to a thatched property being caused by the chimney and flue, you will need to ensure that the flue is properly checked and serviced regularly in order to help prevent loss.

We would also recommend that smoke detectors and other fire prevention equipment are fitted to the property in order to help reduce the risk of damage to your thatched property.

Other steps you can take include checking the electrical wiring and installing a fireproof barrier between the thatch and the roof void or soaking the thatch in fire-retardant sprays.

How to protect your thatched property from a claim

Fire:

• Do not allow:
• Any bonfires/incinerators within 100 meters of your home
• Old thatch or thatching to be burnt within 100 meters of your homes
• Barbecues, fire-pits or chimneys to be burnt within 5 meters of your home
• Don’t use any naked flames or tool producing a naked flame within 5 meters of the thatched roof.
• Keep a fire extinguisher on each floor of your home and a fire blanket in your kitchen.
• Each floor has a minimum of 1 smoke alarm.
• Have your electrical wiring, regularly checked. We would recommend that this is done at least every 10 years if not sooner.

Chimney

• You should ensure that your chimney is kept in a good state of repair
• Is professionally cleaned at least twice a year. We would recommend that you do this prior to the winter period (before the end of October) and again before the end of March as the winter period comes to an end.

Roof

• Have your thatched roof regularly inspected by a suitably qualified thatcher – we would recommend this happen at least once every 5 years.

Windows

• Have key-operated window locks to all accessible windows.

Doors

• We would recommend that you consider installing the following security:
  1. 5 lever mortice deadlocks or locks conforming to BS3621 on all final entrance and exit doors.
  2. 5 lever mortice deadlocks or locks conforming to BS3621 or existing locks plus key operated security bolts at the top and bottom of other external doors.
  3. 5 lever mortice deadlocks or locks conforming to BS3621 or existing locks plus key-operated patio door locks mounted internally on the centre rail of sliding doors.

Insuring both your Contents and Building on the same policy is most often cheaper than insuring them separately.

Whenever you’re looking to purchase insurance, you get the best deal by shopping around and comparing a number of different providers. Though having Building Insurance is mandatory for most Mortgage Lenders, you often have the right to choose your own Home Insurance rather than going with the one recommended (unless otherwise stated in your Mortgage Contract).

If you’re married, in a civil partnership, have been co-habiting for longer than 6 months or are listed as joint homeowners, we can list you as joint policyholders. This means that not only are you and your partner covered under the policy, but either of you can make a claim or deal with the insurance.

We will also cover other family members/domestic staff etc. who permanently reside in your home without paying commercial rent.

We offer Accidental Damage Cover to both building and contents as part of our home insurance policies. Accidental damage to the building might mean putting your foot through the loft or an accident occurring while you’re doing DIY that damaged the permanent structure of the building. Accidental damage to contents covers incidents such as spilling red wine on a carpet or accidentally damaging furniture. Accidental Damage Cover is optional on our Buildings and Contents quote.

If you’re a tenant, you do not need to purchase Buildings Insurance as this is the responsibility of your landlord. Your landlord may also have some contents insurance but this will be for the furniture/fixtures that were in the property when you moved in. Therefore it’s advisable to get insurance for your own Personal Possessions. Our Tenants Insurance can provide cover for your items inside the home and out and about with a range of other features and benefits; for more information or a quote, click here.

If you own a property that you let out to tenants or if you've recently purchased a property that is currently unoccupied, you'll need Landlords Insurance which covers both the Building and Public Liability. Our Landlords Insurance can also cover the contents of the property with the option of Accidental Damage Cover. For more information or to get a Landlords Insurance quote, click here.