Cover for your home
Buildings insurance covers the basic structure and fabric of your home. This includes the roof, walls, ceilings, floors, doors and windows. As well as the structure, it also covers permanent fixtures and fittings including baths, toilets and fitted kitchens, bedroom cupboards and interior decorations.
Most buildings insurance policies also include cover for accidental damage to underground pipes, cables and glass in doors and windows, along with outbuildings such as garages, sheds and greenhouses. However, other outdoor structures such as boundary walls, fences, gates, paths, drives and swimming pools may not be covered in a standard policy, so be sure to carefully check the small print of any policy you are thinking of buying to see exactly what it covers.
If your policy doesn't include other outdoor structures, ask your insurer if you can extend your cover to include them – you'll have to pay more for this. Other add-ons to consider (if they don't come as standard) include legal expenses cover, home emergency cover and alternative accommodation cover.
A comprehensive buildings insurance policy is designed to provide you with financial support to cover the full cost of repairing or rebuilding your home in the event that it is damaged or totally destroyed by:
- A natural disaster – earthquake, hurricane, etc
- Burst pipes and other incidents of water leakage
- Explosions - caused by gas leaks, etc
- Falling trees
- Fire
- Lightning
- Storms and flooding
- Subsidence
- Vandalism or third party damage
Risk areas
Cover for subsidence and flood damage is vital if your property lies within a risk area. Due to changes in the global climate, floods and storms are becoming more frequent and more severe. While this has made it more important to have flood-risk cover in place, it has also caused the cost of this cover to increase for those living in flood-risk areas. The amount you pay will also be higher if you live in an area prone to subsidence.
You can check whether your home is one of the two million UK properties at risk of flooding either from rivers or the sea by using the Environment Agency's online flood risk map. If you find that you live in one of these areas it is vital to take measures to protect your home and lower the cost of your home insurance.
Protect your home from flooding
1. Fit guards across the bottom of external doors to hold back low levels of water.
2. Buy plastic covers for air bricks to stop water from entering.
3. Put non-return valves on drains and water pipes entering the home – these are cheap and easy to fit.
4. Keep your electrical supply high by fitting sockets, fuse boxes and cabling at least 1.5 metres above the floor and mount TVs and sound systems to the wall. This will prevent a short circuit and reduce the need for your home to be rewired should there be a flood.
5. Choose tiles and rugs rather than carpets on the ground floor as they are cheaper to replace.
6. In the kitchen, choose steel, plastic or solid wood units as they are water-resistant. Raise fridges, dishwashers and other electrical goods on plinths.
7. Synthetic frames for doors and windows such as uPVC will withstand a better soaking than wood.
8. Floor sacks are the modern version of sandbags and are less bulky to store. However, they will need to be soaked in water so they can expand before being placed around your home. Ask your local council if they will provide them.
9. Move your important documents to a safe place on the highest floor of your home.
Further advice on simple, low-cost measures to limit damage and help cut premiums can be found in the Environment Agency's 'Preparing for Floods' guidance document.
Is buildings insurance compulsory?
Homeowners are usually required to have adequate buildings insurance in place as a mortgage condition, as this acts as security for the mortgage lender's loan.
When you take out a mortgage your lender may give you a quote for home insurance, but no matter how much they try and sell you a policy you should not feel obliged to take up their offer. Instead, shop around and compare their quote with those of other companies to ensure that you find a policy best suited to your needs.
For landlords, buildings insurance is just as crucial as it is for all homeowners. Tenants, however, only need to consider home contents insurance as building cover is usually arranged by the owner of the property they are renting/landlord.
How much buildings insurance do I need?
To work out how much cover you need, consider how much it would cost to completely rebuild your home, but bear in mind the rebuild cost is not the same as the price you paid for your home or its current value. The rebuild cost is likely to be a lot less than the amount you paid for your property, so if you enter a value that is too high, you'll end up paying out far more than you need to for your insurance.
Some insurers do offer cover but while this can be the easy way out as you won't have to work out the rebuild cost, it's also likely to be the more expensive option. Try and get an exact rebuild figure if you can.
The rebuild cost is usually on your mortgage agreement but if you're unsure about how much it would cost to rebuild your home, you can get advice and use a calculator on the Association of British Insurers website.
Be warned the rebuild cost can rise over time as well as if you have made changes to your property such as having an extension.
Be honest with your insurer
When taking out buildings cover it is important to be honest when letting potential insurers know about the details of your property. Failing to disclose any potential issues that you know of or giving any false information could invalidate any claim you make under your insurance policy.
For example, not informing your insurer that you live in an area with a high flood-risk could mean you are unable to claim for compensation in the event of flood damage to your home.