What does home insurance actually cover?
Buildings against contents, what the common exclusions are, and the two mistakes that void claims.
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Time
- 25 min
- Read
- 2 min
- Safety
- caution
Short answer
Buildings covers the structure, contents covers what would fall out if you turned the house upside down. The common surprises are gradual damage, wear and tear, and anything you did not declare — all standard exclusions.
Home insurance is one of the few products people hold for decades and read once, at the point of a claim. Understanding the shape of it beforehand is what prevents the two most common problems: being underinsured and being uninsured for the thing that happened.
Safety
Step by step
- Understand the two halves.Buildings: the structure, permanent fixtures, and usually outbuildings — what rebuilding would cost, not what the house is worth. Contents: everything portable. Tenants usually need only contents; owners usually need both.
- Insure the rebuild cost, not the market value.A common and expensive misunderstanding. The rebuild cost is often much lower than the sale price, and insuring the wrong figure means paying too much or being underinsured.
- Value the contents properly.Almost everyone underestimates. Walk each room and add it up — clothes, kitchen, electronics, furniture, tools. Underinsurance can reduce every claim proportionally, not just large ones.
- Know the standard exclusions.Gradual damage, wear and tear, poor maintenance, damage from pets, and anything happening while the property is unoccupied beyond a defined period. These are the surprises.
- Understand what accidental damage adds.Usually optional and often worth it. Without it, putting a foot through a ceiling or spilling paint on a carpet is not covered — those are the things that actually happen.
- Check the single-item limit.Contents policies cap individual items, often at a modest figure. Anything above it — jewellery, a bicycle, a laptop — must be specified separately or it is not fully covered.
- Declare everything.Previous claims, subsidence history, flat roofs, business use, lodgers, unoccupied periods, and any material change. Non-disclosure is the most common reason claims are refused.
- Check cover away from home.Whether contents are covered outside the house — a phone in a café, a bicycle at work. Often optional and often assumed to be included.
Tips
- Photograph or video every room once a year and store it in the cloud. It is the evidence a claim needs and it takes ten minutes.
- Tell the insurer about building work, an extended unoccupied period, or a new lodger before it happens. Retrospective disclosure rarely works.
- Read the exclusions before the cover summary. The exclusions are where the policy is actually defined.
Questions people ask
Should I insure my house for its market value?
No — for the cost of rebuilding it, which is usually lower. Insuring the market value means paying for cover you cannot claim.
Why do claims get refused?
Most commonly non-disclosure, underinsurance, or the cause falling under a standard exclusion like gradual damage or wear and tear.