In our last post, we covered 10 common questions about home insurance cover that customers may not know. In this blog, we’ll answer some more of the most common questions to keep you informed and help you get the cover you need.
Unless your neighbour was legally responsible for your damage (e.g. due to failure to appropriate take care), you’ll usually have to claim on your own home insurance. If you can prove their responsibility though, your insurer may try to recover the costs from your neighbour.
In short, no. Insurance is there for sudden and unexpected events. General wear and tear is to be expected over time, so you won’t be able to claim for this on your home insurance.
No, home insurers specifically exclude motor vehicles from contents cover which means you would need to speak to your car insurer. Depending on your cover and garage however, your home insurer is likely to cover the garage itself and any other contents inside.
You may claim under either or both policies, as long as you don’t claim the overall value twice. Look at the different policy limits, excesses, and no claims discounts before you decide what to do, and make sure to inform both parties of the other insurance so they can pay for their correct share.
Typically not. While standard home insurance policies will cover your fences against things like fire or vandalism, they usually specifically exclude damage by storms.
Home insurance typically only covers the residents’ belongings, however many have a specific clause and limit that allows for visitors’ belongings to be covered. This will typically be at a lower limit than your contents cover, but usually extends to the same risks like theft or accidental damage. Make sure to check your policy to see what cover you’ve got for guests.
The exact limit will be detailed in your policy wording, but for most you’ll stop being covered after it’s been unoccupied for more than 30 days in a row. This varies by insurer though – here at coverbaloo, you’re still covered up to 60 days unoccupied.
Insurance is designed to put things back in the same position, which means using the same materials and construction as before. Flood prevention measures usually cost more to install, but if you’re willing to top up the cost then your insurer may be willing to incorporate these at the same time as the main repairs. Some insurers are also signed up to the Build Back Better scheme which funds repairs that will reduce future risk or damage from flooding, check with your provider for more details.
Before any repairs or redecorations can start, the home must be decontaminated, cleaned and fully dried which can take many weeks. If it’s not fully dry first, further work is likely to lead to problems with damp and mould. This is why properties severely damaged by floods can take several months to repair.
We normally ask that you let us know if it’s going to affect the security or the structural stability of your home (like knocking through walls etc), but if in doubt it’s better to get in touch than to risk invalidating your cover.
Hopefully you learned something new from these questions – check out for the rest of our blogs for more information and useful tips about insurance.
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