There may be occasions when standard building and contents insurance with which to protect your home and your belongings simply might not be the most appropriate.

Special cases call for a different approach to insurance. Those are the times when you might need to find for more specially designed and focussed specialist home insurance. If that is the case, you may need to look no further than us here at GSI Insurance.

When we talk about specialist home insurance, for example, we are experts in arranging cover for property under a host of different circumstance, with each one requiring a somewhat different approach:

Non-standard construction

• the House Buyer Bureau recognises that you might find it difficult selling your home if it is of non-standard construction. Not only is a mortgage going to be more difficult to secure but so, too, is it likely to be difficult to arrange appropriate building and contents insurance;

• in these cases, standard construction generally refers to a building that is built using bricks or stone for the walls, with a slate or tiled roof on top;

• non-standard construction involves the use of any other types of building material;

• our own Guide to insurance for non-standard construction properties explains in more detail the particular risks associated with these types of property and why specialist cover is required;

Subsidence

• there are other reasons for your needing a specialist rather than standard for of home insurance and one of these is because of subsidence;

• if your property has been or is likely to be subject to subsidence, some providers of standard home insurance may decline to extend cover or significantly increase the cost of premiums;

• a specialist insurer, on the other hand, is in a position to secure the appropriate form of subsidence insurance – at a price that remains competitive;

• you can read more here with our Subsidence Guide;

Flooding

• past incidents of flooding or properties built in areas vulnerable to that risk may also pose difficulties when it comes to arranging suitable insurance cover;

• once again, a specialist insurance provider may be in the best position to identify suitable insurers, prepared to offer cover at a competitive price;

Empty properties

• empty or unoccupied properties also pose a range of specific risks and perils which lead to many insurers reducing the level of cover or treating it as lapsed once your home has been vacant for longer than 30 to 45 consecutive days (the precise period varying from one insurer to another);

• a form of specialist home insurance called unoccupied property insurance may be required to restore full and comprehensive protection for your home for the duration of any vacancy longer than a month or so;

Renovation insurance

• special risks and vulnerabilities are also present if your property is in the course of renovation, refurbishment or remodelling;

• there is the existing building structure to protect, the works in progress, not to mention cover against the loss or theft of tools, equipment and materials on site;

• our Guide to renovation explains more.

These are just some of the circumstances in which standard home building and contents insurance may be unable to provide the particular cover you need for your property. That is the time you are likely to turn to specialist home insurance.