Do I Need Specialist Home Insurance?

If your insurance requirements are a little out-of-the-ordinary, you’ll probably find that a lot of the options you find online, especially through price comparison sites, aren’t sufficient for your needs, or can’t offer you a policy. This is one of the flags that may indicate you’d be better off with a specialist insurance policy.

Do I need specialist home insurance?

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Subsidence and Flood Risk

Even if your property has not suffered from subsidence or flooding itself, being in an area that is considered for a high risk can make your property difficult to insure.

If flood or subsidence has occurred, you’ll probably find that a lot of the insurers you find on price comparison websites will exclude that cover, if they can even offer you a policy at all.

Although very different things, the damage they can cause to a property can both be pretty substantial, so they are treated with care by insurers.

Business Use from Home

If your use is considered clerical only, then you probably don’t need specialist home insurance, and probably won’t incur any extra costs.

If you are making products, you have stock, specialist machinery, and/or have people coming to your home in respect of the business, you probably need working from home insurance.

Non-standard construction

Standard construction is generally referred to a building built with brick/stone/concrete walls, with a slate or tiled roof. Some areas of flat roof, such as over a window or garage, is generally accepted as standard.

Non-standard construction involves the use of any other building material, such as a prefabricated wall construction or a thatched roof.

Generally a non-standard construction property is tougher to insure, as they can be more expensive to repair or replace (especially if hard-to-source materials are required), or they can be more susceptible to damage (such as a felt-on-timber roof, that should be replaced roughly every 15 years).

Listed Buildings can also be of concern, as they need to be repaired using traditional materials and traditional methods, both of which are harder to find, and generally more expensive to obtain.

Unoccupied properties

Generally after a home has been left empty for 30 days or more, it is considered an unoccupied property. Unless you have a specialist policy, unoccupied homes tend to be restricted to a very limited level of cover, such as fire, lightning, explosion, earthquake and aircraft (FLEA) cover only.

For a more comprehensive level of cover, similar to what you’d expect from an occupied house, you may be better off arranging an unoccupied property insurance policy for the duration of the unoccupancy.

Renovation insurance

Even if you’re only planning to redecorate and won’t be taking down any walls or extending, most insurers would want you to let them know.

For more extensive renovations, you are most likely going to need a specialist renovation insurance policy to accommodate the additional risk of contractors on site, and the structural changes to your property.

Renovation insurance policies are generally more fit for purpose, and can extend to cover for work in progress, as well as loss or damage to building materials if required.

If you’re finding that the standard insurers and price comparison sites are turning you away, then a specialist home insurer such as GSI Insurance Services (Southern) Ltd. are on hand to assist you. Give us a call on 0800 612 9376 or click Get a Quote to fill in our online form.

Need some more information?

Why not read one of our other buildings and contents insurance guides?