Home Insurance Blog

Subsidence has a fearsome reputation, and the numbers behind it explain why. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors puts the cost of underpinning a home at £10,000 to £75,000, the kind of figure that makes any cracking wall feel like a crisis. The reassuring part, often lost in the worry, is that RICS estimates fewer […]

Subsidence is one of the most damaging ground problems a UK home can face, and the risk is growing. The British Geological Survey projects that the share of British properties highly likely or extremely likely to be susceptible to clay shrink-swell could reach around 11% by 2070 under a higher-emissions scenario, as hotter, drier summers […]

Listed building consent is one of the most misunderstood parts of owning a period property in the UK. The rules reach further than most owners assume, and getting them wrong runs from enforcement notices that make you undo the work at your own cost, to criminal prosecution, which, in England and Wales, is not subject […]

Grade II is the most common form of heritage protection in England. Around 91.7% of all listed buildings carry this grade, and it’s the listing a homeowner is far more likely to encounter than the rarer Grade II* or Grade I. Plenty of people buy a Grade II property for its character without fully appreciating […]

Owning or buying a listed building in the UK is different from owning a standard home. You’re not just buying a property; you’re taking responsibility for a building that has recognised architectural or historic importance. That can affect what you can change, how repairs are carried out, what permissions you need, and how the property […]

Insurance is one of the most important and most commonly misunderstood parts of running an Airbnb in the UK. Many hosts assume their standard home insurance will still respond if a paying guest damages the property, causes a fire, or is injured during a stay. In many cases, that assumption is risky. A standard home […]

Airbnb income is taxable in the UK, and it’s your responsibility to understand when it needs to be declared. Even if you only host occasionally, the income can still fall within the property tax rules once it moves beyond the available allowances. The right treatment depends on how you use the property, whether you qualify […]

Home insurance has become more expensive for many UK households over the past few years, although the picture is starting to soften in some parts of the market. Premiums rose sharply through 2023 and 2024 as repair costs, labour, materials, rebuild values, and weather-related claims all moved upwards. Average combined buildings and contents premiums were […]

The rules around Airbnb and other short-term lets in the UK have become much more complicated in recent years. Whether you need planning permission now depends heavily on where the property is, how often it’s let, whether it’s your main home, and whether local restrictions apply. Getting this wrong can have real consequences. Local planning […]

When a property owner dies, the insurance position can change very quickly. A home that was previously occupied often becomes empty while probate is dealt with and the estate is administered. That matters because many standard home insurance policies apply restrictions once a property has been unoccupied for a period of time, often around 30 […]

Home insurance isn’t a legal requirement in the UK in the way that motor insurance is. There’s no general law saying you must have buildings or contents cover. But in practice, the answer is more nuanced, because your mortgage terms, lease arrangements, and rental setup can make some types of cover effectively mandatory even when […]