Articles in Home insurance

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Home insurance in the UK is not one single product. It’s a group of related policies designed to protect different things, from the structure of your property to the belongings inside it, or the extra risks that come with renting a home out. Choosing the wrong type, or having no cover at all, can leave […]

Home insurance excess is the amount you pay towards a claim before your insurer covers the rest. In the UK, that typically sits somewhere between £100 and £1,000+, depending on your policy and whether you’ve chosen a voluntary excess on top of the compulsory amount. It’s a standard part of most policies, and in most […]

New-for-old home insurance is one of the most important features to understand when choosing a policy in the UK. It determines how much you’ll actually receive if something is lost, damaged, or stolen. Instead of paying out a reduced amount based on age and wear, new-for-old cover replaces items with brand new equivalents at today’s […]

Buying a home in the UK involves a few key insurance decisions, and they don’t all happen at the same time. Some cover needs to be in place before you legally commit to the purchase, while other policies only become relevant once you move in. Getting the timing wrong can expose you to real financial […]

Home insurance payouts hit £6.1bn in 2025, the highest annual total on record since the ABI began collecting the data in 2017. Storm damage claims rose 32% year-on-year, and domestic flood claims rose 38%, setting the backdrop for this analysis by Frontier Home Insurance of the parts of Britain facing the highest combined weather-driven home […]

If you’ve just taken out a home insurance policy, it’s natural to wonder how soon you can actually make a claim. In most cases, cover begins from the exact start date and time shown in your policy documents, and claims for sudden, unexpected events can usually be made from that point. Most UK insurers, including […]

Making a home insurance claim is rarely something you plan for. Whether it’s water pouring through the ceiling or storm damage to the roof, you want repairs underway quickly. In reality, home insurance claim timelines in the UK can vary considerably. Some straightforward claims are resolved relatively quickly, while more complex cases involving structural damage, […]