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Average Cost of Home Emergency Cover 2024
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The cost of Home Emergency cover will vary based on a number of factors. Your premium will mostly be affected by the amount of cover (e.g., £250 per claim, £1,000 per claim, etc.) and the types of events (e.g., boiler breakdown, a burst pipe, home security, pest infestation, etc.) covered by the plan. We've surveyed dozens of Home Emergency plans in the UK market to determine the average cost of Home Emergency cover. Use this information to help understand if you're being offered a good deal or not.
Add-On Home Emergency Plans
According to our survey, the cost of adding home emergency cover to your buildings cover is around £47 per year. Interestingly, this price has stayed consistent over the past 5 years. These add-on plans typically include the major cover areas, such as boiler, heating, plumbing, electrics, home security and pest control, plus most offer some reimbursement for alternative accommodation and travel (from £250 to £1,000) in case your home is temporarily uninhabitable as a result of the emergency. Most add-on home emergency plans do NOT include an annual boiler service, so you'll need to source that elsewhere at a cost of around £80.
| Provider | Annual Add-On Cost |
|---|---|
| RAC | £24.99 |
| Tesco Bank | £26.25 |
| Swiftcover.com | £29.20 |
| esure | £34.99 |
| Sainsbury's Bank | £34.99 |
| Admiral | £39.95 |
| MoreThan | £39.98 |
| M&S Bank | £40.00 |
| Ageas | £43.85 |
| Hastings Direct | £44.99 |
| LV= | £47.49 |
| Swinton | £51.99 |
| Halifax | £52.08 |
| AXA | £53.91 |
| Churchill | £60.48 |
| Quotemehappy | £61.00 |
| Aviva | £61.00 |
| John Lewis | £100.20 |
| Average | £47 |
Standalone Home Emergency Plans
The average cost of a premium standalone home emergency plan ranges from around £110 up to £300 per year, for the first year—but beware that some companies massively increase the premium from the second year on. For example, HomeServe's Heating, Plumbing and Electrics Plus with Service plan costs £216 the first year (including a boiler service, making it a reasonably good deal) but the premiums jumps up to £659.52 in the second year—that's 3X the price of the first year.
A premium plan includes protection across the 6 major categories of boiler, heating, electrics, plumbing, home security and pest control. Buying a home emergency plan separately from your building cover is usually a more expensive way to get protection against events like a burst pipe or a broken boiler—but it may be your only option if your existing buildings cover doesn't offer home emergency as an add-on feature, or if you want emergency cover in the middle of your policy year but can only buy it as an add on at renewal time.
Standalone home emergency plans under £200 per year don't usually include an annual boiler service or any financial assistance with boiler replacement, whereas the more expensive plans should give you both. When purchased independently a boiler service will cost around £95, but this varies by company. Whether or not it's included in your insurance plan, you should get your boiler serviced each year. This is important not just to help ensure the proper functioning of your boiler, but also because most home emergency plans won't cover a boiler that hasn't been serviced in the past 12 months.
^Boiler replacement is usually subject to terms and conditions, such as "We'll replace your boiler under 7 years old if unrepairable; If your boiler is over 7 years of age and we deem it beyond economical repair then we will give you a cash settlement of £300, that vary from provider to provider."
If you're not interested in home security or pest control, you may be able to find a slightly cheaper insurance plan. Cover including an annual boiler service starts around £168 and goes up to £292 or so for the first year—including the boiler service which is valued around £95.
Final Thoughts
Recent data from the FCA showed that the average home emergency claim was £187 for add-on cover and £135 for standalone policies. Standalone policies are much more likely to be used, with a 33.7% claims frequency compared to just 3.7% for add-on policies. Perhaps this difference is because people with add-on cover aren't even aware they have it; or perhaps since the standalone policies typically cover a wider range of incidents, they are more useful. Regardless, this difference may explain the pricing differences between the two types of home emergency cover.
Cheap Home Insurance in Your Area
Quickly compare over 3 dozen UK insurance providers. Only one form to fill out.