Halifax Home Insurance Review: Can You Take Advantage of the Discounts?
Good for
- Paying lower premiums
- Getting new-for-old cover
- Higher Home Emergency call out reimbursement (£1,000)
- Money towards boiler replacement with Home Emergency cover
Bad for
- Those wanting an all-inclusive premium plan
The guidance on this site is based on our own analysis and is meant to help you identify options and narrow down your choices. We do not advise or tell you which product to buy; undertake your own due diligence before entering into any agreement. Read our full disclosure here.
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In This Review
Halifax Home Insurance Review: What You Need to Know
Is Halifax home insurance any good? Halifax home insurance customer ratings are not very good, but their quotes are relatively competitive and their Silver and Gold buildings and contents cover have pretty good sets of features—but are they right for you? Here's what you should know before you buy a Halifax home insurance policy.
Halifax home insurance offers solid cover for your buildings and contents, with the option to add extras like Home Emergency, Legal Expenses, Accidental Damage and Away from Home cover. In comparison the the Bronze cover, their top-tier Silver and Gold plans include Accidental Damage and Legal Expenses.
Halifax sells three tiers of home insurance. Bronze is their basic plan. Silver and Gold are quite similar with higher cover limits plus a number of extras like Buildings Accidental Damage Cover and Contents Accidental Damage cover and Legal Expense cover. In addition, both plans can be further enhanced by adding features like Personal Belongings Away From The Home and Home Emergency.
Halifax Home Insurance Key Facts
- Three home insurance options: 'Bronze', 'Silver' and 'Gold'
- Bronze: Up to the full rebuild cost for buildings cover and £50,000 contents cover
- Silver: Up to the full rebuild cost for buildings cover and £100,000 contents cover
- Gold: Up to the full rebuild cost for buildings cover and £250,000 contents cover
Halifax Home Insurance Customer Complaints, Reviews and Ratings
According to Reviews.io, Halifax is rated with just 2.7 stars out of 5 by 400+ customers, with just 45% of respondents recommending Halifax Insurance. This rating reflects all Halifax Insurance products, so we've scoured through the reviews to learn about common complaints for their home insurance specifically. Here are some real customer complaints, many of which related to premium increases at renewal and dissatisfaction with the Home Emergency cover:
"Home emergency, three days later and still no engineer! No heating and no hot water and have a sick adult in the house. I now have sore throat and ear ache. It’s so cold!"
"I just called about a leak. Apparently this sort of leak is not covered as it is not a constant leak but only when you use the bath. It does not say this anywhere in the policy document."
"Received my insurance renewal, great shock it has risen by 45%."
"Took out "Emergency Home Cover" in addition to my general home insurance. I made a claim because of water getting into the loft area around the chimney following high winds, heavy rain and winter storms. The policy proved to be a waste of time and over two weeks later I was still waiting for "emergency" repairs. In the end got my own contractors in to sort it. I was promised dates from Halifax that just did not materialise and had to constantly keep phoning to find out what was going on. I Would definitely not renew."
"My insurance renewal has just come through and after my first year the price has increased by an unbelievable £148.33!"
"Bought the home insurance policy two weeks ago and despite several telephone request for policy documents to be emailed to me, I still haven't received them!"
"I have emergency home cover my boiler as broke down this tea time I have tried three times to contact them on the EMERGENCY number and have been on hold for over one hour first time 40 mins the second and 13 mins the third still can not get in touch so I have no heating or hot water if I get any other tradesman my policy will be void I have to contact them first before having any work done. Help."
"Having lost my diamond from my engagement ring I am over 12 weeks into a dispute where they are only offering me just over half of what my ring is insured for. It is valued higher than what it’s insured for too, which makes the situation worse. "
Halifax Home Insurance Quote Comparison
According to our sample quotes, we found that Halifax Home Insurance plans are priced near the average cost of home insurance in the UK. The following chart compares sample quotes for the basic Halifax home insurance plans with no added extras.
For this exercise, we quoted for a 35-year-old policyholder living in SN11, who had made no claims in the past 5 years. Insurance quotes can vary significantly from day to day and according to individual details, so please use this data for educational purposes only as your quotes may reflect a large degree of variation. Additionally, insurance policies across different companies can be difficult to compare directly, as they can vary in terms of excess, cover amounts, etc.
FYI Halifax gives the option to choose a voluntary excess from £100 up to £500. A policy with a higher excess will cost less, because you're committing to pay more towards any valid claims. While a lower premium is certainly enticing, before signing up for a policy with a higher excess be sure you'd be equipped to pay the excess in the event of a valid claim.
Halifax Home (Buildings and Contents) Insurance Add-On Costs
Here are estimated costs of add-on extras for a property when you buy an Halifax buildings & contents home insurance policy. While prices depend on a number of factors and may be different for your profile, it can be useful to get a general idea of rough costs for these optional features when you're deciding what cover to buy. Home Emergency is the same price regardless of plan. Away from Home cover is available at many different levels between £1,000 and £25,000; we show costs for those extremes as well as a mid point of £5,000.
| Estimated Costs of Extras | Bronze | Silver | Gold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Emergency Cover | £37.95 | £37.95 | £37.95 |
| Away from Home (£1k) | £3 | £3 | £3 |
| Away from Home (£5k) | £9 | £11 | £11 |
| Away from Home (£25k) | £20 | £25 | £25 |
Halifax Home Insurance Notable Exclusions
Halifax home insurance exclusions include (but are not limited to) storm damage to fences and gates, loss or damage if you've been away for either 30 or 60 days or more (depending on your policy), frost, damp or rot damage, computer viruses, coastal or river erosion, mechanical or electrical faults, etc.
You may want to keep these exclusions in mind if you go with Halifax or as you're comparing different home insurance plans. Clearly, we've only mentioned a few exclusions here. To find others that may be more relevant to you, it's always a good idea to read through the full list of exclusions in the policy documents.
- Cover to contents when you are moving home is covered only if you use a professional removal firm.
- If you have Away from Home cover, theft of unattended bicycles is excluded unless locked to a permanent object.
- If you have Away from Home cover, theft from a vehicle is only included if the items were hidden from view in a locked boot, glove or luggage compartment and force or violence was used to gain access—note, as far as we can tell the policy documents do not specify an inner "theft from vehicle" limit (we frequently see a £1k or £2k limit from many other insurers).
- Those who leave their homes unoccupied for more than 60 days at a time may not be covered—the documents state you must tell Halifax if no one will be living there for over 60 days in a row.
Halifax Buildings & Contents Insurance: What's Covered?
Halifax home insurance protects against calamities such as fire, flood, storm, theft, escape of water, subsidence (depending on cause) and other similar causes.
| Cover benefits include | Bronze | Silver | Gold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buildings | Full rebuild cost | Full rebuild cost | Full rebuild cost |
| Accidental damage | Not available | Full rebuild cost | Full rebuild cost |
| Plants in the garden | £1,000 | £1,000 | £1,000 |
| Tracing & accessing a leak | £5,000 | £5,000 | £5,000 |
| Blocked drains | £1,000 | £1,000 | £1,000 |
| If you need somewhere else to stay (if you live at the property) | £100,000 | £100,000 | £100,000 |
| Loss of rent (if you’re a landlord) | £100,000 | Not available | Not available |
| Home owner’s legal responsibility | £2,000,000 | £2,000,000 | £2,000,000 |
| Damage by emergency services | Full rebuild cost except trees, plants and shrubs where the limit is £1,000 | Full rebuild cost except trees, plants and shrubs where the limit is £1,000 | Full rebuild cost except trees, plants and shrubs where the limit is £1,000 |
| Contents | £50,000 | £100,000 | £250,000 |
| Accidental damage | Not available | £100,000 | £250,000 |
| Damage to frozen food | £500 | £500 | £500 |
| Visitors’ belongings | £500 | £500 | £500 |
| If you need somewhere else to stay | £25,000* | £25,000* | £25,000* |
| Money | £500 | £500 | £500 |
| Documents | £2,500 | £2,500 | £2,500 |
| Contents in outbuildings | £5,000 | £5,000 | £5,000 |
| Contents in the open | £1,000 | £1,000 | £1,000 |
| Trees & plants | £1,000 | £1,000 | £1,000 |
| Metered water | £1,000 | £1,000 | £1,000 |
| Personal legal responsibility | £2,000,000* | £2,000,000* | £2,000,000* |
| Employer’s responsibility for domestic staff | £10,000,000* | £10,000,000* | £10,000,000* |
| Protection for tenants | £10,000* | £10,000* | £10,000* |
| Tenant’s home improvements | £5,000* | £5,000* | £5,000* |
| Damage by emergency services | Contents sum insured except trees, plants and shrubs where the limit is £1,000 | Contents sum insured except trees, plants and shrubs where the limit is £1,000 | Contents sum insured except trees, plants and shrubs where the limit is £1,000 |
| Extras | |||
| Legal Expenses | Not available | Included | Included |
| Away from Home | Optional | Optional | Optional |
| Home Emergency | Optional | Optional | Optional |