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What is Home Emergency Cover?
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Home emergency cover provides protection against events that like a burst pipe or a boiler breakdown. In addition to helping to cover the costs of a call out and any necessary emergency repairs, Home Emergency cover also gives you access to a 24-hour emergency helpline and a network of tradesmen. So you won't be scrambling trying to find help when you really need it.
How to Buy Home Emergency Cover
There are two options for obtaining home emergency cover: as an "add on" to your existing home insurance policy or as a separate standalone product. It's probably worth first calling your existing home insurer to get a quote for adding home emergency onto your buildings cover, then comparing this quote to standalone home emergency plans. Also have a good look at what is included in the cover.
In our experience, we've found that standalone policies are generally more expensive, but their cover can be both broader (in terms of types of emergencies they cover) and higher (in terms of the maximum amount they'll cover per claim). Plus standalone cover might include your annual boiler service (a value of around £95). However, home insurance add-on home emergency cover may be easier to set up and if it provides the cover you need, may be more economical.
Or if you have purchased a premium policy from one of the best home insurance companies you may discover that you already have home emergency covered by your policy.
What Does Home Emergency Insurance Cover?
Depending on the type of plan you take out, there is a wide range of home emergency cover available. The simplest (and cheapest) plans may only cover emergencies with your boiler (e.g., loss of hot water and/or heating). More comprehensive plans may include emergencies related to your electrics (e.g., total loss of electricity in your home), plumbing (e.g., a burst pipe), pest control (e.g., removing a wasp infestation), home security (e.g., securing a broken window or door), etc. Some plans also include an annual boiler check, which could save you around £95 a year.
Home Emergency Cover Can Protect Against Emergencies Related to...
- Boiler
- Central Heating
- Plumbing
- Home Electrics
- Home Security
- Pest Control
- Roof Tiles
- Accommodation
- Hot Water
- (Internal) Gas Supply
- Glazing and Windows
- Taps & Toilets
- Internal Drains
- External Drains
- Boiler Replacement
Policies cover the cost of a call out, labour and materials for repairs. Home emergency cover won't help pay for maintenance or non emergency repairs. (The slight exception to this is some plans offer an annual boiler check, worth around £95.) Some plans also reimburse you (up to a limit) for alternative accommodation should you need to stay elsewhere while repairs are being carried out.
Home Emergency Excess
The excess on home emergency policies typically falls in the range of £60 up to £95. Like other insurance products, the excess is the amount you pay towards a new claim. If there's one issue (e.g., a burst pipe) that requires multiple call outs, you should only need to pay the excess once for the initial claim, and not pay the excess again for subsequent call outs related to the same issue.
Home Emergency Limits
Typically, a home emergency policy will pay up to between £500 and £5,000 per claim—as you can see, there's a lot of variation in the cover you might get. In addition to "per-claim" limits, some plans also have an annual limit. You may find that plans with cheaper premiums tend to have lower cover limits—you get what you pay for. The table below illustrates claim limits for a number of popular UK Home Emergency providers.
| Max payout per home emergency claim | |
|---|---|
| Swinton | £500 |
| Direct Line | £500 |
| 247 Home Rescue | £1,000 |
| Admiral | £1,000 |
| LV= | £1,000 |
| Aviva | £1,000 |
| AXA | £1,000 |
| Row | £2,500 |
| HomeServe | £4,000 |
| Home Emergency Assist | £5,000 |
Surprising Exclusions
There's nothing worse than paying for insurance only to find, it you ever need to claim, that you're not covered due to the exclusions. In terms of home emergency plans, we found a number of surprising exclusions as we combed through various policies. Here are a few that stood out to us:
- Roof tiles: Plans will only pay for the installation of a tarpaulin to protect the property if roofing tiles are blown off during bad weather (not actually fixing the roof)
- Windows: Plans will cover boarding up of broken glazing to make a property secure (not actually fixing the glazing)
- Underfloor Heating: Often excluded
- Related damage: Cover will pay to address an immediate emergency (e.g., a burst pipe) but not any damage caused by the emergency (e.g., ruined floor boards)
- Failing Boilers: Boilers that are still working, but you suspect may be about to break down (e.g., where a noise has developed) are usually not covered
Should You Buy Home Emergency Cover?
If the cost and/or stress of dealing with a home emergency on your own would put you in a difficult position, then buying home emergency cover may provide peace of mind for you. With the average cost of home emergency cover coming in around £175 per year (~£15 per month) for standalone policies without boiler servicing and £220 (£18 per month) for home emergency cover with a boiler service. Since the average home emergency claim comes in at £135 for standalone policies, according to FCA data, you might not recoup the cost of your home emergency insurance premium with a single claim each year, although it's more likely if you get a boiler service included.
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Quickly compare over 3 dozen UK insurance providers. Only one form to fill out.