Home Insurance

There are 16 scenarios for which most home insurance policies provide cover, these are:

Home Emergency Cover

Regardless of the insurance provider you choose, Home Emergency Cover is provided as standard when you compare and buy home insurance via One Call Insurance. It provides 24/7 cover for things like:

• Central heating failure.
• Plumbing – i.e. burst or blocked pipes.
• Drainage – i.e. blocked drains.
• Security issues – i.e. damaged locks, doors, bricks and broken windows.
• Removal of wasp’s or hornet’s nests.

However, the following terms will apply:

• £25 excess – An excess of £25 is payable if you need to make a claim.
• £250 emergency limit – There is a Home Emergency Cover claim limit of £250.
• 3 claims per year – You can make three separate claims per calendar year.

Family Legal Cover

Family Legal Cover is also included on all home insurance policies when you compare and buy via One Call insurance; it specifically provides cover for:

• Advice on what you can recover in the event of an accident at home, in a public place or at work (this includes advice for family members living at your home at the time of an incident).
• Referral to a specialist solicitor who can act on your behalf to recover damages for your injuries, loss of earnings and damage to personal possessions.
• 24 hour helpline.

All home insurance policies have exclusions and although they will differ from one insurance provider to the next, the most common are:

• Running a business from home - Insurance providers don't typically provide cover for business use as standard. However, provided the business activity is of a clerical nature; most insurance providers will offer to add it to your policy at no cost. For other types of business activity you may be referred to a specialist business insurance team, quoted a higher price with cover or declined cover.
• Subletting your home - Insurance providers won't automatically cover you for subletting. Some may be willing to add the clause to your policy, but you should check before you buy home insurance.
• Acts of god - Most insurance providers add an ‘Acts of God’ clause to their policy terms. Intended to limit their liability for large-scale disasters that can’t reasonably be predicted, it essentially allows them to refuse a claim for loss or damage caused by war, terrorism or an unprecedented natural disaster to name just a few potential scenarios. Each insurance provider is likely to have its own definition for the ‘Acts of God’ clause so it’s worth checking the small print before you get home insurance.

If you need to make a claim, or become aware of an incident that may lead to a claim, please contact our 24 hours claim line on: 0203 738 7300

All home emergency claims must be reported within 24 hours. Accidental damage claims must be reported within 48 hours.

There may also be an excess to pay. For most insurance providers the following applies:

• Compulsory excess - Compulsory excesses apply to all home insurance policies; they usually range from £50 to £150.
• Voluntary excess - Most insurance providers allow you to add a voluntary excess in return for a reduced insurance premium, in most cases the maximum is £1,000.
• Escape of water - Escape of water claims usually trigger their own excess, which can be higher than the compulsory excess.
• Subsidence - Subsidence claims almost always trigger an excess of £1,000.

If you have a mortgage - All mortgage providers require you to have a valid home insurance policy for the duration of your mortgage and the minimum level of cover must be sufficient to cover the outstanding balance.

If you own your property outright - As a homeowner you aren’t legally or otherwise obliged to have home insurance, but if you don't and your home is damaged or destroyed, you will be personally liable for the cost of repairs.

If you are a tenant - Home insurance isn’t usually the responsibility of a tenant; that rests with the landlord or property owner. However, you may wish to take out a contents insurance policy in order to ensure items such as furniture, electrical appliances, clothes and personal belongings are covered against damage or theft.

Your home insurance premium is calculated based on an assessment of the risks posed by you and your property. For example:

A low risk might look like this…

• Your house is an area that has a below average crime rate and isn’t deemed to be at risk of flooding.
• You have a professionally fitted and maintained security system and are a member of the local Neighbourhood Watch scheme.
• You have no claims or criminal convictions.

…and a high risk might look like this:

• Your house is of non-standard construction, sits on a riverbank and is deemed to be at high-risk of flooding.
• You don’t have a security system or approved security locks.
• You have made three claims within the previous three years.

However, there are an infinite number of insurance rating factors which means the only way to get an accurate indication of how much your home insurance will cost is to run through a quote.

We all want cheap home insurance, but few of us want to scrimp on cover. Here’s five ways in which you can achieve both:

• Check you have the right cover - People often confuse the cost to rebuild with the market value of their home and in doing so could be paying over the top for their home insurance. If you don't know your rebuild cost; this handy guide and online calculator will be a life saver.
• Compare home insurance from different providers - As with any product or service; the quickest and easiest way to save money on your home insurance is to compare prices from a panel of insurance providers. However, when looking at the price difference between home insurance providers, you should also take into account the amount of cover they offer and any extras perks or incentives that may be included.
• Increase your voluntary excess to reduce your premium - Increasing your voluntary excess is a really quick and easy way to reduce the cost of your home insurance premium. However, you should consider the fact that if you need to make a claim; you will not only have to pay the voluntary excess, but also any compulsory excess that might apply.
• Install a security system in order to lower your perceived risk - Some insurance providers will effectively give you a home insurance discount if you have a security system professionally fitted and maintained.
• Earn No Claims Discount (NCD) - As with car insurance, you can build up an amount of NCD for every year that you hold a valid home insurance policy and it could equate to a reduction in price of up to 70% (depending on the insurer and the amount of NCD you have accrued).

Getting a quote for home insurance doesn’t have to be time-consuming. You can speed things up greatly by ensuring you have the following information to hand:

• Home address - Your full home address, property type, size and how many internal rooms you have i.e. 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1 reception room, 1 kitchen.
• Build date - The date upon which your property was constructed. If you had a survey completed when you bought or mortgage your house; you should be able to take the date from this.
• Rebuild cost - The estimated cost to rebuild your house in its current form.
• Date of purchase - The date upon which you purchased your property.
• Locks and alarms - Details of the type of locks you have fitted to all exterior doors and windows.
• Roof type - The material used in the construction of your roof i.e. slate, tile, clay, thatched or other.
• Contents and personal belongings - The collective value of all your contents and personal belongings i.e. furniture, electrical appliances and clothes. This usually only applies if you want a quote for contents insurance.
• List of high value items - Details relating to any items you would like to insure that are classed as ‘high value’. The threshold for high value items varies by insurance provider, but is often in the region of £1,000 - £1,500; any items that have a higher value must be individually listed. As with contents and personal belongings, this is only likely to apply if you’re obtaining a quote for just contents insurance or home and contents insurance.
• Previous claims - Details, dates and the values of any home insurance claims that you have made within the last five years. This includes instances where an incident was discussed with an insurer, but no claim or pay out were made.

At One Call, we understand that our customers value their privacy. This is why we keep your contact details secure, only to be used by us, and never passed on to other companies for any marketing purposes. To view more information on how your data will be used, please visit https://www.onecallinsurance.co.uk/privacy-policy to view our privacy policy.

An unrated insurer is an insurer that does not carry an insurer financial strength rating given by international rating agencies, such as Standard and Poor’s 500 index (S&), Moody’s, Fitch Ratings and A.M. Best. An insurer financial strength rating ‘provides an assessment of the financial strength of an insurance organisation’ and its ability to pay claims to its policyholders.

Each agency has its own methodology, but ratings are usually organised on a scale based on letter grades to indicate the degree of credit risk. For example, an ‘A’ rating means that the insurers have an excellent ability to pay out claims, while a ‘C’ rating means that the insurer has a weak ability to pay out claims.

Some unrated insurers have been trading in the United Kingdom for many years, and so failure is not seen as likely, but this is not any sort of guarantee and such firms can fail given the appropriate combination of circumstances. However, just because an insurer is rated does not mean they cannot get into difficulty.

Risks of using an unrated insurer include:

• Unrated insurers may be based overseas and outside the influence of UK regulation. The home state regulation they are subject to may be less intrusive, less rigorous or a lighter touch than that of the UK Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) / Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
• In the event of an overseas insurer failing, claims may have to be directed to an overseas equivalent of the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), and this may bring delays in dealing with the claim.
• Unrated insurers lack independent corroboration of the quality of their current financial stability. As your Insurance Broker, we carry out monthly due diligence checks on our entire panel of insurers, Underwriting Agencies & Managing General Agents and the underlying insurance provider. We are confident in the panel we choose to do business with.

Some of the benefits of using unrated insurers include the following:

• You may only be able to source cover from an unrated insurer due to your particular circumstances
• They may offer comparably lower prices than an alternative rated insurer
• There is no legal requirement for an insurer to be rated; brokers are not obligated to restrict placing business with rated insurers only