If you have home insurance for your property, you might not have thought about whether it covers your garden and any items you keep in your shed.
The good news is that most home insurance policies do include some cover for your garden and its contents, although there are often exclusions to watch out for.
You should therefore read the small print of your policy carefully so you’re clear on exactly how much cover your insurance provides, and whether you might want to seek out a specialist policy, or one that offers a higher level of garden cover.
Is my garden insured?
Most home insurance policies provide some cover for gardens and its items at no additional cost, as it’s considered part of the property. Some providers mention garden insurance or garden cover on their websites, but this is generally just a way of saying that their home insurance covers your garden, rather than a separate policy you can buy.
Which things in my garden are covered by my home insurance?
The surest way to find out which parts of your garden are covered by your existing home insurance is to read your policy documents or speak directly to your insurer. They may well ask that your garden be safe and secured for the policy to be valid – you can read some of our tips on how to achieve this later on.
Home insurance generally consists of buildings insurance for the structure of the property itself and contents insurance for your possessions, so both of these elements cover certain parts of your garden as well. Buildings insurance, for instance, usually covers sheds, greenhouses and other outdoor structures, as well as drives, footpaths, garden fences, gates and walls. It may even extend to a swimming pool if you have one.
If you are unsure which garden fence or wall you are responsible for, you can usually find out by checking your deeds – insurance only covers what belongs to you, after all.
While sheds and other outside buildings are usually covered, it can be a bit of a grey area if you’ve converted them into a gym or a home office and keep expensive equipment inside. Check with your insurer to see exactly what they cover and whether there are any extra security measures you may need to take. If you use an outbuilding for commercial purposes, you’re likely to need specialist business insurance for this structure.
Be aware also that subsidence damage to any outbuildings you have may only be covered if your main home is suffering from subsidence as well.
Some home insurance policies will cover your plants, shrubs and trees if they are stolen or damaged, but again you should check to be sure. If they die or suffer damage from storms, disease, neglect, or other natural causes, this won’t usually be covered.
Contents insurance can cover most of the items you have in your garden, such as tools, pots, garden furniture, gnomes, and so on, provided you’ve taken reasonable care to protect them. If these items are stolen, lost or damaged, your insurer may agree to replace them with new ones, so it’s good to be aware of the value of any items in your garden. Bear in mind also that general wear and tear or a tool breaking from repeated use aren’t grounds for making a claim.
Remember too that insurers tend to set a maximum amount you can claim on a single item under your contents insurance policy, generally at around £1,500 – though it can vary considerably between providers and levels of cover.
So, if you have a particularly expensive hot tub, ornament or water feature for instance, you should check the price against your policy’s single item limit. If its value exceeds the limit, you may be able to add it to your policy as a high value item in order to protect it, but this will likely boost your premiums.
Ways to keep your garden safe
Insurers are usually reluctant to pay out on a policy if they feel that you didn’t do enough to keep your things safe and secure. Some ways to keep your garden as safe as possible include:
- Locking your back door and gate. Be sure to lock your windows, doors and gates whenever you leave the house to minimise the risk of someone entering your house or garden.
- Store your valuables and keep them secure. Ideally, you should keep any valuables in a shed or outbuilding when you’re not using them, to protect them from thieves and stormy weather. But even when your valuables are stored away, your insurer will probably only pay out if they are stolen with clear forced entry. You should consider buying a lock for your shed if you don’t already have one.
- Cover your furniture. If you have a table and chairs or a heavy barbecue set up in your garden, buy covers in order to protect them from the rain and general wear and tear.
- Install security sensor lighting. It’s a good idea to fit lighting that will come on if it senses an intruder in your garden, as this will be a big deterrent to burglars.
- Plant prickly hedges: If you can, you might want to plant a few prickly plants such as holly or hawthorne around your garden perimeter to make it harder for unwanted visitors to gain access to your garden.
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