The majority of us have home insurance in place, and hope we’ll never need to make a claim. After all, there are few things more stressful than your property being broken into, or furniture and possessions being damaged by water or fire.
Buildings insurance is compulsory if you have a mortgage, but if you want to protect your possessions, you’ll need contents insurance too, although this isn’t a legal requirement. It can prove invaluable though if something goes wrong, protecting you from financial losses if anything in your home is damaged or stolen. Learn more in our article Your essential guide to home insurance.
As a nation, we made tens of thousands of home insurance claims last year, and of these, the most common type of claim was for accidental loss or damage, closely followed by escaped water. Many home insurance claims are preventable, so here are some of the most common, and some tips to help you avoid having to make them.
Home insurance renewal premiums have a habit of increasing every year, even if you haven’t made a claim. Compare home insurance quotes from more than 50 UK providers.
What are the most common home insurance claims?
According to research by comparison website Go.Compare, the most common reasons for home insurance claims are:
| Claim type | Percentage of overall claims |
| Accidental loss/damage at home | 28% |
| Escape of water | 26% |
| Storm | 13% |
| Theft from home (incl. outbuildings) | 7% |
| Accidental loss/damage away from home | 7% |
Source: Go.Compare
Of course, these terms can cover a huge range of situations. For example, accidental loss/damage at home includes any unforeseen accidental physical damage to an item, so for example, this could be spillages on carpets, DIY mishaps, your mobile phone getting smashed at home and so on.
Similarly, escape of water could refer to a burst pipe letting water into your home, or your washing machine springing a leak.
While they might cover a wide array of scenarios, there are still some things you can do around your home to drive down the risk of having to make a claim.
Maintain your home to protect it against the elements
The weather can wreak havoc on your property, but keeping on top of maintenance can be an easy way to protect your home from things like storm damage and escape of water.
Some key things you might want to check or maintain include:
- Checking for loose roof tiles
- Looking out for broken guttering
- Insulate external pipes and taps
- Maintain trees close to your home – trim them back and remove dead branches
This might sound like a lot to keep on top of, but most of the time a quick look will tell you if something needs fixing. Remember that a few minutes of hours of work now could save you a lot of time and money later down the line. It’s also important to bear in mind that if you don’t carry out maintenance on your property, your insurer may refuse to pay out at all, as you need to keep your home in a good state of repair.
Make sure you’ve got good home security
Unfortunately, theft is the fourth most common reason that people claim on their home insurance, so it’s important to make sure you’ve got adequate home security.
It’s worth noting that while making sure you have good home security is a good idea generally, if you aren’t using the security measures you told your insurer you had when you took out your home insurance, your policy might not actually be valid.
Things you might want to consider are making sure your locks are sturdy and by an approved manufacturer, keeping all doors and windows locked when you’re out, installing a burglar alarm, getting a safe for high value items, keeping belongings securely locked indoors or in outbuildings.
Beware seasonal risk
The changing of the seasons will present different risks to your home.
In the summer months, claims for theft of outdoor items spike, so make sure you lock things away securely. Another type of claim that increases dramatically when temperatures rise are ones related to garden fires. If you do plan to light a fire in your garden, make sure you take appropriate safety precautions, including:
- Placing fires away from buildings, bushes and fences
- Never leaving fires unattended
- Making sure BBQs are level and are fully functioning
- Keeping a bucket of water or sand to hand in case of emergencies
- Making sure fires are completely out before leaving them
In the winter, cold temperatures, storms, snow and other inclement weather can wreak havoc on your home. Making sure that you maintain your home as winter approaches, can save you a lot of time, stress and money. Have a look at the above section for more tips.
Take care when doing DIY or getting work done
DIY gone awry is one of the main reasons people submit claims for accidental damage, whether that’s because they’ve accidentally drilled through a water pipe, or knocked over a tin of paint when decorating.
While some things will be easy enough to fix, anything to do with water or electrics should be left to the professionals, and you shouldn’t try to put them right yourself.
Bear in mind that unless your home insurance policy has accidental damage cover included as standard, you might not be covered for your DIY mishap at all. Something else to note is that a number of insurance policies won’t cover you if you get someone in to do the work for you and something goes wrong. More often than not, the professional you’ve hired to do the work will have their own insurance that will cover them if anything goes wrong when they are fixing the problem, but it’s worth checking this before you proceed.
Home insurance renewal premiums have a habit of increasing every year, even if you haven’t made a claim. Compare home insurance quotes from more than 50 UK providers.
Rest Less Money is on Instagram. Check out our account and give us a follow @rest_less_uk_money for all the latest Money News, updated daily.