The majority of Brits have home insurance, and hope we’ll never need to make a claim. After all, few things are more stressful than your property being broken into, or much-loved 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 your possessions are damaged or stolen.
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 them.
Compare home insurance quotes
Home insurance renewal premiums increase every year, even if you haven’t made a claim. Compare deals from over 50 UK providers now and you could pay less than £151* on your home insurance deal.
*51% of consumers could save £151.03 on their Home Building & Contents Insurance. The saving was calculated by comparing the cheapest price found with the average of the next seven cheapest prices quoted by insurance providers on Seopa Ltd’s insurance comparison website. This is based on representative cost savings from June 2023. The savings you could achieve are dependent on your individual circumstances.
What are the most common home insurance claims?
New research by comparison website Go.Compare has found that 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 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 approved manufacturers, 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. Insurer Admiral found that last year, the number of claims relating to damage caused by barbecues and fire pits tripled in comparison to previous years, so it’s an issue that’s on the rise. 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 claim for accidental damage in our homes, whether that’s drilling through a water pipe, or accidentally knocking over a tin of paint.
While some things will be easy enough to fix, anything to do with water or replastering could have knock-on effects and be very expensive to repair so approach every task with caution. If you aren’t confident in doing something, it might be better to pay for a professional to come and do it instead.
Bear in mind that unless your home insurance policy has accidental damage insurance, 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 insurance that will cover them fixing the problem, but it’s worth checking this before you proceed.
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Compare home insurance quotes
Home insurance renewal premiums increase every year, even if you haven’t made a claim. Compare deals from over 50 UK providers now and you could pay less than £151* on your home insurance deal.
*51% of consumers could save £151.03 on their Home Building & Contents Insurance. The saving was calculated by comparing the cheapest price found with the average of the next seven cheapest prices quoted by insurance providers on Seopa Ltd’s insurance comparison website. This is based on representative cost savings from June 2023. The savings you could achieve are dependent on your individual circumstances.