Home insurance is there to provide us with peace of mind that if our property is broken into or damaged, we won’t lose out financially.
However, many homeowners may be unwittingly invalidating their cover by making one or more simple mistakes. Here, we look at some of the ways you might be invalidating your insurance so you can put things right and ensure you’re covered for any losses.
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Contents
- Posting holiday snaps while you’re away
- Not getting professionals in to carry out electric or gas repairs
- Leaving your home empty
- Underinsuring your home and its contents
- Leaving doors or windows open or unlocked while you’re out
- Not letting your insurer know about building work or structural changes
- Hiding a key under the mat or nearby
- Taking in a lodger
- Over-valuing the contents of your property
Posting holiday snaps while you’re away
Putting holiday photo photos on social media when you’re away is a clear indicator to thieves that your home might be sitting empty. However, according to research by GoCompare, 30% of us post holiday pictures when we’re away rather than waiting until we get home. A spokesman for GoCompare said: “While insurers don’t explicitly say that posting on social media will invalidate your insurance, as a policyholder, you have an obligation to take steps to keep your belongings secure, and posting publicly that your property is empty could be deemed as not taking the proper precautions to protect your home.
Not getting professionals in to carry out electric or gas repairs
If anyone tries to service or fix your electrics or boiler and they are not professionally registered to do so, then you are not only putting your safety at risk, but you could be invalidating your insurance too. Gas engineers must be registered with the Gas Safe Register to work on your boiler or any gas appliance in your home, whilst any electrical work should be carried out by an electrician registered to carry out domestic work on the Registered Competent Person Electrical search facility. They should provide you with clear records of any work carried out so you can show this to your insurer in the event of a claim.
Leaving your home empty
Home insurance policies will typically cover your home up to a certain period while you’re away, typically 30 or 60 days, but if you leave your property unoccupied for longer than this and something goes wrong, you may find you’ve invalidated your cover. For example, if you decide to head to sunnier climes for a prolonged period during the winter, and your property in the UK has a burst pipe which causes a lot of damage, your insurer may refuse to pay out as if you’d been there and kept your home heated, it may not have happened.
Underinsuring your home and its contents
If you’re underinsured and need to make a claim on your home insurance policy, insurers will typically apply what’s known as an ‘average clause’. What this means is that they can choose to reduce any settlement by the same percentage you’re underinsured by. So, for example, let’s say you’ve insured your home contents for £20,000, but its true value is £40,000. As you’re underinsured by 50%, so the insurer may only agree to pay out 50% of the claim, which in this case would mean the maximum you’d receive is £10,000, even though they were insured for £20,000. Find out more about the risks of underinsurance in our guide Is your home underinsured?
Leaving doors or windows open or unlocked while you’re out
If it’s a hot summer’s day, you might be tempted to leave one or more windows open if you’re only popping out for a short while. However, not only could this prove a tempting prospect for any opportunistic thieves, it will also invalidate your home insurance as you’ve made it easy for burglars to get in. Home insurance won’t usually cover theft from your property unless force or violence has been used to enter or leave your home.
Not letting your insurer know about building work or structural changes
If you’re planning on carrying out building work to your property, whether it is structural or likely to affect the value of your home, you’ll need to let your insurer know or you risk invalidating your cover. You won’t need to notify them about minor changes, such as redecorating, but they’ll need to know about bigger projects such as building a conservatory or loft extension. If you’re unsure, it’s worth getting in touch with your insurer to ask so they’re aware of the work and can advise whether you need to increase the amount of cover you have.
Hiding a key under the mat or nearby
Many homeowners leave a key outside their property in case they find themselves locked out, or if they are sharing a key with other members of their household. However, if a burglar finds this key and gains access to your property, then your insurance is likely to be invalidated as they won’t have had to force their way in. If you need to keep a key outside, make sure you purchase a key safe which requires an entry code and is attached securely either to your property or garage, ideally out of sight, so that it can’t be accessed by anyone who doesn’t have the code. If you’re considering buying a key safe, speak to your insurer and check whether there is any minimum standard it has to meet, or if there’s a specific model they recommend
Taking in a lodger
If you decide to rent out a room in your home, you must let your insurer know. If you don’t and something goes wrong as a result of something that your lodger did, you may find your policy is invalidated if your insurer didn’t know they were living with you.
Over-valuing the contents of your property
Over-valuing the contents of your property can invalidate your insurance as if you need to make a claim, there’s a risk for the insurer that they’ll end up paying out more than the items that have been damaged or stolen are worth. It’s therefore really important that you try to accurately work out the value of your home’s contents. If it seems daunting, it’s a good idea to take it room by room, making a note of any high value items and remembering to factor in things you might not automatically consider, such as bed linen or curtains.