Your FAQ Search Results

Most insurance policies exclude property that is used for business. This is why we have developed our policy for people who run a business at home, specifically for you. The policy includes the cover you need for business equipment, public liability cover and in some cases a certain amount of insurance for your business stock. Find out more about our home business insurance.

It depends on what type of work you do at the property, for example if it is admin work then you don’t need to tell us about this and you’ll be covered.

However, if you have a registered business at your property, e.g. If you run a child minding business at home or if you have clients visiting the property then you will need to make us aware of this.

Note that this may result in an additional premium amount being payable and conditions being placed on your policy.

Homeprotect home insurance policies are available to homeowners who are Airbnb hosts and this question is one of the more common Airbnb FAQs we receive. Just let us know this by selecting, “Bed & breakfast guests” amongst the answers you give to the question “Who lives at the property?” when you get an online quote.

When undergoing home renovation work with a reputable contractor, they should provide public liability insurance. Homeprotect requires contractors to have at least £1 million in liability cover to qualify for our policies.  

Homeprotect renovation insurance then provides cover for the rest of your home, where the renovation works aren’t taking place.  

Yes, you need to let us know if your home is undergoing renovations valued over £20,000.  

If you don’t, you may find your policy invalid in the event of a claim. This applies whether or not you continue to live in your home while the work is being done. This is because the risk of something unexpected happening to your home and its contents increases considerably during renovations.   

If you own a second home which is usually occupied, but will be unoccupied between 31 and 180 days, you typically get our standard policy cover, but with exception of the following exclusions:

Escape of water incidents during the period: 1 October – 1 April (inclusive).

Theft incidents, unless all security features (e.g. locks and alarms) included in your property are maintained in good working order and in full operation.

Claims involving money and high risk items (e.g. jewellery).

Each property is different. Use the ABI rebuild calculator for free online to work out the rebuild cost of your house (this is not its market value). For a large house you might prefer to use a professional surveyor to provide an estimate of the rebuild cost. When it comes to contents insurance, you should include every item in the home by going from room to room, including electronics, clothing, kitchen appliances, etc.

We can consider cover on your property when it is being renovated but existing customers should let us know before the works start so that we can make a decision on whether we can continue to cover you and whether an additional premium is necessary. In most cases we’re happy to offer cover.

Properties can be unoccupied for a number of reasons. If it’s your main home, you might be away for an extended period for work or on holiday. A home may also be left empty if an elderly owner has moved into care or during probate. Properties are also often unoccupied if extensive building work is being carried out.

Many unoccupied properties are second homes, which have either been bought as rental properties or inherited. Buy-to-let properties may be empty because of ‘voids’ between tenants, or while undergoing renovation, and holiday homes may be vacant out of season. Inherited properties are frequently left empty while the new owner or owners decides what to do with them, particularly as this type of home may need renovation before it is suitable for rental.

Renovating your home can increase the risk of damage to the structure of your home, so you must let us know before the work starts.

We need to know: The cost of the project. The extent of renovation, e.g. adding an extension etc. Whether you are using registered builders/tradespeople to undertake the work. Whether your builders/tradespeople have liability insurance. Please also let us know whether you have been advised what the property rebuild cost will be once the renovations have completed. You need to be sure that if your home will increase in size that it’s insured for the correct value, in case you need to make a claim.

Renovations will affect your policy by increasing the amount of premium payable. Also additional terms may be added to the policy and/or the level of cover could be reduced, especially if you intend to move out whilst the work is being completed.

Find out more about our renovations insurance.

Standard home insurance will not provide the same level of cover for a Bed & Breakfast business. You may well find that house insurance can be harder to get hold of than standard types, due to the fact that you now have a steady stream of guests staying in your home. While you are working from home, you are also at risk of accidental damage and may need to look into liability insurance. Start your quote at Homeprotect to find out what can be covered with our B&B house insurance.

Some lines of work lead you to storing cash – or other items which are highly attractive to burglars – at home, whether overnight or longer term. This group includes jewellers, taxi drivers, shop workers and book makers.

Police officers can also be targets for malicious damage or arson.

Having a high volume of visitors to your home for business purposes – for example, because you’re a childminder – increases the risk of accidental damage and public liability claims which impacts your insurance premium.

The type of home insurance policy you need will depend on how long your property is unoccupied between tenants.

If the property is usually occupied but is left unoccupied for between 31 and 180 days, then you typically get all the cover of our standard policy terms, but with exception of the following exclusions:

• Escape of water incidents during the period: 1 October – 1 April (inclusive).

• Theft incidents, unless all security features (e.g. locks and alarms) included in your property are maintained in good working order and in full operation.

• Claims involving money and high risk items (e.g. jewellery).

Check out our home insurance for landlords.

You may well have noticed that very few insurers are comfortable with providing cover to childminders. In most cases, insurers believe that a home occupied by other people’s children is an unacceptably high risk. We don’t agree. We understand that childminding is your business, so you should be able to get buildings and contents cover in the same way that anyone else working from home does.

Homeprotect can quote for building insurance for landlords, which works in the same way as building cover for traditional homeowners – designed to protect your home against a range of risks including fire, smoke, storm, flood, subsidence, and theft.  

Normally we will be able to get back to you with an answer from our underwriting team within 2 working days. However, if you urgently need to sort out your home insurance please do contact our new business team and we will do our best to prioritise your referral accordingly.

If your home insurance policy includes accidental damage cover, claiming against an unforeseen event or mishap works in the same way as any other policy claim. Contact Homeprotect immediately with your policy number and details about the incident and damage to start the claim-settling process. 

For more information, view our How to Make a Claim page. 

Contact your home buildings insurance provider who will guide you through the best course of action to take. Usually, a surveyor or engineer will be dispatched to make an assessment.

Often cases of subsidence can be handled quickly and effectively without requiring foundation repairs, but where foundation work does become necessary it can be costly and disruptive.

To give yourself the best possible chance of avoiding underpinning (or similar repairs) then it is in your interest to contact your insurer as soon as you notice a potential problem. Tree control measures might be taken, or leaky pipes surveyed and repaired, and in some cases little more will need to be done than some cosmetic repair/redecoration.

Unfortunately for homeowners faced with the prospect, there is no such thing as a standard cost for underpinning a house because the works involved are unique to the property, the reasons for underpinning, and the underpinning process used. A structural surveyor will be able to give you an approximate idea of the cost. Of course, if the problem is covered by your home buildings insurance, the cost of underpinning a house shouldn’t be something you need to worry about.

No, the only items you need to specify on your policy for cover within your home are items worth £1,500 or more each, if they are classed as “high risk” which are:

• Clocks
• Coin collections
• Furs
• Gold, silver and other precious metals (including plated items)
• Guns
• Jewellery and watches
• Medals
• Medical equipment (including hearing aids)
• Ride on or robotic lawnmowers
• Stamp collections
• Wheelchairs or mobility scooters
• Works of art

Please also specify any mobile phones, smart phones, laptops, tablets and pedal cycles worth £1,500 or more.

You will find that most online providers of home insurance charge a cancellation administration fee because we all incur costs in either converting quotes into policies or renewing policies with the documentation, paperwork and accounting process that it incurs, and then further costs in having to reverse the accounting process.

This works to the benefit of customers who do not cancel in that we are able to avoid passing on such costs to them. We have a duty to treat all our customers fairly. We felt it was not fair to our other customers whilst they were having to cover these costs.

This depends on a large number of factors including how widespread the flood was, how severe the damage caused was, and how many properties were affected is the first variable. After a major flood event, insurance companies often take on additional loss adjusters, but even so the time it can take for you to be visited by one can be longer than you’d like.

Cleaning and drying operations can take many weeks or months depending on the availability of services and how greatly your property has been affected, as well as what your home is made of.

Finally, reinstatement works themselves are also time-consuming. The process of choosing replacement furniture, decoration and fitted units (which you may have originally selected over the course of years) takes time, especially if you are working and have little time to shop around, and then you need to wait for delivery and fitting.

There are several online resources which you can visit to get more information on flood risk in your area, namely:  

• Flood Free Homes wants all UK houses to be free of risk by 2025.  
• National Flood Forum provides support and advice to communities or individuals that have been flooded.  
• Know Your Flood Risk works to raise awareness of the risk of flooding from all sources, not just a visible water course such as rivers and seas.