Shared home insurance
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- Protect your possessions, gadgets and bikes.
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Contents Insurance
Insuring your belongings when you’re a flatmate
Homeprotect home insurance for shared accommodation is designed for housemates, flatmates and renters living in for shared rental properties including flats and houses, student properties and rooms let to lodgers.
Although some insurers will let you take out one policy for the entire property and share the cost between all housemates, this is not always practical. Not all tenants are reliable and personal circumstances can change mid-way through the tenancy. By taking out your own policy you can each insure your own valuables and keep your claims history separate.
What’s more, if you are going to university or college, contents insurance for students is often included under your parents’ home insurance, so you don’t need another policy. With Homeprotect contents insurance policies, students get up to £6,000 worth of contents cover while living in student accommodation.
RESPONSIBILITIES IN A SHARED HOUSE
‘Safety in numbers’ might be how the old saying goes but unfortunately that doesn’t ring true for house shares. When it comes to shared house insurance tenants should take responsibility for their own belongings. Theft, for example, is a key concern in a shared property due to the number of visitors coming and going from the house. It’s important that your room is self-contained with its own lock to reduce this risk.
Your landlord has a responsibility to have buildings insurance in place too. Whereas contents insurance is a ‘nice-to-have’, buildings insurance is an absolute must have.
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What’s covered by contents insurance?
Having contents insurance means you won’t be out of pocket if you need to repair or replace your belongings after they’ve been stolen, damaged or destroyed.
What we offer
Quick fix for uncontrollable leaks
Have a home emergency, such as electricity failure, faulty locks or vermin infestation? With the 24/7 Home Emergency cover, which we provide as standard, you can typically get an engineer at your home within four hours. And if you’re worried about an uncontrollable leak in your home, we aim to have an emergency plumber to you within two hours.
Extreme weather conditions may extend response time. Policy terms and claim limits apply.
New for old
Where we replace an item, we will do our best to meet the original specification on a ‘new for old’ basis. If we can’t find an exact replacement, we’ll offer you a suitable alternative, or a full cash settlement.
Legal advice
We provide Legal Protection cover as standard, giving you access to telephone legal advice on any personal legal issue, under the laws of the UK, any European Union country, the Isle of Man, Channel Islands, Switzerland and Norway.
What isn’t included?
Lost items.
Items stolen from unoccupied vehicles.
Damage caused by pets.
The cost of repairing or replacing items following a mechanical or electrical fault.
What is included in personal possessions?
When you take out a contents insurance policy your belongings will often be protected within the boundary of the property. To insure items outside the home or of particular value then you should take personal possessions cover, which applies to items that are often take out daily like clothing, wallets/purses, jewellery and cameras. Personal possessions covers each individual item worth up to a maximum of £1,500. If you need to insure items of higher individual value or you need to insure pedal cycles, laptops, tablets or mobile phones then you can do this under our ‘specified items’ cover.
Contents Insurance Cover Levels
Our contents insurance is designed to protect your belongings against insured events such as fire, storm, flood, escape of water, theft, malicious damage, subsidence, landslip or heave.
Contents cover
Covering the value of all your possessions in the home, on a new for old basis.
from £25,000
Alternative accommodation
For you and your pets, in case you can’t live at your home while it’s being repaired after an insured event.
up to £10,000
Home emergency
Covers emergencies that occur in your home like uncontrollable water leaks, electricity failure, faulty locks and vermin infestation. Two levels of cover are available.
up to £500
Family legal protection
Provides a 24/7 legal advice helpline and up to £25,000 cover for claims involving contract disputes and property damage. For a claim to be successful, there must be reasonable prospects (more than a 50% chance) of winning the legal case. Two levels of cover are available.
up to £25,000
Liability cover
Liability cover involving accidental death, bodily injury or illness or property damage that you are legally liable to pay.
up to £5 million
Personal possessions
Cover for portable items that you take out of your home, like bags, clothes and sports equipment
Optional
Gadgets, bikes and valuables away from the home
Cover for electronic gadgets (e.g. mobile phones, laptops, tablets etc), bikes (including electrically assisted bikes) and valuables (e.g. watches and jewellery) that you take out of your home.
Optional
Accidental damage
Covers situations when unexpected accidents happen, such as spillages on the carpet, breakages around the house or drilling through hidden pipes. Two levels of cover are available.
Optional
New Customer?
If you’re deciding on whether to buy home insurance with us, you can use our latest policy booklets as a guide.
Existing Customer?
Your latest policy documents are available to view and download.
Your Questions Answered
A house in multiple occupation (HMO) is a rented property where at least three people who are not directly related by blood or marriage share facilities like a toilet, bathroom and kitchen.
If you are a landlord, you must contact your local council for a licence to rent out your property as an HMO. A licence is valid for up to five years.
The landlord is responsible for maintaining the property in a good state of repair. They will either take care of this directly, or if it is fully managed then via a letting agent. If however you damage the property by accident then you will likely have to pay for repairs, or the cost of repairs will be deducted from your deposit.
House shares, rooms for rent and lodgers are all types of shared occupancy. For more details, read about property usage.
Additional Cover Options
Accidental Damage
The Homeprotect policy includes the option of Basic Accidental Damage, which covers electrical home entertainment equipment (such as desktop computers and monitors, DVD and Blu-Ray players, gaming consoles, home cinema systems, sound systems and TVs) up to £1,500 per claim. An upgrade …
Legal expenses cover
The insurance policy includes Basic Legal Expenses cover which provides up to £25,000 for legal fees you may face for disputes associated with your home; such as ownership of the insured property; and the sale or purchase of the insured property. You can upgrade to Full Legal Expenses cover.
Home emergency cover
The insurance policy includes Basic Home Emergency cover which provides cover for common home emergencies including burst pipes; failure of the domestic power supply (gas or electricity); and removal of pests or vermin. You can upgrade to Full Home Emergency to include cover for roof …
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