Buildings insurance

Buildings insurance covers the structure of your home – the roof, walls, ceilings, floors, doors and windows – as well as any permanent fixtures and fittings, such as your kitchen or bathroom. It also covers pipes, cables and drains that belong to your house.

Contents insurance covers possessions you keep inside your home. This could be furniture, white goods, electronic appliances, gadgets, jewellery, clothes and artwork.

Insurance providers often bundle together buildings and contents insurance under the generic term ‘home insurance‘. It can often be more economical, and less hassle, to buy the two together.

If your home is built from something other than brick or stone walls with a slate or tile roof, it could be considered non-standard. Steel or timber-framed homes fall into this category, together with properties that have glass or cob walls, or thatched roofs. Modular, prefab and kit homes are also considered non-standard.

Because this type of property is typically more expensive to rebuild or repair, and often requires specialist tradespeople to undertake the work, buildings insurance is likely to be more expensive. You may also have a smaller choice of providers.

See more on non standard construction home insurance.

It depends. If your garage is a separate building within the boundaries of your property, it will be considered an outbuilding. But if your garage is integrated into your property, it varies among insurance providers.

If the garage has been converted into a living space, you’ll definitely need to count it as a room.

See more on garage insurance.

Most insurance policies won’t cover you for damage caused by rising damp or for condensation. But if you have rising damp, you’ll need to tell your insurance provider. Buildings insurance typically covers one-off events that cause damage to your home. Damage due to damp happens over a long period of time so isn’t usually covered.

Read our guide to condensation and damp.

Not usually. The building is the landlord’s responsibility so it’s up to them to put this cover in place. But if you want financial protection for your possessions, you’ll need contents insurance.

Find out more about rental contents insurance.

It can be difficult to get buildings insurance if your home is in an area prone to flooding, but the government’s Flood Re scheme should be able to help. It’s designed to make sure people in high flood risk areas can get cover for their homes at affordable prices.

See more on Flood Re.

Your buildings insurance policy should cover the cost of repairing damage to your house caused by subsidence, but make sure you check. If you make a claim for subsidence, or if your home has a history of it, you may find that you have to pay a higher premium. And you’ll probably have to pay a higher excess in the future – potentially as much as £1,000.

Find out more about subsidence and home insurance.

No, you don’t, although some mortgage providers will include buildings insurance as part of a mortgage package. If they don’t and they try to sell it to you separately, you don’t have to take it. You’re free to shop around to find the right buildings insurance for you. But make sure it gives you adequate cover or your mortgage provider might not accept it.

Read our guide to getting your buildings insurance from your mortgage provider.

It depends. Often, with leasehold flats, the owner of the freehold will buy buildings insurance for the entire building and pass the cost onto the leaseholders through a service charge. This isn’t always the case, though, so it’s important to read the lease carefully.

If it hasn’t been taken care of by the freeholder, then you’ll need to arrange your own buildings insurance.

See our guide to leasehold buildings insurance.

It depends on your policy and the type of home improvement. You should always let your insurance provider know of any work that’s taking place and check with them to see if you’re covered. You might also want to consider accidental damage insurance to protect your home and contents from any damage caused by DIY home improvements.

For more information, read our guide to buildings insurance and home improvements.

If you’re leaving your home or property empty for an extended period of time, you’ll need to arrange extra cover with your insurance provider or get a specialist policy to cover unoccupied properties. The amount of time you can leave your home empty before arranging this cover varies, but it’s typically needed for more than 30 days. Read the terms of your home insurance policy carefully to find out.

There are several ways to help you find out when your house was built:

• Check your home or mortgage survey
• Check your mortgage offer
• Check the title deeds
• Submit an enquiry to HM Land Registry (for properties in England and Wales)
• Speak to your local council
• Ask the seller or estate agent
• Talk to your neighbours.

For more information, read our guide When was my house built?

Yes, you can insure a property that you have a financial interest in even if you don’t own it.

If you’re buying a property, you should get insurance starting from the day you exchange contracts. Although you don’t yet own the property, you’ve legally contracted to buy it from the point of exchange. So you’ll need to be covered in case, for example, the property burns down or is flooded.

If you’re the executor of a will, you may need to make sure that any property included in the deceased person’s estate is insured until it’s disposed of. If the home is empty you’ll need to get unoccupied property insurance.