Is my house insured?
Whether you’ve just had a break in or simply seen an advert on TV for home insurance, you might find yourself wondering if your home is actually insured. Find out where you stand with our guide.
Whether you’ve just had a break in or simply seen an advert on TV for home insurance, you might find yourself wondering if your home is actually insured. Find out where you stand with our guide.
Is my home insured?
As a rough guide, if you own your home it will only be insured if you’ve insured it yourself. If you have a mortgage, your mortgage provider normally requires that you have buildings insurance in place as a condition of the loan. However, there’s always the risk that you might have allowed the cover to lapse, if your policy didn’t auto-renew.
If you’ve paid off your mortgage, it’s up to you to make sure you have buildings insurance in place to cover your home, should something happen.
If you live in a leasehold property – a flat, maisonette or house – your freeholder (or whoever manages the building) may have taken out buildings insurance. However, this isn’t always the case, so it’s important to ask the freeholder or building manager whether buildings insurance is in place. You’re within your rights to ask to see the policy documents too.
If you rent, sorting out buildings insurance is the responsibility of your landlord – but there’s no legal requirement that they do this. If your landlord doesn’t have buildings insurance in place, it shouldn’t cause any problems for you. It just means they’d need to foot the repair bill if a fire, flood or storm damaged the property.
Whether you own your own home, have a mortgage, live in a leasehold property or rent, it’s down to you to arrange cover for your contents. If you haven’t bought a contents insurance policy, your possessions won’t be covered.
How can I check if I have home insurance?
If you think you have a home insurance policy, but can’t remember who it’s with, you can:
- Check your bank/credit card statements for evidence of any payments.
- Call your insurance broker or financial adviser, if you have one.
- Ask your mortgage provider for details of the buildings insurance information you gave them when you took out your mortgage.
- Check your email history – if you can’t remember the insurance provider, you can always run searches for terms like home insurance, or buildings and contents insurance, in the subject line.
- Check your paperwork – see if you can find any policy documents filed away.
If, on the other hand, you know the name of your insurance provider but can’t lay your hands on the policy documents, give them a call. They should be able to track down your policy using your name and address.
Unfortunately, unlike for car insurance, there’s no central database that holds details of all home insurance policies in the UK.
Did you know?If you create an account with Compare the Market, you’ll be able to store policy documents and old and new quotes, and create reminders for your MOT or insurance renewals, for example. It also means you’ll be able to easily find out who you’re insured with. |
How much is home insurance?
If you don’t have insurance, arranging it might not be as expensive as you think. According to our data, 51% of people could get a quote of less than £226[1] a year for their buildings and contents home insurance. And 10% of people could get both buildings and contents insurance for less than £131[2] a year.
The bottom line is that if you own your home and want it to be protected in the event of damage, theft or loss, you’ll need contents and buildings insurance.
[1] 51% of our customers were quoted less than £225.40 for their buildings and contents home insurance in September 2024.
[2] 10% of our customers were quoted less than £130.95 for their buildings and contents home insurance in September 2024.
How can I insure my house?
If you discover that your house isn’t insured, it’s easy to arrange. Just give us a few details about yourself and your property, and we’ll find you suitable quotes from a range of UK insurance providers.
If, on the other hand, you have insurance in place but want to get a better deal, it’s easy to switch to a different insurance provider. Just check your policy documents to see whether you’ll be charged a fee if you switch before your home insurance renewal date.
Anna McEntee - Insurance expert
Anna’s all about delivering fantastic insurance products at a great price. Value is the most important thing for Anna, as she cuts through the jargon and finds what’s most important and worth your hard-earned money.
Rachel Lacey - Insurance and money expert
Rachel’s a self-confessed money nerd who’s been writing about personal finance for more than 20 years. She spent 17 years writing for Moneywise, including a few years as Editor, and likes making complicated subjects like insurance, pensions, investing and tax, easy for people to understand.