Home insurance feels straightforward until you make a claim and discover something wasn’t covered. The UK average for a combined buildings-and-contents policy was around £375 a year in early 2026 — but value comes from matching the right cover to your home, not just the lowest price. Here’s what home insurance typically does and doesn’t cover, and how to avoid nasty surprises.
The two halves: buildings vs contents
Buildings insurance
Covers the structure of your home — walls, roof, floors, ceilings — plus permanent fixtures like fitted kitchens and bathrooms. If you have a mortgage, your lender will usually require it. Cover should reflect the rebuild cost, not the market value (rebuild is often lower than what you’d sell for).
Contents insurance
Covers your belongings — furniture, electronics, clothing, appliances and valuables. As a rule of thumb, imagine turning your home upside down: anything that falls out is contents. Many policies offer “new-for-old” replacement, which is worth having.
You can buy them separately, but a combined policy is usually 10–20% cheaper and simpler to manage.
What’s typically covered — and what isn’t
Usually covered
- Fire, smoke and explosions
- Storm, flood and burst pipes (escape of water)
- Theft and attempted theft
- Vandalism and malicious damage
- Falling trees, subsidence (often with higher excess)
- Alternative accommodation if your home is uninhabitable
Often excluded or extra
- General wear and tear and lack of maintenance
- Accidental damage (often an optional add-on)
- Items taken outside the home (needs personal possessions cover)
- Damage while the home is left unoccupied for weeks
- Business equipment and stock (needs specific cover)
- Pre-existing damage and gradual issues like damp
The big risk: being underinsured
The most common and costly mistake is understating your buildings rebuild value or your contents total. If you insure for less than the true figure, insurers can apply “average” — reducing a claim payout proportionally, even for a partial loss. Use a rebuild cost calculator for buildings, and walk room by room to total your contents honestly, including the things that quietly add up like clothing, kitchenware and tech.
Add-ons worth considering
- Accidental damage: covers spills, drops and DIY mishaps that standard policies exclude.
- Personal possessions (away from home): for phones, laptops, jewellery and bikes used outside.
- Home emergency: rapid help for boiler breakdowns, leaks and lockouts.
- Family legal protection: cover for certain disputes and legal costs.
Compare home insurance
See typical price ranges, features and ratings for leading UK home insurers, with quote links.
Compare home insurance →How to keep the premium down
- Buy buildings and contents together.
- Increase your voluntary excess to a level you could afford in a claim.
- Improve security — approved locks and alarms can reduce premiums.
- Pay annually rather than monthly to avoid interest.
- Compare at renewal instead of letting the policy auto-renew.
The bottom line
Home insurance covers the big, sudden disasters — fire, theft, storm, escape of water — but not wear and tear, and not always the things you carry outside or use for business. Read the exclusions, insure for the right rebuild and contents values to avoid underinsurance, and compare cover (not just price) each year. That’s how you end up protected and paying a fair premium.