Home insurance

• Alternative temporary accommodation
  If your home can’t be lived in due to an insured event, for you, your family and pets who live with you, up to £100,000 (Contents covers up to £15,000)
• Risks covered
  These include where your buildings are damaged by fire, smoke, explosion, lightening, flooding or earthquake.
• Repairs and replacements
  You can relax – any repairs carried out by one of our partners come with at least a 12-month guarantee.
• Tracing leaks and repairs
  If a water or oil leak damages your home, then we will cover the cost to find the leak, and repairs to walls, floors & ceilings.¹

• Valuables in the home
• Single article limit for valuables £2000
• Mobile phones
  Our contents cover includes mobile phones in the home up to £2,000.
• Bicycle cover in the home £2,000 per bike, £5,000 in total.
• Garden cover up to £1,000
• Brand new replacements
  We’ll replace lost, stolen or damaged items with new ones of the same quality and spec, and not make deductions for wear and tear.
• Fridge and freezer food
  We’ll cover the cost of frozen and refrigerated food damaged due to a rise in temperature.
• Shopping in transit cover
  If something is lost, stolen or damaged on the way home from the shop where you bought it, we’ll cover you up to £500.

Terms and exclusions apply to the cover we provide. Please read our  Insurance Product Information and policy documents

You can easily check your policy and make changes through your online account, 24/7. Don’t have an online account? It's simple to set one up, get started.

• Using your online account means you won't be charged any admin fees for making a change.
• If you want to make a change via phone, email, post or Live Chat, there’s a £20 admin fee.
• Please note, changes to your policy or endorsements can lead to your premium cost going up or down for the rest of your policy term.
  
  Visit the Help hub for Help with making changes

There are a few ways to get in touch when you need us:

• Live Chat - just click on the speech bubble icon in the bottom corner of our web pages or start chat to a member of our friendly team
• Use the Contact Us form - to send us a message anytime and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

Visit the Help hub

We’re committed to making your insurance renewal as simple as possible. So we don’t offer discounts, because the price you’ve received is the best price we can offer based on your current cover and the details we hold at this moment in time.

Read: A guide to your home insurance renewal quote

If you have an outstanding balance notification on your car, home or van online account, you can easily make a payment online. Just log in to your online account where you will see an outstanding balance notification.

Simply click the ‘Pay now’ button and we’ll guide you through the process step by step.

For more help, visit our help hub:

Help with cancellations
Help with payments

There could be a few reasons you have an outstanding balance on your account, such as, the full amount could not be collected when your Direct Debit was due, or your policy may have been cancelled.

If you have an outstanding balance notification on your car, home or van account, you can easily make a payment online. Just log in to your online account where you will see an outstanding balance notification.

Simply click the ‘Pay outstanding balance’ button and we’ll guide you through the process.

Visit the Help hub for help with payments

As your insurer, we're here to help make claims as easy as possible and will be here for you every step of the way.

• Make and manage your claim online 24/7
• Award-winning UK-based claims service
• 24/7 UK emergency claims helpline
  
  

Find out more about our claims process

Yes. If you have car, home or van insurance it’s easy to make a payment online. Simply log in to your online account, click the ‘Pay now’ button and we’ll guide you through the process.

Visit the help hub for more help with payments

Yes. If you have car, home or travel insurance, it’s easy to change your address online. Simply log in to your online account, select the ‘Change address’ button and we’ll guide you through the process.

For Ageas travel insurance customers please log in here, you can also email service@ageas-travel.co.uk, or contact us.

Home insurance is designed to provide financial protection in the event of damage to your home and its contents.

Home insurance can be paid for on a monthly or annual basis. It covers the costs of repairing or rebuilding your home if it's damaged by things like fire, storms or floods, as well as the cost of replacing items in your home if they're damaged, destroyed or stolen - provided they're covered by the terms of your insurance policy.

There are three main types of home insurance:

• Buildings insurance
  This covers damage to the structure, permanent fixtures and fittings of your property and outbuildings, such as walls, roofs, floors, bathroom suites and kitchen units.
• Contents insurance
  This covers you for the loss of or damage to your possessions in events such as a fire, flood,or theft, while they are inside your home or outbuildings. This could include carpets, curtains, furniture, home appliances or electrical goods. Optional cover is also available for items used outside the home.
• Buildings & Contents insurance
  (Combined). Both types of cover in one policy.

There are always exclusions to any insurance policy, so please check the details in full before selecting a home insurance policy.

What’s covered under your home insurance depends on the type of policy you have.

Buildings insurance covers the cost of repairing damage to the structure of your home caused by insured events, up to the cost of £1million to rebuild the house from scratch. It includes things like:

• Walls and roofs
• Floors
• Windows and doors
• Permanent fixtures and fittings, like bathroom suites and kitchens
• Some external structures, like garages and outbuildings.
  
  

Contents insurance covers the cost of repairing or replacing the contents in your home if they're damaged in an insured event. It usually includes:

• Soft furnishings
• Furniture
• White goods
• Electronic goods
• Clothes
• Money and jewellery (usually up to a certain value).

Most insurers provide cover for damage or loss caused by a number of perils, such as fire, vandalism, storm, flood, theft and subsidence.

You are also likely to be given the option to purchase a combined policy that covers both contents and buildings.

There are also optional types of cover that you can add to a home insurance policy, including things like Home Emergency cover, Accidental Damage cover, Personal Belongings cover and Legal Expenses cover.

Before you take out home insurance, you’ll need to determine what level of cover you need.

You can then shop around for quotes online. When you start a quote, insurers will need you to provide some details about yourself, any other occupants in your home, the home itself and how you use it. This is so they can work out if they can offer you a quote and at what price.

Once you have a policy in place, if you need to make a home insurance claim, you will need to get in touch with your insurer and provide as much information as possible about what happened. They will then process your claim and either arrange and pay for works or provide funds to repair your home or replace your possessions, provided you're covered for that type of damage or loss under your policy.

Find out more about making a home insurance claim

If you have a mortgage or own your property, it’s a good idea to consider both buildings and contents insurance, to make sure both your property and its contents are protected. You can get both buildings and contents insurance under one policy. This can make it more convenient if you need to make a claim and can often work out cheaper than taking out separate policies. It may also mean only one excess is payable in the event of a claim affecting both buildings and contents.

Buildings insurance is often a requirement if you have a mortgage, to cover the cost of repairing any damage to the structure of your property and outbuildings in events such as a fire, storm, flood, and escape of water. This includes things like the roof, walls and floors as well as permanent fittings and fixtures, such as windows, fitted kitchens and bathrooms. You’ll need to make sure that the amount insured on your property would be enough to completely rebuild the property, including outbuildings, site clearance and professional fees.

Contents insurance is not a requirement, but it’s worth considering whether you own your property. Contents insurance covers you for the loss or damage to your possessions in events such as a fire, flood, escape of water, or theft, while they are inside your home or outbuildings, so they can be repaired or replaced. This includes thigs like carpets, curtains, furniture, home appliances and laptops whilst in the home. Optional cover is also available for items used outside the home.

If you do decide to take out a policy, you’ll have to estimate the full replacement value of all the contents of your home, if they were to be replaced as new.

There are always exclusions to any insurance policy, so please make sure you check the details in full before selecting a home insurance policy that’s right for you.

If buildings insurance is a requirement as part of your mortgage agreement or you've decided to take out a policy anyway, you’ll want to have it in place for when the exchange of contracts happens. 

Contents insurance is not normally a requirement of your mortgage agreement and, if you decide to get it, it doesn’t need to kick in until you move your possessions into your new home. However, you may find it's easier and cheaper to take out both buildings and contents cover together in one policy.

You may already have buildings insurance in place for your current property. In this case, your existing insurer may be able to hold cover on both buildings and then transfer the contents over to the new property at the completion date.

It’s never nice to think about, but unforeseen things can happen in your home, and it's important to be prepared.

If your home were to be affected by theft, fire or flooding, you could be left with a hefty bill to put things right. That's where insurance can help. Having home insurance cover in place means you get peace of mind knowing that these types of costs should largely be covered if something happens.

You can get a home insurance quote online either directly on an insurer’s website or through a price comparison website. In either case, you should have as much information as possible to hand about yourself, your home and your belongings, as insurers will need it to determine whether they can offer you a quote and what the price of your premium will be.

If you would like to see how Ageas could help with your home insurance, take a look at our policy booklet or get a quote for our home insurance online today.

It can often be cheaper to buy buildings and contents insurance policies together. This can also be an easier option when managing your policies.

For more information, read What can affect the cost of home insurance 

Accidental Damage is optional cover that you can choose to add to your Buildings and/or your Contents insurance. It provides extra protection for your possessions inside your home, giving you more peace of mind.

Accidental Damage is a really common reason for claiming, but often customers don’t have the cover. It provides additional cover for damage not otherwise included in your home insurance policy.

Examples of what’s covered for contents insurance includes:

• Knocking over a TV
• Dropping a laptop
• Spilling a drink on a carpet

Examples of what’s covered for buildings insurance includes:

• Damaging a kitchen work surface with a hot pan
• Putting a nail through a pipe
• Cracking a sink
• Putting a foot through the ceiling when in the loft
  
  

Other terms and exclusions apply to our cover. Find out more about Accidental Damage cover, or read our policy booklet to make sure our cover is right for you.

For more information on storm damage, please visit the help hub:

• What counts as storm damage?
• What is covered by storm damage?
• When would my storm claim not be covered?

No, home insurance is not a legal requirement however it’s often a condition of a mortgage.

Home insurance covers your property and possessions so if you own a home it’s worthwhile being covered. You can choose buildings, contents or combined insurance.

• Buildings insurance covers the cost of repairing damage to the structure of your property, and will usually be a requirement for those who have a mortgage.
• Contents insurance covers the cost of replacing or repairing your damaged, destroyed or stolen items.
• Combined buildings and contents insurance is both.

The age can impact your home insurance cost as older homes can often be more expensive to insure due to structural issues for example.

There are many factors that affect your home insurance rate, read our article: What can affect the cost of home insurance?

Home insurance prices might be high at first glance but don’t worry. There are a few things you can do to lower the cost.

• Improving your home security – as mentioned, fitting your home with a secure lock and a burglar alarm could reduce the risk of your home being burgled. Which in turn can mean slightly lower insurance costs.

• Choose a high voluntary excess, but only if you’re able to do so.
• Pay annually – if you can afford to pay your insurance in one go, it’s likely to be cheaper than paying monthly instalments.

It is important to disclose accurate information in order to ensure that appropriate cover is in place in the event of a claim.

There are many other factors that affect your home insurance rate, to find out more, please read our article: What can affect the cost of home insurance?