It is a form of cover designed to help you deal with crises that may arise in your home.

Examples of such problems may include:

• blocked drains and waste pipes;
• problems with plumbing and water supply;
• heating systems that have failed;
• problems with keys ;
• security problems with locks etc;
• problems with the mains electrical supply (in your property);
• emergency accommodation needs if property is uninhabitable.

In all these cases you may need to call out emergency trades expertise to help you resolve the problem or fix it temporarily pending further investigative and remedial work at a later date. The callout costs can be very high – particularly if outside of standard working hours.

This is where home emergency insurance may help by offering both a telephone help line and financial cover for the costs involved. This help may prove invaluable in a crisis. To compare home emergency insurance with having no cover at all may indicate how much reassurance it may bring.

The basic concept

This form of policy is intended to help you deal financially and logistically with the above types of problem where you own the property and reside in it as the owner-occupier.

As such, it typically will not cover the financial impacts of situations where the responsibility for resolution should rest elsewhere. Examples of such positions may include:

• if you are renting accommodation, the insurance necessary to protect the property and the costs arising from emergency fixes is a matter typically for the landlord;
• If you are a landlord, this insurance may not be suitable for you as it will not cover property being rented out – you may need to look at landlord insurance cover;
• situations that involve a cause arising on another property may also not be covered – this may include things such as a water supply failure originating outside of your property from a mains or feed pipe problem or a blocked main sewer in the street.

To compare home emergency insurance

Many property owners may have buildings and contents insurance. If you compare home emergency insurance with buildings and contents cover, you may find that typically they differ in the risks they protect against.

Emergency insurance is designed to offer short-term financial aid to cover urgently required remedial action. It will not pay for replacement items, items that are stolen or vandalised or many forms of natural disaster damage. By contrast, not all buildings and contents cover will protect you against the emergency costs outlined in the home emergency insurance policies.

To compare this type of insurance with other forms may require a careful reading of the two policies side-by-side. It may be that in some cases your standard buildings and contents insurance may cover emergency aid but it may not in which case home emergency cover may be desirable.

If you’d like to know more and compare home emergency insurance to your existing policies in detail, getting further information from a provider may be a step in the right direction.

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There are a variety of events that home emergency insurance cover may provide protection against including such things as:

• plumbing and drainage problems. Burst or leaking pipes can cause extensive damage to your home and belongings if not dealt with quickly. Having to turn the water off may make it difficult for you to continue to stay in the house. Blocked drains may not only be very unpleasant but also a serious health risk that could necessitate you moving out until they were fixed;
• your central heating boiler breaking down. If this is your main source of heating then repairs to your system may be covered. Some policies may stipulate that the boiler can’t be more that 10 years old;
• you suffer an infestation of pests;
• lost keys. It’s a fact that most lost keys are found. Unfortunately though, not necessarily by the person who lost them. If you lose yours, home emergency insurance cover can arrange for replacement locks to be fitted;
• water, gas or electricity supply is disrupted.

If your home is rendered uninhabitable by any of these events, you may qualify for temporary accommodation funding.

Home emergency insurance cover policies will generally require that the first thing you do when you discover a problem is to phone your insurer. They will typically have an emergency helpline available 24 hours a day and 365 days per year. They will assess the severity of your emergency, provide advice and guidance and then make the arrangements necessary with the appropriate trades people to resolve your problem.

It may be important to bear in mind that contacting them after you have already arranged an emergency call out yourself may invalidate your policy and result in you having to foot the bill.

It may also be advisable to note that typically with this type of home cover:

• you may have to be an owner-occupier to be eligible for this type of policy. If you live in a rented property or even rent your property to tenants then this insurance is not for you;
• There may be a waiting period after you buy a policy before you are able to make a claim. This could typically be 14 days;
• Cover will generally only apply to events happening within the boundaries of your home. Problems with gas, electricity or water may only be covered for their supply and function on your side of the meter. A power line coming down two streets away and blacking out the area may not be covered for example;
• Normal wear and tear and regular maintenance are typically not covered since this is more the function of regular home buildings and contents cover.

Finding out a bit more about what home emergency insurance cover can offer you may be the first easy step towards the peace of mind that comes with the knowledge that you’ve done all you can to ensure the safety of your home.

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The nature of a crisis

Whatever the cause, your first thought in such an event may well be “how do I fix this – now!” If so, that may not be the time you want to start fretting about your bank balance and how you’ll be able to pay the bill. You’ll want to get work underway immediately to sort the problem out – and that’s where home emergency protection insurance may help.

Through this form of insurance you may only have to call the provided helpline and you will then be able to get advice and help. More importantly, you may be able to rest more comfortably knowing that the emergency costs involved may be covered by your insurance policy.

What’s covered

Typically, a policy of this type will cover a range of problems in your home should they arise in areas such as the mains electricity, water and plumbing, principle heating, security, keys (e.g. broken key in a lock), drains and pest infestations.

Some policies may make a financial contribution towards the costs of emergency accommodation and provide for emergency boiler inspection and servicing. It is typically a good idea to check the cover specifics of any insurance policy as the cover may vary depending upon the type of policy you select and pay for.

What’s not covered

This form of policy is intended to cover the cost of immediate emergency work to restore a basic ‘liveable’ position in the event of a crisis. Typically a home emergency protection insurance policy may not cover you for:

• restoration or replacement of damaged property or buildings after a problem has been fixed – this is more typically dealt with by buildings and contents insurance;
• replacement, repairs and restorations of defective parts and equipment (other than where this is necessitated immediately on the spot as part of the ‘emergency recovery’ action);
• repair costs incurred where responsibility rested elsewhere – examples may include a drain blocked outside of your property boundaries or a leak originating in someone else’s property;
• property that you’re renting from a landlord as this would typically be the landlord’s responsibility to cover through their insurance;
• property that you’re renting out as a landlord – your requirements may be dealt with through various forms of landlord insurance.

Contents insurance?

Home emergency protection insurance is intended to complement standard buildings and contents insurance. Typically the risks covered by the two policies will be different however if you are in any doubt as to whether or not your standard contents insurance already offers emergency protection, a quick read of the policy details should resolve the matter.

Home emergency protection cover may prove invaluable in the event of a crisis. Getting hold of further information may be a sensible use of a few minutes of your time.

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Why may it be a good idea?

However much your home is your pride and joy and however well you maintain it, bad luck may strike at any time.

It isn’t only leaking or burst pipes. A heating system that has just broken down in the depths of mid-winter may render your home close to uninhabitable if you have no alternative heating sources. In summer if you return home to find your house infested with wasps due to a nest in the attic, you may similarly not be able to live there until it’s fixed. The effects of a blocked and backing-up drain can be so unpleasant as to hardly bear thinking about!

The list could continue.

In such dire situations, one worry that you may not wish to add to the list is just how you’re going to pay the typically very high costs of calling out someone on an emergency basis to deal with the problem. By offering to meet the costs of emergency repairs and restorative actions, home emergency cover may help you sleep more easily at night.

Where home emergency insurance may help

Typically a policy of this type will help to cover the costs of emergency situations in areas such as:

• mains electricity service supply;
• plumbing and drains etc ;
• matters to do with security (e.g. locks) ;
• loss of keys ;
• emergency accommodation ;
• heating (primary systems) ;
• boiler inspections ;
• pest infestations.

The cover provided might vary depending upon the level of policy you have selected and paid for.

Home emergency cover and buildings / contents insurance

These two forms of insurance typically cover different things and home emergency insurance is not intended as a replacement for buildings and contents insurance. It is primarily intended to supplement it by providing cover for the immediate ‘crisis resolution’ costs that may be substantial at the point you are trying to restore the position to an acceptable level.

Emergency cover insurance typically will not cover things such as replacement of damaged articles, full repairs and restoration of property and loss due to things such as theft and vandalism etc. It is also not intended to cover full-scale repairs of defective items.

It may be highly advisable to check the details of the cover provided by both forms of insurance policies to ensure that you have the total domestic cover you need.

Eligibility

This type of home emergency cover insurance is typically designed to protect the owner-occupier. It may not be valid or suitable for people who are renting accommodation or landlords who are renting out their property. In both cases there are typically other policies that will cover those requirements.

Summary

If you’re dealing with a crisis in your home, you may not want the added bother of worrying about how you’re going to find the money to pay for the emergency repair costs. That’s why finding out more about home emergency cover may be a sensible idea.

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Misfortune may strike the core components of your property at any time, meaning that you not only have to deal with the trauma but also potentially with some very large emergency repair bills.

Home emergencies

Unless you have been exceptionally lucky, if you’ve owned a property for any extended period of time you may well have experienced what some may call ‘a domestic disaster’. Typically these strike without warning and may include things such as:

• water systems that suddenly decide to start leaking;
• drains that break or block (within the boundaries of your property) leading to all sorts of unpleasant consequences ;
• a failure of the mains electricity system (within your home);
• the failure of a security component such as a deadlock on a door;
• lost keys meaning that you cannot enter or secure the property;
• the loss of the main heating system;
• sudden pest infestations (e.g. wasps).

Any of these situations may arise and make your home either temporarily uninhabitable or put it at risk of becoming so. In some cases the crisis may result in serious damage to your property if not speedily dealt with.

Home emergencies – the response

If you suffer a crisis of the above types, your first logical reaction may be to take urgent steps to remedy the problem short-term so as to protect your home from more extensive damage.

It is at this point that home emergency insurance comes into play because one thing you will not want to be worried about at such a time is just how you’ll afford the callout and labour costs of the emergency repairperson.

Providing the terms of the policy are met, home emergency insurance works to remove this worry from you. It will typically pay for the emergency repairs and activities necessary to deal with the problem to the extent that it no longer constitutes an immediate danger or reason why your home should be uninhabitable.

Calling out people to perform emergency repairs and other services in the event of a crisis may prove to be very expensive indeed. Through this type of insurance you may be able to relax more secure in the knowledge that such costs would be covered.

Home emergency insurance – the principles

You can take out this type of insurance to protect your property against a specific range of conditions and risks. Typically you will be able choose between various forms of the cover at different costs that will cover different combinations of potential risk.

This form of policy is not buildings and contents cover. It exists to provide financial protection against the costs associated with the urgent and possible temporary resolution of crisis related problems. It does not exist to provide full repair and restoration insurance cover for things such as damaged property.

Specifically, these types of policies typically will not cover situations such as:

• rented property where you are a tenant;
• property rented out where you are a landlord;
• repair and replacement of defective parts apart from where minimum urgent repairs are involved.

Other conditions may apply and it is typically highly advisable to read the policy conditions carefully.

Home emergency insurance could make the difference between a domestic crisis being a trauma or a trauma and major financial disaster. Finding out more may be a good idea.

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