Home emergency cover
Home emergency cover is a home insurance add-on which gives you extra protection for your home.
Key points
- Home emergency cover is an optional add‑on providing extra protection for sudden, unforeseen issues in your home.
- It includes emergencies like boiler breakdowns, roof damage, plumbing issues, electrical faults, security problems and pest infestations.
- Cover may extend to temporary accommodation and travel if the property becomes unliveable due to a covered emergency.
- Exclusions include wear and tear, cosmetic damage and some items like older boilers or certain heating systems.
What is home emergency cover?
Home emergency cover is an optional add-on to your standard home insurance policy. It gives you extra protection for your home. It covers any unforeseen issues that affect your property, perhaps to the point where you may be unable to stay there.
A home emergency policy covers unexpected issues in your home that can’t wait. This could be your heating giving up in winter, a pipe bursting, or a storm ripping a hole in your roof. It would usually arrange either securing or repairing the property, depending on what is possible at the time. People often take this out as an extra to their standard home insurance policy, which focuses more on the cost to put things right or replace belongings after a major event like a fire, flood or break-in, rather than immediately afterwards.
What's covered by home emergency cover?
With our home emergency add-on, we've got you covered for a range of unexpected situations. We’ve listed the main ones here.
Boiler and central heating breakdown
If your main heating system breaks or you have a leak that leaves you without any hot water, home emergency will help cover the cost of the repair, or replacement if needed. If your boiler is slightly newer, you may need to go back to the manufacturer and get it fixed under warranty.
We’ll arrange for the delivery of two temporary electrical heaters if you have no heating and we’re unable to fix your heating supply either on the same day or the day after you make a claim.
Plumbing emergencies and external drainage
Water can be a sudden and dramatic cause of damage in your home, one that often needs urgent attention. It’s why our emergency cover can support with:
- blocked or leaking toilets
- leaking pipes, joints or internal stop-taps
- isolating and draining of a leaking water tank, water cylinder or expansion tank
- leaking soil vent pipes
- blocked waste pipes or drains that cause all sinks to become blocked
- blocked external drains within your property boundary
- collapsed external drains, as long as they’re not beneath any buildings.
Electrical emergencies
Sudden issues with the electrics can cause chaos. This can help put the power back on by covering the:
- breakdown of a fuse box
- lost power to a circuit
- permanent damage to the domestic electrical wiring caused by a power cut
- electrical failure of an electric vehicle charging point (32 amps or less).
Damage to your roof, doors and windows
If your property is suddenly exposed to the outdoors for any reason, such as from storm damage, home emergency cover could help secure it by:
- using a tarpaulin to protect a damaged roof
- boarding up any broken windows or doors.
Lost keys or damage to locks
When issues with your outside locks cause worry, home emergency cover can help you feel safe again. Common reasons for call-outs include:
- replacing any locks and keys when your key has been lost or stolen (and you don’t have another set)
- repairing broken locks on external windows and doors where your property is not secure.
Pest infestation
If you have a pest infestation, home emergency covers you for the removal of unexpected guests. It covers rats, mice, and wasp or hornet nests that may be invading your space.
Hotel accommodation and travel
If your home becomes uninhabitable because of something covered by your home emergency insurance, you will usually be eligible to make a claim, which could cover costs of hotels and travel. If you can’t live in your home temporarily because of an urgent issue covered by your home emergency add-on, we could pay up to £1,000 towards a hotel stay and any travel needed to get there.
You'll find full details of what’s covered in our Home Emergency Cover policy (PDF 257 KB).
What's not covered?
While it’s there for a whole raft of issues, our home emergency cover doesn't stretch across everything.
There are some general exclusions that apply across the board, for example, when the emergency affects somewhere you’re not fully responsible for, such as communal areas. It won’t cover damage that's cosmetic, or where the costs of repairs are more than the limits on the policy.
Each main area that we cover will also have its own exclusions. For instance, it protects your main heating system, but not underfloor heating, solar panels and wind turbines, or more than one boiler in your property.
It’s worth checking exactly what’s covered and what’s not covered in our Home Emergency Cover policy (PDF 257 KB).
Are home emergencies covered by my home insurance?
In simple terms, home emergency cover will address the immediate issue, while your main home insurance will put it right again.
As an example, let's say you notice a leaking pipe under the kitchen sink and it can't be safely controlled, home emergency can arrange for an approved engineer to carry out a repair to the pipe. Your main home insurance would cover the cost of any water damage.
How does home emergency cover differ from accidental damage?
They’re both usually add-ons to your main home insurance policy. Where they’re different is that accidental damage isn’t usually for something that needs immediate attention, in the sense that it won’t lead to additional damage or make your home unsafe.
From a buildings insurance point of view, accidental damage could cover you for putting a crack in your bathtub or taking a chunk out of your wall during a DIY misadventure. On a contents insurance policy, it covers the removable items in your house, so it would kick in if the the kids knock over an expensive vase, or a red wine spill ruins your sofa.
How do I get home emergency cover?
You can take out a standalone policy from a specialist provider, or your energy supplier may offer a version specifically to protect your boiler and heating system.
We offer home emergency cover as an optional extra to your home insurance with us. You can choose it when you first take out cover or add it to your policy later. As you’re adding another layer of cover, it will make your premium higher.
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