What does home insurance cover?
Home insurance can cover much more than many people realise. Here's what's typically included, which optional extras are available, and where you may need additional cover.
Key points
- Home insurance combines buildings and contents cover, helping protect both the structure of your home and the belongings inside it against events such as fire, flooding, storms and theft.
- Additional cover can be added to suit your needs, including home emergency, legal expenses, accidental damage, personal belongings and bicycle cover.
- Not everything is covered as standard, so it's important to understand common exclusions and check your policy documents for full details of your cover.
In most cases, your home is the most expensive purchase you’ll ever make. So, ensuring that everything (including the kitchen sink) is covered is important.
But, home insurance can be more complicated than it first appears. You need to know what is and isn’t covered, as well as what optional-add ons can help meet your needs that aren’t included in the standard cover.
What is home insurance?
Your home insurance is there to help protect your house if damage is caused, and it’s made up of two different types of cover. For the solid structure of your home, there’s buildings insurance, and for furniture, appliances, clothes and valuables you fill it with, there’s contents insurance.
Home insurance isn't always something that you need, but some mortgage providers may require that you take out buildings insurance.
What does Aviva Signature home insurance cover?
Whether you choose Aviva Signature Home, Buildings or Contents insurance, you'll be protected against a range of common risks. The level of cover and limits available can vary between products.
| Cover | Aviva Signature home insurance | Aviva Signature Buildings insurance | Aviva Signature Contents insurance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buildings cover | Unlimited cover for eligible properties | Covers the structure of your home, including walls, roof, floors, windows and doors | Not included
|
| Contents cover | Unlimited cover for eligible properties | Not included | Covers furniture, furnishings and everyday belongings inside your home |
| Fixtures and fittings | Included | Covers fitted kitchens, bathrooms, and other permanent fixtures | Not included |
| Electrical items and belongings | Included, subject to policy limits | Not included | Covers TVs, laptops and other household belongings |
| Fire, storm and flood damage | Included | Included | Included |
| Theft and vandalism | Included | Covers theft-related damage to your home and vandalism | Covers theft of belongings, subject to policy limits |
| Escape of water | Included | Included
| Included where contents are damaged by an insured event
|
| Subsidence, heave and landslip | Included | Included | Included |
| Alternative accommodation | Included if your home can't be lived in after an insured event | Included if your home becomes uninhabitable following an insured event | Included while your home is being repaired following an insured event
|
| Valuables and personal belongings | Included, subject to policy limits | Not included | Covered, subject to policy limits |
| Liability cover | Included | Included, subject to policy limits | Included, subject to policy limits |
| Matching items cover | Included for matching sets and suites | Not typically included | Not typically included |
For full details of cover check out our Buildings insurance policy document, or contents insurance policy document.
Aviva Signature buildings cover also includes benefits like:
- Tracing and accessing leaks - The cost of finding and accessing the source of a water or oil leak that is causing damage to your home. As long as there is resulting damage from water/oil.
- Replacement locks - The cost of replacing locks and keys if they're lost, stolen or accidentally damaged, subject to policy terms and limits.
- Emergency access - Damage caused when emergency services need to force entry to your home because of a medical emergency or to prevent damage to the property.
- Selling your home - Cover for a purchaser's legal rights under a contract to buy your home if the property is damaged by an insured event before the sale is completed.
- Your liability to the public - Protection if you're legally responsible for injury to someone else or damage to their property as the owner of the insured home.
- Buildings matching items - Cover towards replacing undamaged matching sets or items, such as bathroom suites or fitted kitchen units, when matching replacements are no longer available after an insured event.
Aviva Signature Contents cover has additional cover for things like:
- Replacement locks - The cost of replacing locks and keys if they're lost or stolen and there's a risk they could be used to gain access to your home.
- Garden re-landscaping - Cover for the cost of restoring gardens following damage caused by certain insured events.
- Food in freezers - Compensation for food that spoils due to an unexpected freezer failure or interruption to the power supply.
- Domestic heating fuel and metered water - Cover for accidental loss of domestic heating fuel or metered water following damage to the system.
- Emergency access - Damage to contents resulting from emergency services forcing entry into your home in an emergency.
Household removals - Cover for your contents while they're being moved between homes by professional removers, subject to policy conditions.
Add-ons
Home emergency cover
Home emergency cover can help when a sudden, unexpected issue puts your home's safety, security or essential services at risk. It provides access to emergency assistance and cover for a range of urgent situations, including:
- loss of essential services
- roof damage following a storm
- plumbing emergencies
- electrical emergency and breakdown
- lost keys or damage to locks, doors and windows
- pest infestation of rats, mice, wasps or hornets
Legal cover
Legal services cover provides expert legal help when you need it most.
Aviva Signature Home Insurance policy, our cover provides a third-party lawyer, if you need one, and legal funding up to £100,000 to pursue and defend your claim, if we believe you’ve got a reasonable chance of winning, including:
- property claims such as against noisy neighbours or for boundary disputes
- employment disputes such as unfair dismissal or discrimination at work
- personal injury including food poisoning and accidental injury which is someone else’s fault
- consumer disputes such as the purchase of faulty car or breach of contract by a holiday company
- medical negligence by someone responsible for your clinical care such as doctors, dentists or a cosmetic treatment practitioner
Accidental damage
For buildings insurance "Limited Accidental Damage" covers accidental damage to any fixed glass, sanitary fittings or service pipes and cables. For example, accidentally breaking your hand basin.
For contents insurance it covers accidental damage to non-portable home entertainment equipment, mirrors and glass in furniture. For example, if you accidentally drop your TV while moving it to decorate.
There is also extra accidental damage cover, which extends the accidental damage protection included with your policy. It can cover a wider range of unexpected accidents, such as accidentally damaging your home's fixtures and fittings or staining carpets and furnishings, helping to protect you from unexpected repair and replacement costs.
Personal belongings
Your personal belongings such as mobile phones, laptops and jewellery, are not usually covered directly under your home insurance. Instead, they come under ‘Personal belongings cover’, which is an add-on available with our contents insurance but not with a buildings-only policy. You will also be covered if any damage happens away from your home.
Bicycle cover
For the cyclists, bicycle cover can help cover the repair or replacement of pedal bikes, as long as you make sure your sum insured is appropriate. With Aviva Signature Home Insurance, we offer extra cover for bikes used by you and your family anywhere in the world. Just select your own level of cover between £300 and £5,000.
What's not covered with Aviva Signature Home insurance
Always check your policy documents for exclusions. The below are usually not covered:
- General wear and tear - Gradual deterioration that happens naturally over time, such as faded paintwork, worn carpets or ageing roof materials.
- Frost damage - Damage caused by freezing conditions where reasonable precautions haven't been taken, such as water pipes freezing and bursting in an unoccupied property.
- Storm damage to gates and fences - Damage to fences, gates and hedges caused by strong winds, heavy rain or other severe weather is often excluded or subject to limited cover.
- Deliberate damage caused by a member of your household - Any damage intentionally caused by you or someone living in your home is unlikely to be covered.
- Damage caused by birds, insects or other pests - Infestations or damage caused by pests, such as rodents chewing wiring or insects damaging timber, are generally considered a maintenance issue.
- Damage caused by pets - Damage caused by domestic animals, such as scratched doors, chewed furniture or stained carpets, is typically excluded.
- If your property is unoccupied for longer than the period shown on your schedule - Not lived in by you, or anyone with your permission, for more than the time period stated in your policy documents.
To find out more about our exclusions or what these exclusions mean in more detail check your policy documents.
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