Damage caused by pets is not usually covered by buildings or contents insurance policies

Your home may be listed or in a conservation area, it may have unusual or bespoke features and may be of non standard construction, all of which must be taken into account when calculating your buildings sum insured for rebuild.  A standard insurance policy may not be suitable so it is important that a detailed valuation undertaken by a specialist is sought.  Both the English Heritage and Historic Scotland websites may be able to confirm where your property is listed and if so the grade of listing applying. You will be asked for the listed building status of your property when obtaining a quotation.

All properties require regular maintenance, however older properties may need more attention and it should be noted that wear and tear is a general exclusion from home insurance policies.

This is dependant on the type of floor covering.  The general rule is that if the covering is glued or nailed down and could not be removed without damage being caused to the flooring then it would be covered under the buildings section of the policy.  Carpets and click locked styles of wooden flooring (so long as it is not glued!) would be included under the contents section.

Your mortgage lender will be looking for your property to be insured for a range of perils and for their interest to be noted on the policy. You may need to provide them with a copy of your insurance schedule for their records.

The standard products that we provide will meet with the requirements of your lender. If any aspect of the risk has been deemed non-standard, resulting in the cover being restricted in some way, it would be important to discuss this with your lender before proceeding. Examples might be properties in an area deemed to be at risk of flooding where the insurer has applied a higher excess to that element of the policy.

Our legal protection will provide you access to legal advice and assistance in exercising your legal rights in a range of situations. Some examples might include:

Legal costs following disputes with tenants
Evicting squatters
Recovery of outstanding rent owed by your tenant

The cover also gives you access to a 24 hour helpline service providing advice on legal and tax matters and online access to over 150 legal documents for your use.

Accidental Damage cover provides protection against costs incurred through damage that you, your family members or visitors may cause to the structure of your Building or to your Contents. Examples of incidents which would be covered under this extension include putting your foot through the loft floor damaging the ceiling below, leaving a tap running leading to water damage or carpet spillages. Such incidents would not be included under a policy taken out to cover Standard Perils only.

Additional charges will apply and in certain circumstances this cover might not be available.

In most cases tenants will need to arrange cover for their own contents and personal possessions. Please refer to your tenancy agreement to check what, if any cover you are obliged to provide for your tenant.

Some examples of cover granted under Standard perils include loss caused by Fire, Explosion, Lightning, Storm, Earthquake, Theft, Malicious damage, Escape of water or oil, Subsidence, Heave & Landslip and Impact from vehicles or aeroplanes. It would also include cover for injuries to visitors to the property where you, the policyholder was deemed liable. Full details of the cover provided will be included within your policy document but please ask our advisor if you are unsure.

In most cases, for an additional cost you can extend the cover provided to include Accidental Damage to property owned by you - please ask for details.

If you are having work carried out on your property you must have an agreement in place with the contractor or project manager/architect as to who will provide insurance cover whilst the work is being undertaken. Ideally this agreement should be in place prior to work commencing.

If the contractor is not able to provide cover it may be possible to arrange this with your home insurer depending on what type of work is being carried out. However, they may wish to impose additional terms or exclusions to the cover while work is being carried out.

It is important that you make your insurers aware of any work that is being carried out, or that you plan to carry out on your property regardless of whether you require them to provide you with additional cover.

If neither your contractor nor your existing insurer can provide cover for the property we do have access to specialist insurers who will arrange a policy for the duration of the works, special terms may apply. Please contact us on 01224 848111 if you require a quote for this type of cover or if you have an existing policy with us and are about to undertake work on the property.

Some insurers may give a discount where the property is protected by an approved and annually maintained burglar alarm system. However, if a discount has been given the insurer may apply additional terms requiring the alarm to be set every time the property is left unoccupied and also when tenants retire for the night. If this term has been applied and not adhered to it may result in a claim being rejected or not paid in full.

In some instances the installation of an approved and maintained alarm system may be a requirement before cover will be granted.