Home Insurance Jargon Made Simple
Navigating home insurance can be perplexing, especially when confronted with a myriad of jargon. Understanding these terms is crucial for securing the appropriate cover for your home. Fret not! We’re here to simplify matters with our alphabetically organised jargon buster.
Common Home Insurance Terms
- Accidental damage cover – covers your buildings, contents and/or both against unintended damage at home. This includes things like dropping your mobile phone, spilling paint over your carpet or accidentally damaging your TV
- Act of God – An event that is not the fault of any individual, such as a natural disaster.
- Alternative accommodation – Alternative accommodation cover pays for you to temporarily stay elsewhere if your home is damaged by an insured event like a fire or flood and isn’t in a habitable state.
- Buildings insurance – Covers the cost of repairs to the structure of your home when it’s damaged by an insured event such as fire, theft, storms or flooding.
- Claim history – Claims history is the record of a person’s previous claims, insurers tend to ask about claims made in the last 3 – 5 years.
- Contents insurance – Contents insurance covers the cost of replacing the belongings in your home (such as furniture, electrical items and clothing) if they’re damaged, destroyed, lost or stolen.
- Contents sum insured – The maximum sum your insurer will pay out for your contents should they be damaged, it is important that you get your contents sum insured right, as this is the maximum your insurer will pay out if you claim.
- Cooling-off period – The time after you take out your home policy when you can usually cancel without any premium being deducted (there is still sometimes an admin fee payable). This is often 14 days after you take out your policy.
- Escape of water – Escape of water is damage caused by water escaping in your buildings, for example from a burst pipe.
- Excess – The amount you’ll have to pay towards a claim.
- Exclusions – Something that isn’t included or covered in your policy.
- FLEA Cover – Insurers may at times restrict cover such as when a home is unoccupied, they will then offer cover known as FLEA cover (Fire, Lightening, Explosion, Aircraft)
- Heave – When the soil beneath your home expands and pushes the ground upwards, sometimes causing structural damage to a building. Ground heave is the opposite of subsidence, which is when the ground sinks.
- Home emergency cover – Home emergency cover is insurance that covers the costs of parts and repairs when faced with heating, plumbing and drainage issues.
- Insured event – An event that is covered by your policy.
- Legal expenses cover – Legal expenses insurance can be purchased to insure against potential future legal costs.
- New for old – New for old cover is included as standard on most home insurance policies. It means if an item is damaged beyond repair, lost or stolen your insurer will try and replace it with a new like-for-like item.
- Personal possessions – Cover for everyday belongings against accidental loss or damage in and outside the home. This includes mobile phones, laptops, clothing and jewellery.
- Policy limits – The maximum amounts an insurer will pay out on a claim for any given part of the policy.
- Policyholder – The person named on the policy and who has a financial interest/ownership of/in the insured home or contents.
- Rebuild cost – The cost to rebuild your property and associated costs like architect fees etc.
- Schedule of Insurance – A document that explains key terms and policy cover including exclusions and limitations of an insurance policy.
- Trace and access – Trace and access insurance covers the cost of finding the source of damage such as a water leak and fixing any damage made in the process.
- Underinsured – Insufficient sums insured to cover your insured items. In the event of a claim, underinsurance may result in not having enough to replace all of your items.
- Valuables – High value/High-Risk items that may be more likely to be stolen in a theft such as Jewellery and Watches.
Want to know more
Check out our Home Insurance Page or Give us a call on 01934 643400
