Making a Home Insurance Claim - If you are unfortunate to suffer an accident or a loss and the event is covered by your insurance policy, then you will be entitled to make a claim from your insurance company. Many people believe that insurers don’t like paying claims, this simply is not true. No insurance policy will cover all eventualities and sometimes an incident will not be insured. You must also remember that before your insurers will pay out a home insurance claim under you policy, they will want to be satisfied that you have complied with any policy terms and conditions that might be applicable.  Your policy will provide a list of the perils that you may claim for and we have provided a list of the standard ones applicable. However most policies also provide a list of events that are definitely not covered, these include:-

• Radioactive contamination from any nuclear fuel or from any nuclear waste arising from burning nuclear fuel.

• The radioactive, toxic, explosive or other dangerous effect of any nuclear equipment.

• War, Invasion, act of foreign enemy, hostilities whether war be declared or not, civil war, rebellion, revolution or military or usurped power.

• Loss of value of an item following the payment of a claim

• Pollution or Contamination

• Computer Viruses or erasure of computer data

• Wear & Tear or corrosion

• Rot of any Kind

• Any gradually operating cause or effect

• Mechanical or electrical Breakdown

• Biological or Chemical Contamination

As you can see, these are fairly remote events but you should also study your schedule, you may find that your insurers have restricted certain perils from your policy such as subsidence or flood. Don’t wait for a claim to happen check your policy covers your needs as soon as received.   Insurers will of course investigate incidents and you may be called upon to provide documentary evidence. The quicker you cooperate with requests for information from your insurers then the quicker your claim will be met.

On no account give false information to your insurance company or exaggerate your claim, quite simply this is fraud and your insurers will take a very dim view of the matter and will in all probability refuse to pay you any money at all.  On the whole insurance companies want you to be satisfied after a loss, it is the only real time that you see what you have obtained for your money. Insurers know that a well-handled claim will often result in customer loyalty for many years to come.

The Financial Services Authority require that information on how to make a claim is provided to you at a very early stage in the sales process. You will usually be provided with a 24-hour telephone number, which you can call after an event.  We hope the following tips will help you in making a claim under your home insurance policy.

• Always read your policy as soon as received, make sure you have the cover that you require and call the insurers immediately if you have any questions.

• Remember, you will normally have a policy excess of perhaps £50.00; this will be deducted from your settlement.

• Keep your policy document in a safe place; it will normally contain the emergency telephone numbers to call if you want to report a loss.

• Notify your insurers as soon as practical following a loss, if it is serious such as a fire or a flood, they may well wish to appoint a loss adjuster.

• Insurers will normally allow you to effect temporary emergency repairs to make a property safe or to prevent additional damage occurring. It is not advisable to carry out additional work without insurance company approval as they not pay.

• If you are unlucky enough to suffer a break-in, notify the Police and request a crime reference number, this equally applies to any item that you may loose.

• Keep an Inventory of your belongings and serial numbers if possible; this may help in the event of a total loss claim.

• Keep receipts for items purchased, this will help to prove ownership to the insurance company.

• If possible take photographs of important items, this again can help establish ownership and may in deed help the policy recover items that have been stolen

Some people, after a claim like to receive a cheque for their loss but this is becoming more and more infrequent. Most policies now will state that the insurer can replace the item at their discretion. The reason behind this is that insurers are able to use bulk buying to secure discounts from product providers; this keeps down their claims costs and ultimately premiums.

Most insurance policies are now written on a new for old basis which help ease claims settlement. As long as your sums insured are adequate, you insurer will provide you with a brand new item. This type of cover is not available for clothing where the insurer will usually make a deduction for wear and tear.


The conditions to be satisfied before an Insurance Claim can be made - it is worth remembering that before any claim can be made the following precedents must have occurred.

• A loss or an Insured event must have occurred- In the case of Home Insurance, you the policyholder, must have suffered some kind of financial loss.

• The insurance company must be told in good time, they will usually issue a claim form and perhaps ask for additional information such as a valuation or an estimate for replacement or repair. The claim form will ask certain questions about the claim and will enable the insurer to ascertain if the claim is valid.

• The onus of proof rests with you, if you wish to make a claim, you must prove to the insurer that the event happened and prove the extent of the loss.

• The claim of course must be legal as you are not able to profit your own wrong doing.

• The insurance policy must cover the insured event and all the terms and conditions of the policy must have been followed, an example here would be that following a Theft claim, the insurers may request confirmation that the required locks were fitted to the building.

• The insurer will decide to pay you taking in to consideration any amount of underinsurance.