Making a home insurance claim
You can make a home insurance claim online, at any time. We’ll review and process it just as we would if you’d called us.
You’ll need to know:
- When your policy renews.
- Whether your policy covers buildings, contents or both.
All of this can be found in your policy schedule.
If your home suddenly becomes unfit to live in, due to a fire or flood for example, you can call us 24 hours a day to make an urgent claim.
Important actions to consider before you make a claim:
- Get a crime or lost property number from the police for lost or stolen items, or any criminal damage.
- Try to stop any leaks - turn off the water and arrange for a plumber. We’ll only cover the cost of repairing the leak if the pipe has frozen, or if the damage was accidental and you have Accidental Damage cover.
- Make any urgent repairs, like fixing forced locks or broken windows. If your claim is covered, we’ll pay you back for any reasonable costs spent on an urgent repair.
- Keep damaged goods safe and take photos of them, you’ll need them as proof to support your claim. You can get rid of frozen food, but make a list of everything and take photos first.
- Check to see if you have other kinds of cover like gadget, phone or Home Emergency insurance that may have a lower excess.
You’ll need to provide:
- Details of what happened, where and when.
- Details of what’s been damaged, lost or stolen.
- Your bank details - in case we need to give you a cash settlement.
- Proof to support your claim - this could be photos of the damage, receipts, or other documentation.
What we’ll do if we accept your claim:
- We’ll contact you to confirm next steps, and what your excess is.
- If we think you need help with your claim, we’ll assign you a Personal Claims Consultant.
- If your home is not fit to live in, we’ll pay the extra cost for you, your family and household pets to stay somewhere suitable until you can move back in.
- Where possible, we’ll try to repair the damage. If we can’t, we’ll try to replace or pay a cash settlement instead.
- If something in your home needs to be fixed, our claims team can arrange for trusted trades people to carry out most repairs.
Urgent claims
FAQs and common queries
Here are some of the most common questions people have when they want to make a claim.
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Your online claim will be reviewed by one of our specialists, just like when you call us.
The main differences are:
- you'll input the information directly, instead of describing it over the phone
- you can claim online at any time without using our emergency out of hours service.
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An excess is the amount you'll pay towards any successful claim you make.
So, if you have an excess of £300, and make a claim for £1,000, you only pay £300 and we pay £700.
The excess that applies to your policy will vary, depending on the level of cover you've selected and the excess amounts you've chosen.
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If you claim for an item that has broken due to age or general wear and tear, we won't cover it.
There are some items that we don't cover as standard, like bikes. You need extra cover for these.Make sure to check your policy documents to understand exactly what your policy does and does not cover.