Gold and Silver FAQs

If you choose our Buildings or Contents insurance, we'll cover you for loss or damage that arises as a result of incidents such as storm, fire or theft. Home Insurance is designed to cover certain unforeseen events, but it doesn’t cover everything. For example, it doesn't cover things like general wear and tear or damage that happens gradually over a period of time.

If you apply for our Home insurance you can also personalise your Gold or Silver policy with additional cover options:

• Accidental Damage cover is included as standard in our Gold policy and can be added to our Silver policy.
• Cover away from the home.
• Valuable items cover.
• Bicycle cover.
• Home Emergency Cover is included as standard in our Gold and Silver policies.(Tenants are not eligible).
• Family Legal Protection is included as standard in our Gold policy and can be added to our Silver policy.

Our Buildings insurance covers loss or damage to the structure of your home, for example, to walls, permanent fixtures and fittings, gates and fences, drives and patios. Domestic outbuildings such as sheds, garages and greenhouses are also covered (Garages and outbuildings used for business purposes other than clerical, or farming purposes will not be covered). If you own your own home then you should have buildings insurance.

If you are renting your home or have a lease, normally the landlord or the freeholder would be responsible for insuring the property.

Our Contents insurance covers your personal belongings against loss or damage and includes everything you’d take with you if you moved home – including for example, furniture, kitchen appliances, curtains, bedding, clothing, television, computer equipment and jewellery.

The excess is the amount you must pay towards each and every claim.

The excesses are shown on your policy schedule and/or by endorsement. Information relating to the minimum excess, escape of water excess and subsidence, heave and landslip excess can be found in your policy summary.

Where more than one section of cover operates in respect of an incident of loss or damage only one excess will apply. If there are differing levels of excess, the highest excess will apply.

We want you to understand how much you'll have to pay in the event of a claim, so if you need any help or guidance, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

The Buildings sum insured should be enough to cover the rebuilding cost of your home. It doesn't bear any relation to the market value of your home. We provide cover under Gold and Silver Home insurance for rebuilding costs up to £1.5 Million.

The Contents sum insured should be enough to cover the replacement cost as new, of all your contents and personal belongings. We provide up to £150,000 of Contents cover with our Gold and Silver policies.

You should remember that it’s your responsibility to ensure that you have sufficient cover. There’s a chance that you may not recover the full amount of any claim you make or your policy may be invalid, if you don’t have the right level of cover.

Find and Access of water or oil leaks relates to cover, for the costs involved in finding the source of an escape of water or leakage of oil. This includes replacement or repair of any walls, floors or ceilings (including fixtures and fittings attached to them) inside the home where this occurs in the course of these investigations.

This cover is included in our Gold policy up to £5,000 with Buildings cover, but isn’t available with our Silver policy.

Yes you can. Our online application will ask you if you’d like your policy to be in joint names.

Accidental Damage cover is included with our Gold policy as standard and covers you for those little mishaps like putting your foot through a ceiling (Buildings) or spilling wine or paint on your carpet (Contents) – you can also add Accidental Damage cover to our Silver policy for an additional premium - view our additional cover options for more information.

Both our Silver and Gold Home insurance policies provide Accidental Damage cover under Buildings to underground pipes and cables serving your home. 

Our Gold policy includes this cover as standard and for an additional premium you can add Family Legal Protection cover to your Silver policy, where you’ll be covered for the costs of pursuing certain legal proceedings such as:

• Death of or personal injury to you or your immediate family.
• Buying or hiring goods or services for your own personal use.
• Any infringement of your legal rights from owning or occupying your home.
• A breach of your employment contract.

You’ll also be covered for the costs of defending legal proceedings such as:

• A motoring prosecution brought against you.
• The sale of privately owned goods by you.

We’ll also pay your costs in connection with a formal enquiry by HM Revenue & Customs into your private tax affairs.

For details of what's not covered, please refer to the policy booklet.

If you need Home Emergency cover, then it's included as standard with our Gold and Silver Home insurance - we'll cover you for up to £1000 (inc VAT) against call out charges, labour and parts or materials for immediate repairs to stabilise and remove the emergency. However, tenants are not eligible for Home Emergency Cover on either the Gold or Silver policy.

We'll send a repairer to assess the situation and carry out emergency work arising from emergencies such as:

• Burst pipes or sudden leakage.
• Break in or vandalism, compromising the security of your home.
• Storm damage causing water to enter your home or likely to cause further loss or damage to your home or its contents.
• Impact damage by falling trees, or by a vehicle or a plane or aerial debris.
• Failure of your domestic water mains supply leaving you with no running water.
• Failure of your gas supply pipe leaving you unable to use your gas appliances.
• Failure of your domestic electricity system leaving your home without electricity.
• Blocked drains.
• Failure of your domestic hot water system.
• Total failure of your central heating system between the months of September and April.
• A smashed toilet bowl or cistern, or breakage of the cistern internal mechanism that prevents flushing.
• Emergency repairs if subsidence or heave or landslip causes sudden damage allowing water to enter or compromise the security of your home by breaking external windows, doors or their frames.

Home Emergency is provided through AXA Assistance (UK) Limited.

Limitations and exclusions apply, for example we don’t cover boilers over 8 years old. For details of the cover and what's not included, please refer to the policy booklet.

As with most Home insurance, our policies don’t cover loss or damage to your home or contents due to maintenance, wear and tear, or damage that happens gradually over time.

We consider High-Risk items to be articles of:

• Jewellery, pearls, precious stones, gold, silver and other precious metal.
• Watches.

For details of the overall High-Risk item limits that apply to your cover, please refer to your policy schedule.

Further information about High-Risk items and cover limits can also be found in the Insurance Product Information Document and the Policy Booklet.

If you are visually impaired and would like documents in Braille, large print, audio tape or
CD, please call 0370 0600 227 

We may record and monitor calls. Call charges will vary.

Insurance companies and the Government have been working together to develop a different way of dealing with flood insurance. They decided on a not-for-profit flood reinsurance scheme, known as Flood Re, to help support households at highest risk of flooding.

Find out more

With our Gold and Silver Home insurance, we'll cover your Child's contents in any building whilst in full time education, such as when they’re at University for up to £5,000, provided the intention is to return the items to the family home.

For details of the cover and what's not included, please refer to the Policy Booklet.

Golf clubs can be covered under the contents section of your policy. If you've included optional Cover Away from the Home, then your golf clubs can be covered for loss or damage away from the home up to the sum insured selected. You can check that you've selected this cover in your policy documents. Limitations and exclusions apply.

Items that you normally wear or carry with you can be covered by adding Cover Away from the Home to your policy - you'll need to check that your items meet our criteria and provide us with the sum insured you need. 

If you require insurance for single items that exceed £1,500 these will need to be specified under our Valuable Items cover.

If you'd like to add Cover Away or Valuable Items cover from the home please contact our Customer Service Department 0370 060 0227 - Lines are open 8am to 8pm Monday to Thursday, 8am to 6pm Friday, 9am to 1pm Saturday. Call charges will vary. We may record and monitor calls.

Our Gold Home Insurance covers bicycles as part of the Contents within the home, garage and domestic outbuildings - cover restrictions apply.
Our Silver Home Insurance doesn't offer cover for bicycles within the home.

If you require cover for your bike in and away from your home, you can insure this as an additional cover option. We don't provide cover for loss or damage if the bicycle is being used for racing.

Your mobile phone may be covered under the contents section of the policy, but if this was to be lost or stolen outside of the home, you'd need to take out cover away from the home. We wouldn't cover your mobile if it was lost in your home.

Unfortunately, we don’t cover Business use in the home, unless its purely paperwork, computer work, telephone calls or you're a registered childminder.