What Could Invalidate Your Home Insurance?
12 common mistakes that could cause problems with your cover
Home insurance is there to help protect your home and belongings when something unexpected happens, from fire and flooding to theft or accidental damage where this is included in your policy.
But having a policy in place does not mean every type of loss or damage will automatically be covered.
Incorrect information, changes to your circumstances, insufficient cover or failing to meet certain policy conditions can all potentially affect a claim.
That does not necessarily mean your entire home insurance policy will be invalidated. Depending on the circumstances and your policy terms, an insurer might apply an exclusion, reduce a payment, decline a particular claim or, in more serious cases involving misrepresentation, take action in relation to the policy itself.
Here are 12 issues worth checking.
1. Starting major building work without checking your insurance
Planning an extension, loft conversion or substantial renovation?
Before work begins, check whether your insurer needs to know.
Major building work can change the risks associated with a property. Walls may be removed, parts of the home could temporarily be exposed to the weather and the property may be less secure or even unoccupied for periods of time.
Different insurers have different requirements, particularly for substantial renovations, so contact your insurer or broker before work starts rather than assuming your existing cover will continue unchanged.
It is also worth checking what insurance your builder or contractor has in place.
2. Leaving your home unoccupied for longer than your policy allows
Going away for an extended period can affect your cover.
Many home insurance policies place restrictions on certain types of cover once a property has been unoccupied for a specified period, commonly 30 or 60 days. Exactly what counts as ‘unoccupied’ and what restrictions apply will depend on the policy.
This could be relevant if you:
Take an extended holiday
Spend a prolonged period in hospital
Work away from home
Move out while renovations are taking place
Leave the property empty while waiting to sell or move
Cover for risks such as theft, malicious damage or escape of water may be restricted after the permitted period.
If your home is likely to be empty for longer than usual, check your policy and speak to your insurer.
3. Allowing maintenance problems to develop
Home insurance is designed primarily to cover insured events rather than routine maintenance or deterioration.
Damage caused by wear and tear or something that has developed gradually may be excluded. The Financial Ombudsman Service notes that gradual damage and wear and tear are common areas of dispute in home insurance claims.
Examples could include:
A roof that has been deteriorating for some time
Long-standing damp
Rotten window frames
Poorly maintained guttering
Plumbing problems that have been left unresolved
There can be exceptions where damage develops unseen and results from an insured event, so the circumstances of each claim matter.
Regularly maintaining your home and dealing with problems when you become aware of them can help reduce the risk of a dispute later.
4. Running a business from home without checking your cover
Working from home and running a business from home are not necessarily the same thing from an insurance perspective.
Ordinary office-based home working may be accommodated by many policies, but the risks can change if you:
Store business stock at home
Have customers or clients visiting
Use specialist equipment
Employ people at the property
Run a salon, workshop or other customer-facing business
If you start running a business from your property, check whether your home insurance still provides appropriate cover and whether separate business insurance is needed.
5. Not following your policy’s security requirements
Your policy may include requirements relating to locks, alarms or other security measures.
These can be particularly important where an insurer has applied a specific security condition to the policy.
If you have told the insurer that particular locks or an alarm are fitted, make sure the information remains accurate and that any requirements set out in your policy are followed.
Leaving your home unsecured could potentially affect a theft claim, but the outcome will depend on the particular policy wording and circumstances rather than every unlocked door automatically resulting in a rejected claim.
6. Deliberately damaging the property
Insurance is intended to protect against unexpected losses, not deliberate acts by a policyholder.
Home insurance policies commonly contain exclusions relating to intentional or malicious damage caused by the insured person.
Cases involving other members of a household can be more complicated, however, and the individual circumstances and exact policy wording can matter.
For example, the Financial Ombudsman Service has considered cases where damage was deliberately caused by one joint policyholder but the other policyholder had no involvement in, or control over, the incident.
7. Providing inaccurate information when taking out or renewing your policy
The information you give an insurer helps it decide whether to offer cover and on what terms.
Under consumer insurance law, customers are required to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation when taking out or changing a policy.
For home insurance, relevant information could include:
The type and construction of the property
Who normally lives there
Previous claims
How the property is used
Whether it is occupied
Renovation or building work, where you are asked about it
The value of items that need to be specifically declared
Not every error automatically invalidates a policy.
If inaccurate information amounts to a qualifying misrepresentation, what the insurer can do depends partly on whether it was careless or deliberate/reckless and what the insurer would have done had it received the correct information.
8. Being underinsured
One of the easiest mistakes to make is having less cover than you actually need.
For buildings insurance, your sum insured may need to reflect the cost of rebuilding your property rather than its current market value, depending on how your policy is arranged.
Contents insurance should also provide enough cover for the belongings you would need to replace following a major loss.
Underinsurance can affect the settlement of a claim, although exactly how will depend on the policy terms. The Financial Ombudsman Service identifies underinsurance as a recurring issue in home insurance complaints.
Also check whether expensive individual possessions need to be listed separately because they exceed your policy's single-item limit.
9. Taking in a lodger or renting out your home without checking your policy
Changing who occupies your home can alter the risk an insurer is covering.
This might include:
Taking in a lodger
Renting out a room
Letting the entire property
Using the property for short-term rentals
A standard home insurance policy may not be designed for every type of letting arrangement.
Before making the change, check your policy or speak to your insurer or broker to find out whether your existing cover remains suitable.
10. Forgetting to review your policy when your circumstances change
Homes and households change over time.
You might buy expensive jewellery, carry out major improvements, install a home office or change who lives at the property.
Not every lifestyle change needs to be reported immediately, so check your policy rather than assuming it does.
However, it is worth reviewing your insurance when there has been a significant change to make sure that:
Your sums insured are still sufficient
High-value possessions are covered appropriately
The information held by your insurer remains accurate
The way your home is used is still consistent with your policy
Renewal is a useful opportunity to check, but you should also look at your policy if there is a significant change during the year.
11. Waiting too long to report a claim or loss
If something happens, check your policy for instructions on reporting the incident.
Policies may require claims or potential claims to be reported promptly, and waiting too long could make it harder to establish what happened or assess the damage.
Where appropriate, keep evidence such as:
Photographs or video
Receipts and valuations
Details of damaged or stolen items
Contractor reports
Crime reference numbers following theft or vandalism
You should also take reasonable steps to prevent further damage where it is safe to do so.
The insurer will still need to consider the circumstances and policy wording rather than automatically rejecting every claim that is not reported immediately.
12. Ignoring important conditions in your policy
Home insurance policies are not all the same.
Some contain specific conditions relating to areas such as:
Security
Unoccupancy
Building work
Property maintenance
Valuable items
Letting or business use
Protecting pipes during cold weather
These conditions should be set out in your policy documentation.
Rather than assuming something is covered because you have home insurance, check any requirements that apply to your particular property and circumstances.
Does a mistake automatically invalidate your home insurance?
No.
This is an important distinction.
If incorrect information was provided when the policy was taken out or changed, consumer insurance law considers factors including whether the mistake was careless or deliberate/reckless and what the insurer would have done if the correct information had been provided.
Depending on the circumstances, an insurer might have:
Offered the same cover
Charged a different premium
Applied different terms
Declined to offer the policy
For careless qualifying misrepresentations, remedies can include applying different terms or reducing a claim proportionately where a higher premium would have been charged. Deliberate or reckless qualifying misrepresentation can carry more serious consequences.
Other claim problems may have nothing to do with misrepresentation at all. For example, a particular loss might fall within an exclusion for wear and tear or be affected by an unoccupancy condition.
That is why the circumstances and the wording of the individual policy matter.
Check your home insurance before you need it
Your home and belongings can change considerably over the course of a year.
If you have recently carried out renovations, bought expensive possessions, started a business from home, taken in a lodger or expect the property to be empty for an extended period, it is worth checking that your insurance still reflects your circumstances.
You should also review your buildings and contents cover periodically to make sure the amounts remain appropriate.
If you are unsure whether a change matters, check your policy documentation or contact your insurer or broker.
It is much easier to clarify your cover now than discover after a fire, flood, theft or other loss that something does not work in the way you expected.
Need to check your Performance Direct Home Insurance?
If you already have Performance Direct Home Insurance, you can use your Insurance Account to view your policy information and access support if you need to make a change.
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Insurance cover, limits, conditions and exclusions vary by insurer and policy. Always check your policy documentation and contact your insurer or broker if you are unsure whether a change needs to be reported.
