Insurance
Insurance Cover
Insurance is an important consideration when you buy your own home. You’ll need buildings and contents insurance.
As a homeowner, you will need insurance to cover:
- Your home and
- Your contents.
You may also wish to insure yourself against loss of income (caused by losing your job or ill health). State benefits do not usually cover mortgage payments straight away if you become unemployed.
Who we cover
If you live in a shared ownership house, or a flat where we are the landlord, the lease says we must arrange buildings insurance for you.
We do insure flats purchased through DIYSO under our block policy. However, where a leaseholder has provided proof that his/her property is insured by the freeholder we will refund the insurance fee paid to us.
If you are a shared owner of a house and you go on to buy the whole house, our cover will be maintained for three months after you buy it. After that you become responsible for buildings insurance.
Premiums
The premiums charged by our insurers for buildings insurance are based mainly on the current contract and are based on the number of bedrooms in your own property.
What the policy covers
This is a summary of what our buildings insurance policy covers:
- Buildings, gardens, walls, gates, fences and garages.
Damage caused by:
- Fire.
- Storm or flood.
- Subsidence or ground heave; and
- Water leaking from central heating systems and, in some circumstances, washing machines.
- Fixtures and fittings (such as kitchen and sanitary units) if they are damaged by one of the risks described above.
The policy does not cover wear and tear and will not cover the cost of repairs unless caused because of an insured peril.
If you leave the property empty for long periods of time, the policy will not cover damage caused by water leaks.
There is an excess that you must pay where you pursue an individual claim. This is larger per property if the claim is for subsidence or ground heave. Claims for communal parts of buildings have the excess charged through the service charge.
How to make a claim
To make a claim, please view our summary of insurance cover where you will be able to see what is covered and what isn't covered under our insurance policy. You will also find information on how to make a claim, contact details and some handy hints to help avoid common accidents.
