Home Insurance Brokers: directory of firms

The sum insured on a buildings policy should reflect what it would cost to rebuild the property from scratch after a total loss, including demolition and removing debris, architects' and surveyors' fees, and meeting current building regulations. Land value is not part of it, which is why an expensive house on an expensive plot can have a modest rebuild figure.

For a standard house a published rebuilding cost calculation is usually enough. For a listed building, a converted barn, a property with lime plaster or a thatched roof, or anything with a large basement, a surveyor's reinstatement cost assessment is the honest answer. Repairs to listed buildings must satisfy the consent regime, which costs more and takes longer than a like-for-like rebuild.

Review the figure after any extension or significant work. Insuring last year's house is the most common route to an underinsured claim.

Many policies contain an average clause. If the sum insured is materially below the true value at risk, the insurer can reduce the claim in proportion, so a partial loss is only partly paid even though the amount claimed is well within the limit.

Contents are underinsured more often than buildings, because people value what they would replace rather than everything they own. Walk each room and count. Single article limits are a separate trap: items above the limit must be specified individually or they are not fully covered.

Unoccupancy conditions are strict and enforced. Most policies cut back to a limited set of perils after a stated number of consecutive days empty, and many require inspections, the water supply to be turned off or the system drained, and heating maintained in winter. Tell your broker before the property is left, not after a pipe has burst.

Flood Re is a flood reinsurance scheme, set up as a joint industry and government initiative, designed to promote the affordability and availability of insurance for UK households at high flood risk while the market moves towards risk-reflective pricing. It sits behind insurers rather than selling to the public, and it is due to end in 2039. It is a household scheme: commercial property is outside it, and not every home qualifies, so ask your broker whether yours is being placed through it.

Subsidence changes everything about a placement. Insurers want the history, any monitoring records, the engineer's report and details of any underpinning, and the property will usually stay with a specialist insurer afterwards. Do not let cover lapse in order to shop around; continuity of insurer is often what keeps a subsidence property insurable at all.

Non-standard construction covers a wide range: thatch, timber frame, steel or concrete prefabricated systems, flat roofs over a large share of the area, and single-skin brickwork. None makes a house uninsurable, but all of them narrow the market to insurers who understand them.

Since 1 January 2022 a firm must not set a renewal price for home or motor insurance that is higher than the equivalent new business price, judged at the point the renewal notice is prepared. The rule reaches intermediaries too: a broker's part of the price must be no higher than it would be for a new customer, and cash incentives or forgone commission offered to new customers have to be taken into account.

That removes the old loyalty penalty but it does not make renewal automatic value. Cover creeps: sums insured drift, excesses change, and add-ons renew that you no longer need. The useful work at renewal is re-checking the rebuild figure, the contents total and the specified items, not simply re-quoting the same numbers.

Stop the damage getting worse first: isolate the water or electricity, make the property safe and secure it. Most policies allow emergency measures without prior consent, but they expect you to keep costs reasonable and keep the receipts.

Photograph everything before it is moved or stripped out, including the source of the leak. Do not dispose of damaged items until the insurer or loss adjuster has agreed. A broker's practical value at this point is chasing the adjuster and translating the wording when a claim is queried.

If an insurer fails while a claim is open, the FSCS protects home insurance claims at 90 per cent for failures after 8 October 2020. If a claim is declined and you disagree, complain to the insurer and then take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which is free to use.