Home insurance explained

13 December 2018
Ecclesiastical
Insurance

Understanding home insurance can seem complicated but it doesn’t need to be. We’ve broken down our cover into some easy-to-understand sections to help you understand what we can cover and our limits.

Garages and outbuildings

Our buildings insurance includes cover for outbuildings including sheds and garages provided they are included in the buildings value you give us. The contents section of your home insurance will also cover contents in these buildings (excluding motor vehicles) provided they are properly secured when not in use (a padlock on your shed or a lock on your garage door). 

Terms to be aware of:

  • Let us know if you will be away for more than 60 days - if the home is left unoccupied for more than 60 days, we can no longer cover; theft, vandalism and damage caused by escape of water.
  • We have a limit of £5,000 on claims for theft and attempted theft. 

Personal belongings insurance

Our home contents insurance section will provide cover for your personal possessions while they are in your home. You can extend this cover to include items you take away from home anywhere in the world, for up to 90 days at any one time.
 
  • Up to £3,500 of cover in any period of insurance.
Terms to be aware of:
 
  • We make a deduction for wear and tear of clothing.
  • You should make us aware of any items you would like to insure which are worth more than £3,500.

Valuables and jewellery

Our home insurance policy includes cover for valuables such as jewellery, gold or silver, clocks, watches, furs, works of art, stamps, coins or medal collections whilst in your home.
 
Although jewellery insurance is included in your policy as standard, you still need to think about what your valuables might be worth. Unique or particularly valuable items may need extra insurance or special terms.
Standard cover includes:
 
  • Up to £10,000 for 1 or 2 bedroom properties 
  • Up to £15,000 for 3 bedroom properties 
  • Up to £20,000 for 4 or 5 bedroom properties. 
You should let us know if any one item or collection is worth £3,500 or more. If you have chosen your own sums insured for your contents, you should let us know if any one item or collections comes to more than 35% of your total contents sum insured. 
 
It’s always best to keep proof of purchase, photographs and any legal documents which help to prove ownership of these items in case of a claim.
 
We have a preferred supplier network which includes professional valuation service. Ecclesiastical customers receive a discount.   

Office equipment

Home office equipment such as audio and visual electronic equipment, keyboards, monitors, printers and photocopiers can be covered up to £10,000 in total. 
 
If you are running a business from your home, or storing business stock on the premises, it is unlikely that standard home insurance will be able to provide adequate cover. Let us know if you are unsure whether cover would apply for your circumstances. 

Garden contents insurance

For those with green fingers, don’t forget the items you want to protect in your garden. You might have hundreds of pounds worth of garden trees, plants and shrubs which could be damaged or stolen.
We cover individual items in the garden up to £250 up to a total of £2,500. 
 
Just be aware - we exclude damage caused by storm or flood, frost, weight of snow or damage by animals.

Cover for bicycles

We provide up to £750 cover for any one pedal cycle provided you do your best to make it secure. 
 
Terms to be aware of:
 
You should not leave your pedal cycle simply in your garden, this will not be covered by our insurance. Unattended bicycles should be stored indoors or securely locked to a permanent fixture.

Get a quote

Speak to one of our team who will be happy to help:

0345 777 3322

Lines are open 8am – 6pm, Monday to Friday.
(Calls to 03 numbers are typically charged at no more than local rate)

household@ecclesiastical.com

Get a quote online

For full terms and conditions, features and exclusions, please read our home insurance policy wording or call our team on 0345 7773322.

FAQs

We can transcribe your documentation, letters and schedules using the following alternative formats:
 
  • Braille 
  • Large print 
  • Audio 
  • Tactile 
  • Audiobook
If you would like us to arrange this for you, please contact our Customer Services Team on 0345 777 3322.
There is cover provided under our policy under a section called Portable Possessions. This will cover any items that you take away from your home and on holiday so can cover mobile phones (handset only), laptops, camera equipment or jewellery.
 
Any items that you take away from your home that are valued over £3,500 will need to be specified on the policy individually.
Yes. If you carry out some voluntary work for the church, then we are able to offer a discount for this.
If you lose the keys to your home or they are stolen or there is accidental damage to the locks of the outside doors or windows we will pay for reasonable and necessary costs of:
 
(a) gaining access to your home
(b) repairing or replacing the locks
 
The most we will pay for any one claim is £1,000.
Yes, all apart from household linen and clothing.
The contents in your freezer will be covered up to your contents sum insured.
Yes. The contents in these buildings will be automatically covered up to £5,000
The fences at your property will be covered under this insurance but we will only be able to pay a claim for damage to any fence if the main building, garage or outbuilding is damaged at the same time.
No. We are able to offer new business quotations to all members of the public as well as clergy members.
We do offer a no claims bonus on our policies to reward customers who are claim free. We can offer a maximum of 5 years no claims discount, if a claim is made on the policy this is reduced to nil.
If the work taking place is in excess of £25,000, please complete our Buildings Work Questionnaire and send it back to us.
 
If the work taking place will be less than £25,000, please contact us to let us know and allow us to note your policy accordingly.
On request we can provide cover under your contents policy for small boats (measuring less than 5 meters and not having a top speed over 15 knots), craft, surfboard or a sailboard.  
 
If you require cover please contact our team on 0345 777 3322.
We cannot specifically offer you a landlord’s policy, but what we can do is offer a standard household policy and note that the property is let.
 
We do have some exclusions that will apply whilst the property insured is let and these can be found in the policy booklet.
We will cover the reasonable and necessary costs incurred with our consent to: locate the source of leaking water or oil from any fixed water or heating system in Your Home; and repair any damage caused in locating the source of the leak. 
 
The most we will pay is £5,000 for each leak.
Visit the Association of British Insurers website and this will ask you some questions to determine the rebuild value of your property.
If you need to do this then you will need to either call us direct on 0345 777 3322, write a letter or send an email to household@ecclesiastical.com.
Yes. We have Home Emergency cover included under your household policy. DAS Legal Expenses Insurance Company Limited handle these claims on our behalf and you can use this for anything from roof damage, plumbing and drainage, your main heating system, the domestic power supply, the toilet unit, home security to vermin.
 
If you need to make a claim under this section of the policy, please call DAS on 0345 268 8469.
Whilst the bike is in your property, this will be covered under your general contents insurance. If you take your bike away from the home, then this will be covered under the Portable Possessions section of your insurance. Also, if your bike is worth more than £750, this will need to specified individually on the policy.
Yes. You have up to £1,000 personal money cover included on the policy. Personal money means bank notes and coins that are not part of a collection, cheques, postal orders, bank drafts, travel tickets, traveller’s cheques, postage stamps, savings stamps and certificates and premium bonds.
 
The cover also applies for up to 90 days in any one period of insurance, elsewhere in the world.
There is liability cover included on your policy automatically up to a limit of £2,000,000.
If the subsidence has happened in the past 15 years, then unfortunately we will be unable to offer a quotation for your property.
 
If the subsidence occurred over 15 years ago, then before we are able to offer a quotation, we would need to see an up-to-date structural engineers report. Once this has been received, we will then decide if we are able to offer a quotation for your property.
We can still offer you a quotation if your property is listed. We will need to know which Grade the building is.
Yes. We have a 60 day ruling on the policy. After 60 days the cover on the policy may change and so we will need to know if the property will be unoccupied.

We will pay 50% of the cost of replacing undamaged items which form part of:

  • a pair;
  • a set, collection or suite; or
  • a matching or uniform design, nature or colour,
with an item that has suffered from damage that is covered under the buildings or contents section of the policy.

If your home cannot be lived in because of damage covered by your policy, we will pay 20% of the sum insured to help you with reasonable and necessary costs of your temporary accommodation (see policy document for full details).

An excess is the first monetary amount that you will pay towards a claim. Under our policies the excesses are £1,000 for subsidence, £250 for any escape of water or oil claim and £75 for any other standard claim. We do have the option to add on voluntary excesses which would be added to the already existing excesses.
The home including any garages or outbuildings used only for domestic purposes, home office use, permanent fixtures and fittings, wind turbines and solar panels fixed to the buildings or fixed to the ground, swimming pools, tennis courts, paths, drives, terraces, patios, walls, fences, hedges and gates as long as these are all within the boundaries of the land belonging to your property.
Household goods, furniture, furnishings, clothing, personal belongings and valuables all belonging to you or for which you are legally responsible.
Standard cover will cover your property and/or contents for the perils noted in the policy document, e.g. fire, earthquake, storm, flood and subsidence.
 
Accidental damage cover will provide cover for your property and/or contents for any damage caused accidently, e.g. spilling paint onto a carpet or putting a hammer through a wall whilst carrying out some DIY.
Home insurance policies are designed to cover sudden and unexpected identifiable events such as fire or flooding to your home. 
 
Wear and tear, however, naturally happens to all properties and possessions over time, and as such you will find wear and tear is not covered on most insurance policies. 
 
The cost of maintaining your property or contents or replacing items due to wear and tear is not covered by our policy. 
 
There are a few simple things you can do to prevent wear and tear causing you a problem: 
 
  • Check your property regularly 
  • Ensure you carry out routine maintenance 
  • Fix problems as soon as they arise.
This will not reduce the premium in any way; however your property may be in an area that requires you to meet certain security requirements. We will be able to tell you this.
As long as you have Portable Possessions cover under your policy and your son/daughter stays at your property in the holiday times, then their possessions will be covered. Please note that the Portable Possessions sum insured will need to be sufficient to cover the whole family.
 
The most we will pay for any contents whilst in the student accommodation is £5,000 in any one period of insurance. Please note that if there is more than one child at university then the £5,000 is split between them.
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