Every home is different, but some homes are more different than others. If you choose to live in a quirky, characterful property rather than a typical two-up two-down, you might have difficulty getting standard home insurance.
Don’t despair, you can still get cover. You just need to buy specialist home insurance.
But what type of cover is out there?
Where there’s a mill there’s a way
Perhaps your property is a little quirky. Maybe it has a thatched roof. Or perhaps it is a listed property, which means if it is damaged, you have to restore it to its original state - an expensive proposition. Try covering that with a mainstream buildings insurer, and you could be sorely disappointed. But a specialist insurer will cover all sorts of follies and oddities, including converted barns, chapels, castles, windmills and even lighthouses.
If you live in a converted watermill or deconsecrated church, or any other type of unusual property, you need specialist cover.
Non-standard construction
If your property has been built in an unusual way, for example, if it has a timber frame, or is so old that it was made from wattle and daub, you will need to buy non-standard construction insurance. Again, mass market insurers are wary of anything out of the ordinary, preferring to make vast profits from insuring hundreds of thousands of identikit modern boxes instead. They also consider some properties higher risk. Timber frame properties, for example, are at greater risk of fire. But again, this won’t put off a specialist insurer.
Let your fears subside
Maybe your property is difficult to insure because it has had a serious structural problem in the past. If your house has suffered subsidence it can be a nightmare shopping around for affordable insurance - years after you spent thousands getting your property underpinned. Many standard insurers will hit you with a five-figure excess, offer to cover you for everything except subsidence, or turn your application down flat. In this case, you may need to hunt around for specialist subsidence insurance. You may face a similar problem if your property is in a floodplain, or has suffered flood damage before. Again, most standard insurers will wash their hands of you, giving you little option but to turn to a specialist.
Bought the farm? Now buy the insurance
Or maybe you’re a farmer. In this case, your home isn’t just a home, it’s your livelihood. Standard home insurance isn’t going to cover your crops or combine harvester, but a specialist farm insurance policy will. It will also offer extras, such as environmental liability cover, tractor insurance, horse insurance and professional expenses cover. Again, there are plenty of policies to choose from.
More specialisms
There are plenty more types of specialist home insurance. If your house is worth millions, or you have priceless art and antiques, you will need high net worth home insurance, or specialist valuables, possessions and jewellery contents insurance. Properties with more than six bedrooms may also require cover from a specialist.
Special house, specialist insurance
Just like standard insurance, specialist home insurance comes in two parts, buildings and contents cover. When comparing policies, make sure you get the cover you need, watch out for exclusions, and don’t leave yourself under-insured. There’s no getting away from it. If you want to live in a character property, you will have to pay extra to insure it. This is the one of the costs of living somewhere special, but you probably consider it a price worth paying.
