What Does Home Insurance Cover? 

Home insurance covers your home, belongings and even liabilities, protecting you from unexpected events like fire, flooding, theft, and storm damage. It’s designed to give you peace of mind, knowing that your property and possessions are safeguarded.

Let’s break down exactly what home insurance covers, and which type of cover you need. 

What does home building insurance cover? 

Home insurance policies typically have 4 main categories of cover. 

Buildings and contents insurance 

Both buildings and contents insurance are the two main types of cover on a home building insurance policy, and protect you against specific circumstances, known as designated perils, which include theft, fire, vandalism, certain types of water damage, and many other inconvenient incidents and circumstances. 

The key difference lies in what each policy is designed to cover.

Buildings insurance	Contents Insurance
Walls, roofs, and floors	Furniture, clothing, and jewellery
Fixed installations like bathrooms and kitchens	Home electronics like TVs, laptops, and mobiles
The structure of outbuildings such as sheds and garages	Items stored in outbuildings like tools and gardening supplies

Temp accommodation cover

If covered perils (like fire, water damage, burglary, etc.) cause your home to become unlivable, your home building insurance policy will cover the cost of alternative accommodations, like a hotel stay, and other expenses, possibly including any extra cash you need to spend on your own food and laundry. 

Liability 

Home building insurance covers both personal liability and property liability. 

• Personal liability cover helps with instances where you are liable for causing damage or injury to someone else, whether that’s repairing a broken item or covering hospital bills and legal fees. It also extends to certain damages that you may cause when you’re abroad for trips or away from home (of up to three months)-such as if you accidentally injure your mate while on holiday. We also cover damage you may cause to your rental home and your landlord’s stuff, but this doesn’t extend to normal wear and tear like scratches or stains. 
• Property liability cover helps in instances where you’re found liable for damage or injury to others caused by events in the home you own. Say you have a broken step at home, and while your mate’s visiting, they trip and break their leg-your property liability cover could help with the expenses.

Remember, if you want to really extend your personal liability cover, you can supercharge your policy with Legal Protection cover. (More on this later)

Real-world examples: what home insurance covers in practice

Sometimes the best way to understand what your cover actually does is to see it in action. Here are four real-world scenarios that show exactly how buildings insurance, contents insurance, and the rest of your policy can work together when things go wrong.

Scenario 1: Burst pipe while you’re away for the weekend

You return home on Sunday evening to find that a pipe under the kitchen sink burst while you were away, flooding the kitchen and damaging the flooring, cabinets, and some appliances. This is a classic example of sudden and unexpected water damage, one of the designated perils covered under both buildings and contents insurance. Your buildings insurance would cover the cost of repairing the flooring and cabinets (fixed structures), while your contents insurance would cover the damaged appliances. If the damage is severe enough to make the kitchen unusable, your temporary accommodation cover could also kick in, covering hotel costs while repairs are completed.

The key condition: the damage must be sudden, not the result of a slow, ignored leak.

Scenario 2: Theft of a laptop and bicycle while stored at home

A burglar breaks into your home and steals a laptop worth £1,200 and a bicycle worth £800. Both items fall under your contents insurance as personal belongings stored at home. Because neither item exceeds the £2,000 single-item limit, they’re covered under your base policy without needing scheduled personal possessions cover. You file a contents insurance theft claim with supporting evidence, a police report and receipts, and your insurer reimburses you for both items, minus your agreed excess.

If the bicycle had been worth £2,500, you would have needed to schedule it separately to receive its full replacement value.

Scenario 3: A guest is injured in your garden

A friend visits for a barbecue and trips on a loose paving stone in your garden, breaking their wrist. They require hospital treatment and, later, make a personal injury claim against you. Your property liability cover applies here: because the injury occurred on property you own and was caused by a hazard you were responsible for maintaining, your insurer can cover the legal costs and any compensation awarded.

This is exactly the kind of situation that highlights why property liability cover is not an optional extra; it’s a core component of any home building insurance policy.

Scenario 4: Fire damage makes your home temporarily uninhabitable

A kitchen fire causes significant smoke and structural damage to your home. The property is declared unsafe to live in by a surveyor, and repairs are expected to take six weeks. Your buildings insurance covers the full cost of structural repairs. Meanwhile, your temporary accommodation cover pays for a nearby serviced flat for the duration of the repairs, including reasonable additional living expenses such as meals out (above your normal food budget) and laundry costs.

Once repairs are complete and the property is signed off as safe, you move back in, with no out-of-pocket costs beyond your policy excess.

High value items 

If you own valuable items worth over £2,000 each, they’re also covered by your contents insurance-but you’ll need to add some additional cover for your high-value items in your insurance policy to make sure they’re protected for their full value. In insurance terms, that’s known as adding scheduled personal possessions cover.

For a slightly extra cost, you can add additional cover for your high-value items, including: 

• Jewellery 
• Bicycles 
• Cameras 
• Musical instruments 
• Electronic devices 
• Other items 

A lot of these items might already have a cover of £2K on your base policy-but scheduling your high-value items increases the amount of cover above £2K, up to the full worth of the item. If you want to protect your high-value items for most eventualities, you’ll want to increase your cover with some optional extras.  

Add-on covers 

Some home insurance policies allow you to include add-ons for a more tailored level of protection. At Lemonade, the following optional extras are available for all customers:

• Theft and loss cover: Extends the base policies burglary and robbery cover to also cover theft and mysterious loss of belongings at and away from home
• Legal protection: Increases your personal liability protection. For instance, we’ll provide legal protection in case of disputes related to personal injury, your home, your employment, consumer agreements and clinical negligence causing you injury.
• Accidental damage: Protect your belongings from sudden and unexpected unintentional damage, inside and outside your home
• Accidental damage to mobile electronics: Protect your laptops, tablets, mobile phones and smartwatches from unintentional damage (note, you must have the accidental damage add-on in order to purchase this cover)

Homeowners enjoy the same add-on cover options as tenants, with the added benefit of two additional cover choices:

• Home emergency cover: 24/7 cover to help with emergencies like broken boilers or damaged door locks 
• Accidental damage to buildings: Covers unexpected and unintentional damage to the structure of your home that is caused suddenly by you or something else

Remember, these add-ons often incur extra costs, but they can deliver unparalleled peace of mind. 

What doesn’t home insurance cover? 

Most home insurance policies will not cover any damages caused by these common exclusions: 

• General wear and tear due to ageing or lack of upkeep 
• Negligence or poor maintenance, such as allowing a slow leak to persist 
• Damage caused by pests like rats or insects (unless you have the home emergency add-on) 
• Frost damage to pipes or other fixtures 
• Damage caused by deliberate acts from you or your household members 
• Issues arising after prolonged absences (e.g., leaving your home unoccupied for over 30–60 days)

Some policies also have a single-item limit, meaning extraordinarily valuable items (like heirloom jewellery or art) might require separate insurance. Always check your policy documents for exclusions and limits to avoid surprises. 

How does home insurance work?

You pay a monthly or annual premium, and in return, your insurer covers the cost of specific events, known as designated perils, up to the limits in your policy. Your premium is shaped by things like your home’s rebuild value, your claims history, your location, and any add-ons you choose.

When something goes wrong, you make a claim, provide evidence (photos, receipts, a police report for theft), and pay your agreed excess. Your insurer covers the rest. It’s worth reviewing your policy each year to make sure your sum insured still reflects what your home and belongings are actually worth.

What kind of home insurance do I need? 

The type of home insurance you need depends largely on whether you own or rent your home. 

Homeowners 

If you own your home, buildings insurance is highly recommended-and often mandatory if you have a mortgage. Adding contents insurance to the mix by purchasing a home building insurance policy will provide full protection for both your property and possessions. 

Tenants 

If you’re a tenant, you don’t need buildings insurance, as that’s your landlord’s responsibility. However, contents insurance is ideal for protecting your personal belongings. Some providers even offer renters-specific insurance policies tailored for tenants. 

Protect your home, and your wallet 

Home insurance provides not just financial protection, but also invaluable peace of mind. Knowing that you’re covered when life happens can make all the difference. By choosing the right combination of contents insurance, buildings insurance, and add-ons, you create a safety net tailored to your needs. 

If you’re ready to simplify the process, get a home insurance quote today. 

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