Understanding your options: High value vs standard home insurance
Introduction
Insurance is a confusing place, and it is hard to unpick and understand the difference between policies. Selecting the right level of cover for your home is crucial in making sure your home and your belongings are properly protected.
At a high level, standard home insurance is right for the vast majority of the UK’s population. The policies are designed and built for the average UK home and household.
If you perhaps do not fit the mould of the average UK household, then the level of cover provided might not be appropriate for you.
This guide is designed to break down some of the differences between High-Value Home Insurance, which is sometimes called Mid Net Worth Home Insurance, and Standard Home Insurance.
Standard home insurance
Standard home insurance offers foundational coverage for a broad spectrum of homes. It typically includes:
- Building coverage: Protects the structure of your home against specifically specified risks and normally extends up to £1m in cover.
- Contents coverage: Covers personal belongings within the home against theft, loss, or damage, and tends to offer up to £100k of cover.
- Valuables coverage: Cover for some valuables is available, with items over £1,500 needing to be individually specified and with total cover of about £30k available.
- Liability protection: Offers protection against legal responsibility for injuries or damages occurring on your property.
While standard policies provide essential protection, they may have limitations on the amount of cover and have limiting inner limits which can be hard to spot in the policy terms and conditions. They also exclude certain high-value items or scenarios, making them less suitable for those with higher-value homes or more expensive possessions.
Mid-net worth home insurance
Mid-net worth home insurance bridges the gap, offering enhanced coverage tailored to the needs of homeowners with assets that exceed the limitations of standard policies but may not require the extensive coverage designed for high-net-worth individuals. Features include:
- Increased coverage limits: Tailored to cover the actual value of your property and possessions more accurately than standard policies, with cover extending up to £3m for Buildings and up to £500k for Contents.
- Comprehensive possessions cover: Provides broader protection for valuable items, including accidental damage and outside the home coverage.
- Higher limits for individual valuables: The threshold to individually specify valuable items is higher, normally £10k.
- Broader terms and conditions: The policies have broader terms and conditions that offer more cover as standard with fewer limiting limits or conditions.
Overall, mid-net worth home insurance offers greater coverage with bigger limits and more benefits and protection in the event of a claim.
How to decide which is right for you
Choosing the right insurance policy depends on your specific needs:
- Assess your home’s value: This is not the market value of your home, but the cost it would take to completely rebuild your home. If this amount is approaching £1m, then mid-net worth home insurance may be a better fit.
- Consider your possessions: For a home with higher-end finishes and interiors and with valuable possessions that require more comprehensive coverage, mid-net worth policies offer broader protection.
- Evaluate your coverage needs: Think about what you need out of your cover; if you have doubts that standard home insurance would cover you adequately, or you worry that there will be items in your home that would not be accepted on a standard home policy then a mid-net worth home insurance policy is likely more appropriate.
Conclusion
For homeowners who find themselves between the coverage provided by standard and high-value insurance policies, mid-net worth home insurance offers a tailored solution that ensures comprehensive protection.
Mid-net worth home insurance is not widely available online; the typical route to purchase it is through a traditional insurance broker.
Rivr offers this level of cover and more, all online, allowing you to purchase and secure mid-net worth home insurance in minutes.
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Frequently asked questions
The policy covers a lot of things and it depends on whether you buy Home Insurance (Contents and Buildings cover combined), Contents Insurance or Buildings Insurance. To know exactly what you are covered for you need to read the policy wording in full. We do provide a summary of your cover on our product information pages for home, contents and buildings insurance. These pages only include a summary of the cover so does not include everything and all the details, such as specific exclusions or inner limits.
Normally home insurance providers will not cover your home if any building works are being carried out. At rivr we still insure your home when building works are being carried out as long as the contract for the works is less than £75,000. If the works are costing more than this we can arrange separate specialist cover for renovations through our specialist insurance partner.
Standard buildings insurance covers typical homes, while high-value buildings insurance is designed for properties with a higher rebuild cost or unique features. High-value insurance provides more extensive coverage for expensive materials, luxury finishes, and special architectural elements that may not be fully covered by a standard policy. It also often includes higher claim limits and additional protection options.
Combined building and contents insurance covers both the structure of your home and your personal belongings inside it. This means that if your home is damaged by events like fire, floods, or storms, and your possessions are lost, damaged, or stolen, you can claim for both under the same policy.
