We hope you never need to make a home insurance claim – but if you do, it’s a good idea to understand how excess works.
In this guide, we explain a little more about home insurance excess, how much it is and when you need to pay it.
What is home insurance excess?
A home insurance excess is the amount you pay when you make a claim.
Insurers charge an excess so that people only use their insurance for big issues that they couldn’t afford to cover themselves.
There are two types of excess:
- compulsory
- voluntary
If the cost to sort the problem is less than your excess, you won’t be able to claim.
What's the difference between compulsory and voluntary excess?
Everyone has to pay compulsory excess – but you only need to pay voluntary excess if you choose to add it.
Compulsory excess
Compulsory excess is set by your insurer, and you can’t change it.
How much it is will depend on:
If you’re insured with us, you can find your excess in your Policy Schedule in MyAccount.
Voluntary excess
A voluntary excess is an amount you can choose to pay on top of your compulsory excess. You choose it when you first buy your policy.
Choosing a higher voluntary excess means your monthly insurance payments will usually be lower.
Just remember to make sure you can afford to pay the excess if you need to make a claim.
How does home insurance excess work?
We’ll usually take the excess off the cost of the claim.
For example, let’s say a flood damages your home, and it’s going to cost £1,300 to get everything fixed.
You have a compulsory excess of £250, and you’ve chosen a voluntary excess of £50.
Your total excess is £300, so we’d take that off the cost of the repairs and pay you £1,000.
You then use that money to get the repairs sorted. Remember, you can’t make a claim if the cost of the repairs is less than your excess.
Check out our home insurance claims guide to find out a little more about the claims process from start to finish.
Buildings and contents insurance excess
The excess for buildings and contents claims can be different.
But you might sometimes need to make a claim for damage to both your buildings and your contents. For example, if a fire ruined your floors as well as your sofa.
It’s different from insurer to insurer – but with us, you’d still only need to pay one compulsory excess in that situation. We use whichever excess is higher.
Optional add-on excess
You might have bought an optional add-on for your home insurance.
If you have, you might need to pay a separate excess if you claim on them.
If you're insured with us, you'll need to pay a separate excess for Accidental Damage or Personal Possessions cover claims - but not for Home Emergency cover or Family Legal Protection.
Will paying a higher voluntary excess make my home insurance cheaper?
Paying a higher voluntary excess will usually make your monthly home insurance payments cheaper.
But it’s important to remember you’ll still have to pay that amount if you do need to make a claim.
Make sure you could afford to pay all in one go if something went wrong.
What if I need to claim for a leak or subsidence?
Some types of claims might have a separate compulsory excess amount. For example, subsidence or leak claims.
This is because these types of claims can be very expensive to sort out. That’s why insurers might charge a higher excess.
You can find out more about some of our most common types of claims and how you can prevent them.
Will I need to pay home insurance excess if I'm not at fault?
You always need to pay excess on your claim, whatever you’re claiming for. But there are some situations where you might get your excess back further down the line.
For example, say someone crashed their car into your home. Your insurer might be able to get the repair costs back from that person’s car insurer, as they’re at fault.
That means you might get your excess refunded.
What if I can't afford to pay my home insurance excess?
If paying a higher excess in one go would be difficult, it’s best to avoid choosing a voluntary excess.
Your monthly payments might be slightly higher, but they’ll be spread evenly across the year.
If you’re worried about paying your excess, chat to your insurer.
Remember that it’ll usually be taken off the payment we send you, so there won’t be anything for you to pay upfront.
And if you’re dealing with money worries, we have some support and resources you can use anytime.
