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Why choose Post Office Home Insurance?

Legal Helplines Service for everyone~

Your home isn’t just a building. It’s a lifestyle, from the little things inside to the little people who grow up there. Our Legal Helplines Service offers advice ranging from neighbourly disputes to bereavement counselling, to support you and yours

Choose a level of cover to suit you

No two homes are the same, so we don’t have a one-size-fits-all home insurance policy. We have two cover levels – Silver and Gold – both of which have a 5 Star Defaqto rating

UK call centres and anytime claims line

You never know when the unexpected might happen. Often at weekends and even on Christmas Day. Our claims lines are open 24/7, 365 days a year. And all our call centres are based in the UK

Cover limits to suit your needs

Our buildings cover goes up to £1m for both our Silver and Gold cover. And you can choose contents cover from £80,000 to £100,000. You can find details in the tables later on this page

Our 5 Star Defaqto rating

Defaqto is a leading, independent and unbiased financial information ratings body. It helps customers make better-informed decisions. And it’s rated our Silver and Gold policies as 5 Star, meaning they’re an excellent product with a comprehensive range of features and benefits

Easily manage your account

Our online self-service centre gives you instant access to all your policy documents in one place

Home Insurance cover levels

Choose building insurance, contents insurance or both with a choice of Silver or Gold cover levels.

Buildings Insurance

Cover features

Silver

defaqto 5 star award

Gold

defaqto 5 star award

Insurance Product Information Document (IPID)

Silver

Gold

Buildings sum insured

The maximum amount you can claim for

Silver

Up to £1,000,000

Gold

Up to £1,000,000

Rent and alternative accommodation

Cost of somewhere to stay if your home can’t be lived in

Silver

Up to £200,000

Gold

Unlimited

Additional accidental damage

Cover for unexpected and unintended damage caused by something sudden and not deliberate

Silver

Not included. Available as an optional add-on to your policy

Gold

Included

Extra cover for your priorities

We all have different priorities about what’s important to us and what we’d like to cover. For an additional fee, we have two products you may like to add as extra cover for you and your home.

Home Emergency*

No one can predict when an emergency will strike. This extra cover offers immediate help if there’s further danger to your property or the people in it

Family Legal Protection*

This provides legal advice and guidance for dealing with legal issues, and representation where appropriate

*Post Office Family Legal Protection (FLP) and Home Emergency (HE) enhanced cover is underwritten by DAS Legal Expenses Insurance Company Limited (DAS)

Choose buildings cover, contents cover or both

Whatever stage you’re at in life, protecting what matters most to you is a must. Perhaps you’ve just bought your first house. Or you’re packing up to move into a student flat. It’s important to protect what’s yours.

Buildings Insurance

  • Covers the physical structure of your building
  • Protects the building and its fixtures that can’t be taken anywhere
  • Covers against, flooding, leaking water, theft and attempted theft, subsidence or malicious damage to the fabric of the building**
  • Covers the cost of the building up to £1m

Contents Insurance

  • Covers the items inside which aren’t a part of the building’s structure
  • Covers your contents against the same perils as buildings, as well as theft of possessions
  • Covers the cumulative value of your contents up to £100,000 (for Gold policies) and £80,000 (Silver policies)
  • Protects the things you’d take with you if you were to move

**Subsidence, flood and escape of water all have a higher compulsory excess that is payable in the event of a claim

Common home insurance questions

  • Home insurance protects the building you own, the things you own within that building, or both. Protection for the physical structure of a building is called buildings insurance, while covering the things you own is called contents insurance. And, of course, you can choose to cover both.

    So if you’ve covered your property and/or contents with home insurance, then something unfortunate should happen such as a flood or theft, you can make a claim on your policy.

  • Home insurance can cover damage done to your building or contents by accident or through unforeseen events like theft. It can be used to repair damage or replace items including the house itself, and cover can be enhanced by adding on extra insurance which includes Family Legal Protection, Home Emergency and Accidental Damage cover. An additional cost may apply.

    Contents insurance protects your belongings – anything in your property which isn’t part of its permanent structure. Buildings insurance protects the physical building, for example plumbing and electrical systems.

    • Defaqto is a leading financial information, ratings and fintech business. Its unbiased product information, provided as Star Ratings, helps customers make better informed decisions. Using Star Ratings, Defaqto rate every product on the market, on a scale of 1 to 5 Stars. A 1 Star product covers the basics, whereas a 5 Star product is one of the most comprehensive on the market.
    • 1 Star: a basic product, with a low level of features and benefits
    • 2 Star: a product typically offering a below average range of features and benefits
    • 3 Star: a standard product providing an average level of features and benefits
    • 4 Star: a product with a good level of features and benefit
    • 5 Star: an excellent product with a comprehensive range of features and benefits
  • No. Your policy does not cover for anything that happens gradually. This includes damage to electrical and domestic appliances caused by them breaking down.

    Home maintenance is important and it is your responsibility to look after your building and contents. Your policy is designed to only cover you for things that you couldn’t have reasonably predicted.

  • We try to make life as simple as possible for you. To help you decide which cover is right for you, we suggest you have a think about the value of your house and contents. This doesn’t have to be hard work – though you might want to make a list of the things you own and add up the total values. It needn’t be to the penny, but it should be as accurate as possible.

    If you own items that could have changed in value over the years, such as artwork, antiques, musical instruments and jewellery, it’s a good idea to get a professional to value them.

  • An excess on any insurance policy is an amount you will need to pay when you make a claim. There are two kinds of excess: voluntary and compulsory. Voluntary excess is an amount you choose to pay while a compulsory excess is one that you have to pay if you want to make a claim. The total excess in the event of a claim will be the combination of the two.

    Your excess may be taken from your insurance claim payout. For instance, if you have an excess of £1,000 and make a claim for £5,000, your insurer may retain £1,000 of the payout and give you £4,000.

  • Accidental Damage is an extra level of home insurance cover and separate from damage included on your main policy. Your policy will already cover you for damage caused by a storm, fire, flood or theft and attempted theft.

    Accidental damage is sudden, unexpected harm done to your building or contents unintentionally. It is damage done by you or someone in your house. This could be accidentally drilling through a pipe when doing DIY, for instance. Or, in the case of contents insurance, it could be knocking a glass of red wine onto a carpet.

    You’ll need to purchase Accidental Damage cover at the same time you buy your policy – it can’t be added on later. Only you can decide if you want or need Accidental Damage cover. Accidental Damage comes as standard with our Gold product.

    Please remember to consider your compulsory and voluntary policy excess before you make any Accidental Damage claim because often the claim damage is less than the excess amount.

  • There's no legal requirement to have home insurance in the UK, however, mortgage lenders may make having buildings insurance a requirement before they are willing to lend you money.

  • It means that your policy will renew automatically when your policy comes up for renewal next year. It’s a convenient, stress-free way of staying insured. We’ll send a reminder 28 days before your renewal date so you can check the details, and make sure you are still happy to go ahead.

  • Please look at your policy summary as the information on this document is specific to you. It includes your personal and property details, the cover you have purchased, the cost of your insurance, your chosen method of payment, any excesses applicable and if you are set up to auto renew, or not.

    You can update your auto renew preference in a number of ways. You can call our contact centre on 03334 439 850 or go onto the Self Service Centre. You can email homeinsurance@postoffice.co.uk. Or write to Post Office Insurance Services, Fountain Court, 119 Grange Road, Middlesbrough TS1 2DT. Please be ready to quote your home insurance policy number which begins with an H followed by digits.

  • If you choose to pay by monthly instalments, you will be charged for the credit, and this is indicated by the (variable) APR%. Premium Credit Limited (PCL) may also charge a £5 facility fee which covers their ongoing regulatory operating costs of affordability and anti-money laundering checks. This means you pay more for a monthly payment plan than you would for an annual lump sum arrangement.

  • PCL are a third-party finance provider, appointed by Post Office Insurance to provide credit to our customers who’d like to pay monthly by direct debit for their home insurance. You can contact PCL on 03447 369 820.

  • Ageas Insurance Limited are appointed by Post Office Insurance as the underwriter of our main Post Office Home Insurance product. Ageas also handle the customer claims journey.

  • DAS Legal Expenses Insurance Company Limited underwrite and provide the Family Legal Protection (FLP) and Home Emergency (HE) insurance cover, offered to Post Office Home Insurance customers. They also provide the Legal Helplines service.

  • If you’re taking in Ukrainian refugees, your existing home insurance cover won’t be impacted, and you don’t need to contact us. Under our policy terms and conditions a Ukrainian refugee living in your property will be defined as being a family member, rather than a guest or lodger. The only exception, and when you might want to call us, is if your new extended “family” members have arrived with any high value personal possessions (like jewellery) that need cover in and out of your home, while they’re staying with you.

    If you need to call us then our team are happy to answer any questions on 0333 4439 850 Monday to Friday 8am-8pm, Saturday 9am-5pm and Sunday 10am-4pm.

  • Read more home insurance FAQs

Need some help?

For Family Legal Protection

Call DAS on:

0344 893 0956*

For Home Emergency claims

Call DAS on:

0800 032 9806

Home insurance help and support

For all other claims, to retrieve a quote, manage your policy online, find answers to common questions or contact us: 

Visit our home insurance support page

*Calls to 03 numbers will cost no more than calling a standard geographic number starting with 01 or 02 from your fixed line or mobile and may be included in your call package dependent on your service provider. Calls may be monitored or recorded for training and compliance purposes.

About our home insurance

Post Office Management Services Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and is registered in England and Wales. Our financial services registered number is 630318. The registered office for Post Office Management Services Limited is 100 Wood Street, London, EC2V 7ER. Our Registered Number is 08459718.