What is High Value Home Insurance?
High Value Home Insurance is a specialist insurance product that is designed to give owners of substantially valuable properties peace of mind. If you live in an expensive home, High Value Home Insurance ensures that you have the protection that a standard policy may not be able to provide.
Much like traditional Home Insurance, there are two elements that make up High Value Home Insurance: Buildings Insurance and Contents Insurance.
High-value buildings insurance
Buildings Insurance will cover the cost of repairs to the structure of your home. This means that if your physical property, like the walls or roof, are damaged or destroyed, your Buildings Insurance will finance repairs to get your home up and running again.
When choosing a policy, you need to make sure you’re insuring your home for what it would cost to rebuild it from scratch. As typical Buildings Insurance policies are only applicable to properties with a total value of up to £500,000, High Value Buildings Insurance will ensure that more expensive homes are protected too.
In most instances, high-value properties cost more to rebuild than the average home. However, more modest dwellings in central London, for example, may have a higher market value but could be cheaper to rebuild.
If you’re unsure of the value of your property and whether you need High Value Building Insurance, you can have a surveyor inspect your property and give you an estimate.
High-value contents insurance
Rather than the building itself, Contents Insurance covers the value of your valuables and belongings. All non-fixtures are included in Contents Insurance, including furniture, appliances, household tech and any other personal belongings.
Just like with Buildings Insurance, you should choose a policy that covers the cost of all your belongings, meaning you’d be protected in a worst-case scenario.
If you have one or two particularly expensive valuables in your home — like antiques, jewellery, or ornate watches — you may need to buy specialist cover under a separate insurance policy. Make sure you check any exclusions in your agreement to ensure all your needs are covered.
Why choose Swinton to insure your high-value home?
- Experienced insurers — We compare quotes from our specially selected panel of insurers to try and find you a quote.
- Policies tailored to you — Tailor your Buildings Insurance policy with optional additional cover to suit your needs.
- Easy-access online hub — We store your insurance documents in our handy online insurance hub that you can access at any time.
- Claims helpline — Our helpful team of insurance specialists can answer any questions you have with our 24/7 claims helpline or via Live Chat.
Levels of cover available
We want to make sure our customers always receive the level of protection and care that is right for them. This is why we provide three levels of High Value Home Insurance; Essentials, Classic and Premier — meaning you can choose a policy that’s right for you.
This table shows benefits for combined Home Insurance cover
Please refer to policy wordings for exact cover
Key benefits | Essentials | Classic | Premier |
|---|---|---|---|
Buildings (Choose a limit to suit your needs) | £500,000 to Unlimited | £500,000 to Unlimited | £500,000 to Unlimited |
Contents (Choose a limit to suit your needs) | £50,000 to £150,000 | £50,000 to £150,000 | £50,000 to £150,000 |
Alternative accommodation cover (Buildings) | Up to £30,000 | Up to £30,000 | Up to £75,000 |
Alternative accommodation cover (Contents) | Up to £10,000 | Up to £10,000 | Up to £20,000 |
Lost or stolen keys | Up to £500 | ||
Freezer contents | Up to £250 | ||
Theft from outbuildings | Up to £2,500 | Up to £5,000 | |
Cover for downloaded audio/visual files | Up to £2,500 | Up to £2,500 | |
Office equipment cover in the home | Up to £5,000 | Up to £10,000 | |
Garden cover | Up to £1,000 | Up to £2,500 | |
£5,000 student cover | |||
Matching sets cover | |||
£100,000 legal protection | Optional | Optional | |
Accidental damage | Optional | Optional | Optional |
Home Emergency | Optional | Optional | Optional |
Personal possessions (cover your valuables and gadgets wherever you are in the world) | Optional | Optional | Optional |
Maximum limits shown. Other features, benefits and limitations exist, please contact us for details. | |||
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How to value the contents of your home
Providing your insurer with an accurate estimate of the value of your contents is vital to ensuring you’re fully covered. You need to make sure your estimate is as close as possible to their true value: too high and you could pay more than you need for your insurance; too low and your insurer may only pay out a fraction of the actual value when you make a claim.
Here are some steps you can take to help give you an accurate valuation of the contents of your home:
1. Go from room to room
It’s far easier than you might think to overlook some of your possessions, some of which may be quite valuable. To make sure you’re fully covered for everything you own, you need to be methodical.
With a pen and a pad of paper, go from room to room and write down everything you see into an in-depth list — don’t forget to look inside cupboards and drawers.
2. Make a thorough list of each room’s contents
Your list needs to be as detailed as you can make it. Ensure to include items such as:
- All freestanding furniture, including sofas, beds, lamps, cabinets, bookshelves, tables etc.
- Any pieces of artwork, including paintings, ornaments, and sculptures
- Electronic devices like laptops, speakers, TVs, and desktop computers
- Cooking equipment like ovens, microwaves ,and toasters (only non-built-in models)
- Other kitchen appliances like blenders, coffee machines, and food processors
- White goods like fridge freezers, washing machines, and tumble dryers
- Kitchenware like crockery, cutlery, and cookware
- Bedroom furniture and linen
- Clothes, shoes, and bags
- Books, DVDs, and games
- Children's toys
- Bikes and sporting equipment
- Jewellery and other similar valuables
- Cosmetics and toiletries
- Garden furniture and tools
- Any items in storage in places such as garages, lofts, and sheds
3. Calculate the value of each item
Once you’ve completed your list, it’s time to provide an estimate of the value of each item. For insurance purposes, this value refers to the amount it would cost to replace each possession with a new, like-for-like item — so there’s no need to worry if you don’t have any receipts for older purchases.
The best way to get an accurate figure is to look up your items online to see how much they would cost if you purchased the same model today, or a comparable item if your current model is no longer available.
Make sure you take note of any high-value items that you may need to check are covered by the single article limit on your policy.
4. Get up-to-date valuations of valuables
Certain rare or collectible items can fluctuate in value significantly over the years. The value of jewels and precious metals like gold can also vary significantly, affecting their worth.
If you need to make a claim, you’ll only be covered for an item's declared value, meaning you could miss out on the true value of an item if you forget to update your policy. You should re-evaluate the value of your items on a regular basis to make sure your policy is always as accurate as possible.
5. Add up the total value of your home's contents
Once everything has been evaluated, it’s time to add the cost of all your items together to find out the total value of your home's contents.
At Swinton, we have created a simple and helpful Contents Calculator to help you get a better understanding of the value of your possessions.
Please note that insurance cover can vary from one insurance provider to another so you should check your own insurance documentation for exact details of the cover already held.
FAQs about High Value Home Insurance
We can cover fine art on a High Value Home Insurance policy. However, we cannot guarantee that we can insure your art for its full value.