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Emerald Life is the first full-service insurance provider specifically focusing on the needs of under-represented and under-insured groups in the United Kingdom.
We'll Beat Your Existing Renewal By 10% FREE Home Emergency & Legal Cover
In our day-to-day lives, Steve and I tend to forget that we are a same sex couple with
children, but obviously this is still a surprise for some people.
Core
Comprehensive protection against floods, fires and storms
£100,000 accommodation cover up to 12 months while your house is repaired
Optional accidental damage cover including damage by pets
£2,000 coverage for loss of digital assets, including music and films
Memorabilia and collections covered as standard
Automatic increase in contents cover during holidays
Additional coverage for bicycles, up to a value of £3,000
£500 of cover for theft from your garden
Up to £10,000 for tenant liability within your policy
More expensive items can be added to your cover individually – up to a value of £10,000 per item
Core+
Comprehensive protection against floods, fires and storms
£100,000 accommodation cover up to 12 months while your house is repaired
Optional accidental damage cover including damage by pets
£2,000 coverage for loss of digital assets, including music and films
Memorabilia and collections covered as standard
Automatic increase in contents cover during holidays
Additional coverage for bicycles, up to a value of £3,000
£500 of cover for theft from your garden
Up to £15,000 for tenant liability within your policy
More expensive items can be added to your cover individually – up to a value of £10,000 per item
Premier
Comprehensive protection against floods, fires and storms
Accommodation cover up to 24 months while your house is repaired
Optional accidental damage cover including damage by pets
£5,000 coverage for loss of digital assets, including music and films
Memorabilia and collections covered as standard
Automatic increase in contents cover during holidays
Additional coverage for bicycles, up to a value of £3,000
Up to £5,000 of cover for theft from your garden
Up to a value of 20% of the total sum insured for tenant liability within your policy
More expensive items can be added to your cover individually – up to a value of £10,000 per item
There are usually two things that you might want to protect – the structure of your building, and the things that you own inside it. Although separately these are often known as a buildings policy and a contents policy, when taken together they are usually known as home insurance.
A building insurance policy is one that protects you against damage to the fabric of your property – such as the roof or the walls.
So if your property is damaged by flooding or a burst pipe or by third party actions, for example, your insurance will cover the cost of repairs and also pay for you to stay somewhere else, if required, while your home is being returned to its former immaculate condition.
Your Emerald building insurance also provides cover to protect you against those everyday disasters such as losing your keys and requiring a locksmith to change the locks.
If you live in a flat, where there are other flats in the building, or you rent your home, then it is more usual for the buildings insurance to be taken out by the owner of the while building (sometimes, the freeholder), as the owner has the obligation to protect the building itself. However, the costs of that insurance will usually be passed through to the owners of the flats as part of the service charge.
Contents insurance is a policy that covers the belongings and possessions in your home from damage or loss.
Your building cover should be set at an amount that would technically be required to rebuild your home in the event it was destroyed. You must determine what this amount should be, as we are not able to give you a recommendation. You may be able to find a rebuild value from your mortgage provider, or there is a calculator that you can use from the Association of British Insurers (http://abi.bcis.co.uk).
The level of your contents insurance will depend on the value of your possessions and what it would cost to replace them all in total. Please remember that this is not just valuables and portable items, but would also include beds, bed linen, clothing (not just the designer stuff), tables, chairs, sofas, kitchenware and kitchen equipment etc. We would recommend that you list your contents and then estimate a replacement cost, and it is this total that should be the amount of cover that you need. Many people materially underestimate the level of contents required, and if you buy a level of contents cover that is materially less than the actual value of contents, then we may not pay out the full amount of a claim.
Yes you can, if you need just contents cover. If you live in a flat in a larger building, or rent your home from a landlord, you only need contents insurance as building insurance is provided by the company who manages the property.
If you own your home and you also need to take out buildings insurance in order to protect the fabric of the building, then there are advantages in buying buildings and contents together, particularly when you need to make a claim as then there is only one insurer that you will need to deal with.
This depends on the sort of claim you're making. When you call to make your claim, one of our team will be able to tell you what supporting documents you need – but it's a good idea to keep as much paperwork as you can, and even keep a list of things you own or are travelling with (in the case of travel or contents insurance), with costs and paperwork where possible.
Any claims for loss or theft of your belongings need to be supported by proof of ownership, and you'll also need to proof the value of the items. Thefts should be reported to the local police as soon as possible.
Citizens Advice recently published an important report on home insurance pricing. In short, major insurers are taking existing customers for a ride by charging them significantly more than new customers, with renewing customers in their sixth year paying DOUBLE what a new customer pays.
After weeks of being buried in snow, spring presents an altogether different proposition for gardens and gardeners alike.
Everyone tries to look after themselves both for comfort and health at this time of year but do they look after their home in the same way?
Do you have home improvements in mind? New research by the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) suggests that homeowners should plan home renovations six months in advance.
Research by Centrica Hive - the smart home section of the utilities giant - has revealed that four in ten homeowners have had items stolen from their gardens, with gnomes, bikes and plant pots topping the list of stolen items.
Mortgages inspire a range of opinion, rather like insurance. Mortgages form a great aspiration for some as careers and savings are given material form in a place to call your own. To others, a mortgage seems like a decades-long weight of huge sums of money costing interest every year.
UK homeowners are spending vast sums to fix home emergencies with an average of £527.30 per event.
Despite the cliché of the unattainable Millennial dream of homeownership, the number of first-time house buyers in the UK market has hit its highest level in 12 years.
It’s a common dinner party debate – is living in London really worth it? Friends will happily debate for hours the cost of living vs salary expectations vs quality of life and more, all while sipping fine wines in Islington and romanticising about another existence in Hull or Margate.
While home insurance can replace your stolen contents and home emergency cover can see your doors or windows fixed quickly, there is no replacement for good home security to avoid being burgled in the first place.
Home emergency cover is a tempting add-on on many home insurance policies to give you a better level of protection against everyday occurrences. One of the top features is boiler breakdown cover so you are not left without heating in the winter months. DIY disasters are an unavoidable part of life but any you accidentally commit can also be attended by a trained professional to minimise damage both to your home and your mind.
Saving money on home insurance is a great way to cut your annual bills. Nevertheless while this expense can often seem unnecessary the idea of saving money by avoiding home insurance is a false economy. The Association of British Insurers says nearly half of all burglary victims are uninsured while the average contents premium is only around £130 per year.
Emerald has ranked alongside the UK's top home emergency cover providers in the Moneyfacts Annual Star Ratings.
A third of some 3023 US Millennials surveyed said it never occurred to them to get renters insurance and 31% said the process of applying for contents insurance is too complicated.
According to an investigation by UK-based consumer advocacy group Which?, many insurance policy documents require university-level reading skills and would pose a challenge to even some industry experts.
The average UK home holds £35,000 worth of contents and yet 28% of those do not have home insurance. According to figures released by the Association of British Insurers the average cost of home contents insurance is just £141 a year, working out at less than £3 a week. The overall cost is actually falling so combined home and contents insurance may be cheaper than in previous years.
Is your home insurance renewal premium too high? Thousands of homeowners could be paying excessive home insurance premiums despite spending years with the same provider, proving that switching now could be an easy way to save money.
What home insurance should I get? For most consumers with a vast array of needs this is a difficult question. Many quite naturally fall back on the quickest and cheapest options, both of which are easily found through searching for home insurance on comparison sites.
