House And Contents Insurance For Over 60s? Home insurance is one of the most important financial investments you can make. By purchasing cover, you are ensuring protection for your property should the worst happen. If disaster strikes and your home suffers damage or destruction, your insurance will pick up the financial burden. If you are over 60, properly insuring your home is something you should consider to protect your buildings and contents, particularly if you are retired or close to retiring, as your potential future income to replace any losses or damage may be reduced.
Emerald Life can provide a level of cover and protection to suit your needs. Our home insurance policy is perfect for homeowners who value a high level of cover, affordability, and additional perks.
Home cover is about giving more to customers, allowing them to feel confident about their level of protection. Our building and contents insurance comes with perks including free legal cover and optional additional home emergency cover.
We believe everybody should have easy access to insurance, which is why we aim to provide cover across the most diverse spectrum possible. If you are over 60, check out our home insurance solution and get a quote online in minutes.
Below you can read about Emerald Life’s home insurance solution and how it can help cover you with buildings and contents insurance, while also covering you against legal liability, and of course house and contents insurance for over 60s.
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How We Help With House And Contents Insurance For Over 60s
All our insurance products are designed to be available to all customers. Emerald Life wants people to be represented with quality authorised and regulated insurance products with no compromises. Focusing on inclusivity and diversity for those under-represented by other insurance providers is something we take pride in.
More than just a goal, change in the insurance sector is something Emerald Life is passionate about. Whether you’re LGBQT+, in a non-traditional family, in a minority group, or just seeking excellent insurance cover, we believe strongly in working with the community to help solve problems of under-representation and discrimination.
Of course, Emerald Life also puts its focus into delivering the best insurance solutions. Our home insurance cover offers plenty of perks that on top of standard protection:
Free Home Emergency Cover
When looking at house and contents insurance for over 60s, home emergency cover is going to be increasingly important. It is much more than additional protection on your home insurance. It is an important part of your property insurance investment and can provide relief against expensive events. Home systems sometimes break, and without home emergency cover insurance you will be left picking up the cost of repairs.
Emerald Life can provide home emergency cover on top of its standard buildings and contents insurance policy instead of optional extras like other carriers. For our customers, this removes the stress and cost of having to find separate cover for heating, boilers, drainage, and electrics.
What’s Available in Home Emergency Cover
- £500 towards contractor costs for emergency home repairs
- Plumbing emergency cover and repair
- Drainage
- Security cover and repair, including windows and locks
- Toilet cover and repair
- Lost keys cover
- Pest control
- Domestic power supply cover
- Overnight accommodation
- 24 hours a day, 365 days a year availability
Legal Expenses Insurance
Legal expenses insurance (LEI) is often sold as part of optional extras on standard home insurance policies, but with Emerald Life LEI is built into our standard home insurance product. As the name suggests, legal expenses insurance provides access to legal advice and covers legal costs.
LEI covers legal actions brought by you or by a third-party. Emerald Life legal expenses insurance covers against the following events:
- Personal Injury
- Consumer Disputes
- Taxation
- Home Rights
- Employment
- Criminal Prosecution Defence
- Education
- Probate
- Jury Service Expenses
- Identity Theft
- Debt Advice & Bankruptcy Assistance
- Legal Advice Helpline
- Social Media Defamation
- Home Sale and Purchase
How Does Age Affect Home Insurance?
If you are over 60 years old, home insurance is something worth considering. The good news is cover does not need to be expensive or a drain on your finances. In fact, many older customers find their buildings and contents insurance can be cheaper than the UK average.
Home insurance for over 60s bucks an industry trend where insurance can get more expensive as you get older. This is because older customers typically look after their properties better, are at home more and are wiser about potential risks. Insurance companies like less risk and reflect this in lower premiums.
Furthermore, people over 60 years old are less likely to make a claim, and when they do the costs of covering the claim are typically less. Considering these factors, you have a good chance of getting home cover at a reasonable rate.
Having said that, there are some concerns older customers may want to consider before purchasing home insurance. Specifically, all insurance customers must be aware of unethical business practices that could impact them.
One notable example was a 2018 study by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) that showed millions of insurance customers were paying over the odds for cover. According to the investigation, six million policyholders are paying up to £200 more for their home or car insurance than they should.
Insurance companies were mostly targeting the over 60s and those with low-income, hiking prices for existing clients to reduce costs for new customers. This scheme cost insured policyholders £1.2 billion in total.
The FCA found insurers were not rewarding customers with loyalty deals, and instead were giving them “loyalty penalties”. Insurance companies were accused of targeting their most loyal customers because they knew these clients would be less likely to switch if their rates increased. Just in case they did want to switch providers, insurers were using a “range of practices to raise barriers to switching”.
While the scandal was a rare occurrence, it highlights the importance of due diligence when shopping for home insurance.
Buildings Cover
House And Contents Insurance For Over 60s And Buildings Insurance
Buildings insurance is built into every home insurance policy and is perhaps the biggest reason homeowners buy cover. Basically, this type of insurance protects your property against damage and loss risks. If your home suffers damage or is destroyed, buildings insurance is your safety net and will pay for repairs or for the property to be rebuilt.
Like home insurance as a whole, buildings cover is not mandatory in the UK. However, many mortgage lenders demand customers have building insurance before they can borrow money. Banks and other lenders may recommend insurers to you, but you are under no obligation and can choose your own insurance provider if you want.
Buildings insurance goes beyond just covering your main home, it will also add insurance protection to periphery structures like sheds, garages, and even fences. Furthermore, your property will have cover for replacing systems like electric cables, drains, and pipes.
One of the golden rules of buildings insurance is your policy should cover the full cost of replacing your home, including demolition and site clearance. You can read more about this below, but first let’s look at what a standard buildings insurance policy will cover:
- Explosion, fire, storms, earthquakes, floods
- Theft and vandalism. Includes attempted theft
- Burst or frozen pipes
- Fallen objects like trees, lampposts, and satellite dishes
- Subsidence
- Vehicle or aircraft collisions
- Alternative accommodation
Damage or destruction to your home is one of the biggest financial disasters you can face. Needless to say, covering the cost of repairs or a rebuild on your own is not something worth thinking about. That’s why buildings cover has become valuable to many homeowners. If your over 60, buildings insurance provides peace of mind that you won’t get shocked by a substantial financial outlay should the worst happen to your home.
Home insurance from Emerald Life includes buildings insurance with the policy benefits from the list above. All standard home insurance policies will have exclusions, so you should always read the terms and conditions of your contract to understand the limits of your cover.
Exclusions are risks the insurance company deems to be exceptional and will not pay out for if you make a claim. Typical exclusions include:
- Damage through war
- Radioactive and nuclear contamination
- Deliberate damage caused by you
- Damage existing before the policy was taken
- Biological and chemical contamination
- Pollution
- Micro-organism damage (mold, mildew, etc.)
- Cyber attacks
- Damage from contractors
- Wear and tear
- Faulty workmanship
When purchasing home insurance, it’s important to know how much buildings insurance cover you should get. This is often a challenge for customers because they are often unsure what they need. Firstly, talking to your insurance provider can give some valuable insight into the level of insurance you should have.
Basically, you need to cover your home for the total amount it would cost to do a complete rebuild. This is known as “sum insured” and ensures your property is protected in even the most extreme situations.
Despite this information, homeowners can overestimate the cost of rebuilding a home. Many make the mistake of thinking the cost of a rebuild will be the same as what they paid for the property, or maybe its current value. Did you know rebuilds usually cost less than the market value of a home?
Even with architects’ fees, demolition, alternative accommodation, and site clearance, rebuilding may be more affordable than you originally thought. It’s important not to under insure your home, leaving you unable to pay the costs of a rebuild, but also not over insure and pay over the odds for cover.
A good tool for estimating the cost of rebuilding your home is the Building Cost Information Service online calculator on the Association of British Insurers’ website. You may also want to look at an unlimited home insurance policy, which removes the need to assess property rebuild costs.
Contents Cover
House And Contents Insurance For Over 60s And Buildings Insurance
We accumulate a lot of “stuff” through our lives and many of our belongings are important, whether sentimentally or financially. For over 60s, a lifetime of buying means your home is probably full of electronics, appliances, valuables, and other contents. What would happen if a disaster struck and most or all your belongings were destroyed?
Aside from the emotional pain of losing important valuables, the financial hit could be devastating. This is where contents insurance can help. With a home insurance policy, contents insurance covers against loss, theft, and damage of your possessions. Your belongings and those of family members living in your home are part of the cover.
It is not mandatory to have home contents cover, but it is something worth considering because of how important it is. Without proper insurance, you will have to pay for any damage that happens to your contents or replace them in the event of loss or theft. Some homeowners will take that risk and end up paying thousands of pounds to replace items.
Standard contents insurance policies will have protection against weather events, robberies, and fire. Most of your household items will be under the cover of insurance, but some exceptions are worth knowing about.
For example, items of special value won’t be covered under standard contents insurance. Products like expensive jewelry and art will need to be individually insured under special policies. It is also worth noting items taken out of your home may not have cover if they are lost, stolen, or take damage.
There are two types of contents insurance available, depending on your insurer:
Cost of item at time of claim: Your insurance will only cover the value of a lost contents at the time the claim was made. For example, if you bought a TV for £1,000 and it is now worth £500, the insurer would pay out £500.
New for old insurance: When an item is stolen, lost, or suffers damage, the insurance will pay the cost to fully replace the contents like-for-like. In the example above, the insurance company would replace the £1,000 TV with the same model or the most similar example. New for old is the most sought after contents insurance but can cost more.
Like with building insurance, understanding the level of contents insurance cover you need is important. It is also no easy task because you must calculate how much it would cost to replace all contents in your home. Just think about that for one second… you probably have a lot of stuff!
Many customers completely underestimate how much their belongings are worth and end up under-insuring themselves. Just to give you an idea of how expensive replacing items in your house could be, do a rough calculation of the cost to replace all the items in your living room. Remember, calculate the cost to replace them as new.
You are probably already running into thousands of pounds and you haven’t even got to the kitchen and bedrooms yet.
Property Owner Liability
Property owner liability insurance is something that all homeowners should consider because it protects against claims made directly against you. These are situations where the claimant places you at fault of legal liability for property damage and personal injury to third parties arising from your home.
If you are a landlord, property owner liability insurance is a sound investment, but even for normal homeowners it is something worth considering. There is a legal responsibility upon you to ensure your home is safe and maintained, whether for visitors, members of the public (exterior), or tenants. These are third parties, such as a delivery person, a friend visiting, or someone renting your home.
An example would be someone walking on your drive who trips on a broken paving tile. If this happens and injury occurs, the third party could hold you legally liable. General property owner liability insurance policies will cover legal costs for defence against claims, hospital treatment, ambulance costs, and other legal costs.
Policies come with a limit of indemnity, which refers to the maximum amount your insurer will pay for one claim. At Emerald Life, our property owner liability insurance provides cover of £2 million or £5 million.
How to Find The Best House And Contents Insurance For Over 60s
When thinking about house and contents insurance for over 60s it’s hugely important to do your homework before buying buildings and contents insurance. For over 60s, getting the best deal is not always easy because many insurance companies are looking for younger customers. Sure, home insurance can be more affordable for older people, but getting coverage can be challenging.
Emerald Life makes it easy with our inclusive approach to insurance. We believe all customers have the right to proper and affordable cover. That’s why our home insurance meets our pledge of diversity, whether you’re over 60, LGBQT+, in a non-traditional family, in a minority group, or just someone who wants excellent cover at competitive rates.
While comparison sites can be useful to give you an overview of what policies are available and at what prices, they should not be your only tool when you compare house insurance. Not least because insurers often have hidden costs behind those enticing quotes you see on comparison sites. Instead, you can contact Emerald Life directly to ensure you get the best policy possible and at the best rate possible.
Whether you’re taking out a policy with Emerald Life or another home insurance provider, we advise you to read the terms and conditions of your insurance contract. Understanding your policy and its limits will allow you to choose the best coverage options and not be left with a nasty surprise when you make a claim.
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