Owning a period house is something many homeowners dream of. There’s something about listed buildings that can be magical and unique compared to a newer build. However, there’s nothing quite like period property insurance for taking away that magic and making owning an older building seem like a chore.
Sometimes finding listed property cover can be a hassle. Searching for home cover can be tedious and then an insurance company may even decide not to offer a policy. Certainly, insuring an older property is not as easy as regular home insurance.
Insurance companies often classify period homes as high risk, requiring specialist knowledge specific to each property. For insurers, everything is about risk. When looking at a one-off listed property, an insurance company will see higher costs for repairs and rebuilds. Both building techniques and materials used to construct old buildings are not common today, meaning specialist understanding is necessary.
That’s where Emerald Life comes in with our easy to access period property cover. We make it simple to get insurance on a house for Grades II and II* – or B and C in Scotland. Our tailored solution considers the specific needs of your property, such as its history, construction, and what makes it a unique building.
Emerald’s building cover for a period home protects both the physical structure, alongside contents cover for belongings. Emerald brings its complete standard home insurance package to listed homes, including some perks that other insurers often charge more for, such as public liability insurance.
Understanding Period Property Insurance
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a property that is deemed to have historical or architectural importance. There are currently three grades to categorize listed structures:
Grade I: Buildings of exceptional special interest
Grade II*: Particularly important buildings of more than special interest
Grade II: Buildings of special interest, warranting every effort to preserve them
Normal home cover does not offer enough protection to insure a listed building. Instead, a specific period property insurance solution is needed. A policy must cover against unique problems listed buildings face, such as uncommon building materials, outdated construction methods, and aesthetic uniformity.
While Grade II home cover is a unique policy, it functions in much the same way as home insurance. This means owners of a listed property can insure the house with buildings insurance and contents insurance.
We’ve taken our standard home insurance policy and used it as the base for a specialised type of buildings cover that protects Grade II listed homes. As a homeowner, Emerald Life’s period property insurance gives you peace of mind. If you don’t have insurance and the worst happens to your home, you could be left on the hook for repairs
Our bespoke cover is specifically created to provide you with financial protection following an insured event. We use expert surveyors who specialize in historical buildings, ensuring repairs are accurate to the unique demands of your property. Furthermore, all our insurance policies a regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and adhere to all legal standards.
Because there are special considerations associated with a listed home, Emerald’s period home cover is tailored for repairing historic structures. Our approved surveyors are experts at working with unique buildings and handle communication with regulatory and advisory groups, including gaining consent for repairs.
When repairing your home, our recommended surveyors can point you towards the best building contractors. This is an important step because a good contractor will understand the nuances of your property, including using traditional building methods, working with uncommon materials, and the specific demands of maintaining a building’s heritage.
For Grade I listed properties, Emerald Life can potentially provide period property insurance after taking your details and connecting with our underwriters. Because we are specialists in unique and non-standard cover, we will always aim to provide you with insurance when possible.
How Much Does Grade 2 Listed Building Insurance Cost?
If you own a listed building, you should expect to pay more for period property insurance than you would a standard home insurance policy. That’s because cover for a period home is a specialised insurance solution and repair costs associated with listed buildings are often high.
There are over 350,000 listed buildings in the UK, so while it remains a niche there needs to be available insurance for these home owners. 91.7% of listed buildings are Grade II, and Emerald Life’s period property insurance covers Grade II structures. We may also be able to insure your Grade I building depending on the specific details.
Period property home insurance is more expensive because there are many unique aspects of a listed building. Materials can be harder to find, while specialist knowledge is often necessary to complete work. It’s worth remembering, if there is any damage to a listed building, the owner is legally obligated to repair the structure to match the original.
This can be costly, even for minor repairs. While the cost of period home insurance is higher than standard cover, it is still a sound investment to avoid being left paying for those expensive repairs from your own finances.
Therefore, in the event of damage and a claim, the insurer is likely to have to pay out more than for a similar claim with a non-listed building. This risk to cost ratio is why insurance on homes of a certain vintage is usually more expensive.
How to Get Period Property Cover?
Emerald Life has an online quote form that allows you to understand the cost of a listed home insurance policy in minutes. It’s important to answer all questions in the quote form truthfully, which allows us to surface the most accurate results.
Important factors you need to answer as accurately as possible include when the property was built, and how much it would cost to rebuild. For owners of a period home, those are both tricky questions.
It’s not always easy to know when a listed house was built, after-all, some properties date back hundreds of years. Emerald Life makes it easier by working in date bands, which means you can say either pre-1800 or post-1800. Of course, if you can be as accurate as possible, that will enhance the chance of getting the best quote possible.
Rebuild costs are also problematic. Even for standard home insurance, this is an area where owners often make mistakes. For listed buildings, you need to work out how much it would cost to rebuild the property if it were completely destroyed. Remember, that does not mean its market value. As you may imagine, listed buildings often cost more than their market value to totally rebuild.
