Buying insurance means buying peace of mind. If anything unexpected happens to rock your finances or your family, you at least know that there’s a certain amount of protection in place to help you pick up the pieces again afterwards.
It’s the bill you pay for a service you hope you never have to use. When you do need to turn to it, you need to know you can trust the insurer to pay out quickly and without trying to find a way out. Yet insurers are well within their rights to declare a policy invalid if you have failed to keep up your end of the deal.
You might be surprised at just how many commonplace things you can do that mean you breach that contract and risk invalidating your cover. Here are some ways you can invalidate your cover.
Failing to activate your alarm. Your insurance may reduce in cost if you have a burglar alarm or particularly good locks but that’s for a reason – it makes you less of a risk. It’s really important to understand exactly when your insurer expects you to activate any security systems so that you don’t risk finding your cover is invalidated because you didn’t. Read the insurance documents. They may be dull but being bored is better than being broke.
Underestimating your value. Around 11 million UK households are not confident that they have valued their possessions correctly for home insurance or they have no insurance at all. It is also found that 44 per cent of contents-insurance customers had not reviewed the high-value items they had in their home for the last five years, potentially leaving them dangerously underinsured.

Home Insurance and building works

Find out how making home improvements, building an extension and converting a loft or basement can affect your Home Insurance.
Rather than moving, many people choose to improve their home, often to increase its value, but also to accommodate a growing family or simply because they fancy an upgrade. Improvements might include updating a bathroom, and creating more space with an extension, a loft or a basement conversion. And they might also have an influence on your Home Insurance.
How can building works affect your Home Insurance? Any major home improvements you carry out are likely to have an impact on your Home Insurance, both during the construction work itself and in the longer term. Knocking down walls, reworking plumbing and electrics, and taking up floors all have the potential to cause the kind of damage to your home that could lead to an insurance claim. Similarly, if you have scaffolding outside your home and have builders with spare keys going in and out, the security of your home is at greater risk.
You also need to consider the long-term impact on your Home Insurance before building an extension or making other improvements. Adding extra rooms, fixtures and fittings may increase your insurance premiums, as they could also push up the costs of rebuilding covered by your insurance. And if you add any new furniture or valuables to your extension, you might want to reassess what’s covered by your Contents Insurance.
Notifying your insurer about building work. You should notify your insurer as early as possible if you’re doing any building work on your home – preferably at the planning stage – and keep them updated if anything changes while the work is carried out. If you don’t and something does go wrong during the building process, you may find your policy is invalid.
Make sure to also check that your builder is covered for any damage they may cause to your home during the building work. It’s also worthwhile checking that anyone you hire has references and do indeed know what they’re doing, as poor work or faults that develop later as a result may not be covered by your insurance.