What is Non-Standard Home Insurance?
Non-standard home insurance is an insurance policy that covers homes built from non-typical methods or for homes in high risk areas. This can include outdated methods of construction or a property located in in a flood risk area.
Insurance for non-standard homes serves as a catch-all term for homes that fall out of the standard home insurance.
How our process works
We’ve worked hard to refine our process and keep it as quick, easy and simple as possible for our customers.
What is classed as a non-standard property?
There is a wide range of properties that full under the term of ‘non-standard’. From an insurance perspective, non-standard homes are broken into one of two categories. These are homes that are of non-standard construction and then homes of non-standard location.
Both categories are generally insurable via specialist brokers.
Homes of non-standard construction
Homes built from non-standard methods are generally what make up the larger part of non-standard homes.
- Barn conversions: A popular choice of home amongst many but as a building once intended for commercial use, it won’t have been built for living.
- Timber frames: Homes are typically built using breeze block walls and not timber frame. A home built with a timber frame is non-typical to usual methods.
- Prefab houses: Similar to timber frames, most houses in the UK are not prefabricated but instead built onsite.
- Thatched roofs: Thatched roof homes are some of the most cosy of homes. They do though pose quite a higher risk.
- Steel frame properties: Homes built with a steel frame are strong but very costly to repair.
- Flat roofs: Homes with a flat roof larger than 30% of total roof area are considered non-standard homes and pose a slightly higher risk to fully pitched roofs.
Homes of non-standard location or type
Homes that full under this category generally do so due to a character or its location.
- Flood risk: These properties include homes in an area at risk of flooding as well as previously flooded homes. Dedicated flood risk home insurance can be bought for these homes.
- Subsidence: Homes that have a history of subsiding will be subject to regular checks. It is likely that you will need to provide you insurer with a structural engineers report every 12 months. Subsided home insurance is available to people in this category.
- Listed buildings: A listed building is usually done so due to its age. Old buildings are built using non-standard construction techniques. Home insurance for listed buildings is available for these properties.
- High-value: Many home owners with a large number of expensive items can be classed as non-standard. Generally though it is just a higher-value home insurance policy that is needed.
- Unoccupied property: Unoccupied homes can full under non-standard. As the home is not being lived in, it falls out of the standard home insurance arena. Unoccupied home insurance is available for these properties.
Who Needs Insurance For Non-standard Homes?
Quite simply, anyone who lives in the a property listed above will require a non-standard home insurance.
It is also quite common for those who have suffered bankruptcy, have a high claims record, criminal convictions, certain high-risk occupations or have CCJ’s to need a non-standard policy.
If you are unsure if you need a non-standard home insurance policy or not, you should ask yourself ‘is my house built differently to the average property’ and ‘are my circumstances different to the average person’. If the answer is ‘yes’, then you should consider speaking with a non-standard property insurance broker.
Those who rent a non-standard property are unlikely to need non-standard insurance as their property owners landlord insurance will cover it. That said, if you live in an area at risk of flooding, you may want to consider an uprated form of contents insurance.
A broker will help you understand your risk and find you quotes that are suited to you.
What insurance can I get for a non-standard home?
Like standard home insurance, you will be able to generally insure everything that you want to insure. It is likely though that it will come at a slightly higher premium.
How Can I Save Money On Non-Standard Home Insurance?
You can save money on your non-standard home insurance in a few common ways.
What Are The Benefits Of Using A Broker To Insure My Non-standard Home?
Insurance brokers specialising in property will have a vast amount of experience in understanding property related risks as well as having access to specialist insurance policies.
Therefore, when you use a home insurance broker, you will be benefitting from someone knowledge on what you need as well as gain access to specialist insurance products. You’ll receive tailored non-standard home insurance quotes that are exactly right for your needs and won’t be paying more than you have to.
