What to Do When You Need to Make a Home Insurance Claim

Your kitchen floods, a storm takes off roof tiles, or a break-in leaves a broken window and missing valuables. Whatever triggers it, making a home insurance claim is rarely something people have done before, and the process is more straightforward than most assume if you know what to do in the right order.

Act Quickly and Document Everything

The first thing any insurer will want is evidence, and the best time to gather it is immediately after the incident. Take photographs before anything is moved or cleaned up. Photograph the damage from multiple angles, including any damage to property or belongings. If there has been theft or vandalism, call the police and get a crime reference number before you do anything else. Insurers require this for claims involving criminal activity, and it's significantly harder to obtain after the fact.

If the damage is ongoing, for example a leak or broken window that is letting in weather, you have a responsibility to take reasonable steps to stop it getting worse. Covering a broken window with boarding or turning off the water supply before calling your insurer is expected and usually reimbursable. Letting preventable secondary damage accumulate can give an insurer grounds to reduce a payout.

Keep every receipt for any emergency spending. Temporary hotel accommodation if your home is uninhabitable, costs for emergency tradespeople, or anything purchased to prevent further damage should all be documented with receipts from the moment you incur them.

How to Start Your Home Insurance Claims Process

Contact your insurer as soon as practically possible after the incident. Most insurers have 24-hour claims lines for emergencies. When you call or submit online, have your policy number ready, along with the date and a clear description of what happened.

The insurer will either handle the claim directly or appoint a loss adjuster to assess the damage in person. A loss adjuster works for the insurer, not for you, so their job is to assess the claim fairly according to the terms of the policy. For larger claims, especially those involving structural damage or high-value items, you may want to appoint your own loss assessor who acts on your behalf.

Navigating home insurance claims requires reading your policy carefully, particularly the sections on what is and isn't covered, any excesses that apply, and any conditions you need to meet. A standard buildings policy typically covers damage from fire, flooding, storms, subsidence, and escape of water, but exclusions vary and matter.

Keep a written record of every communication with your insurer, including the date, the name of the person you spoke to, and what was agreed. If anything is disputed later, this record is your most useful resource.

Common Reasons Claims Are Reduced or Rejected

Understanding why claims fail helps avoid the same issues. The most common reasons a claim is partially paid or declined include failure to meet policy conditions, damage caused by gradual wear rather than a sudden event, lack of maintenance, and items not listed on a contents schedule when a schedule was required.

Most home insurance policies exclude damage that happens because something was not properly maintained over time. A pipe that slowly corrodes and eventually leaks is treated differently from a pipe that bursts suddenly. The distinction matters because it affects how the insurer categorises the cause of damage.

Underinsurance is another common problem that only becomes visible at claim time. If you have insured your contents for less than their true replacement value, the insurer may apply what is called the average clause, reducing your payout proportionally. Reviewing your sums insured once a year, particularly after making significant purchases, is worth the fifteen minutes it takes.

Your Rights if a Claim Is Handled Poorly

The Association of British Insurers (abi.org.uk) sets out the standards policyholders can expect when making a claim, including timelines for responses and requirements for fair treatment. If you feel a claim has been handled unfairly, you can escalate a complaint first to your insurer's formal complaints process and then, if unresolved, to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

The Ombudsman resolves thousands of home insurance disputes each year at no cost to the policyholder, and its decisions are binding on insurers. This means you have a formal route to challenge any outcome you believe is unfair without needing to go to court.

Most claims, handled with proper documentation and clear communication, resolve without any dispute at all. The steps that tend to go wrong are those taken in the first few hours after an incident, when the temptation is to clean up and deal with the paperwork later. Getting the documentation right from the start puts you in a much stronger position for everything that follows.