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Insuring an older home can sometimes be more expensive than newer builds. Our guide explains why and how you can reduce the cost
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You love your older home. But it can take a lot of looking after. So you’ll want to choose a policy that provides the home insurance cover it needs.
Older homes can be more expensive to insure than new builds, but there are ways to keep down the cost without compromising.
In a lot of cases, yes - and for a variety of reasons.
Generally, older properties are viewed by insurers as being higher risk.
When you’re given a quote for home insurance, providers will take into account things like older electrical wiring, outdated plumbing and pricey roofing repairs.
Some older properties may also contain hazardous construction substances, like lead or asbestos, which can be expensive to deal with during repairs or rebuilding. And others might be more prone to damp or subsidence.
Also, some older and period properties are constructed using materials that are difficult to source, expensive and require costly specialist building techniques to repair.
All these things can hike up the price of your home insurance.
An older building that hasn’t been properly looked after is more likely to result in a claim. Years of wear and tear, made worse because of poor maintenance, can cause further damage to your home. Things like slipped tiles on the roof, blocked or sagging guttering and water damage that’s not been dealt with properly.
Electrical safety is paramount when building homes today. Certain types of old electrical wiring are now considered unsafe and can even pose a fire hazard. Old plumbing systems may have eroded or corroded, so might be more prone to leak, fail or burst.
The rebuilding and repair costs for an older period home can cost more because it’s likely you’ll need to use specialist and original materials, which can be expensive. This could include:
You’ll need skilled craftsmen to work on some of these features, too.
If your home’s particularly old, has special architectural, cultural or historical importance and is listed, your local conservation office will have a say in how it needs to be repaired if it gets damaged. Typically, it’ll require specific materials and specialist tradesmen to get back to its original state, all of which is expensive.
Your insurer will also take into account things like:
If you live in an area which has a lot of claims or higher than average rates of burglary, you could be charged higher premiums.
If your home is located somewhere that’s at risk of flooding, or subsidence, your premiums might be higher than average, too.
The price you pay for insurance will partly depend on the cost of rebuilding your home. That’s the amount the insurer would have to pay to rebuild your home from the ground up should it be damaged beyond repair.
Having smoke alarms and burglar alarms fitted may reduce the cost of your premium.
If you’ve made claims in the recent past, you’ll usually face higher premiums.
In many cases, a regular home insurance policy will be enough to cover your older home.
However, if you live in a particularly grand period home that would be very costly to rebuild and will require specialist work. You may need to look for a higher level of cover with a specialist high-value home insurance policy.
Similarly, if your home is a listed building, the cost of rebuilding it using specialist materials and craftspeople could stretch to more than its market value. You may need to take out specialist listed building home insurance which is especially tailored to cover the extra costs involved.
There’s a lot you can do to keep costs down:
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