That feeling when you realise your car won’t move right in the middle of a line of traffic definitely ranks as one of life’s less pleasant experiences. Before you have a chance to flick your hazards on, horns start blaring around you and your mind races with thoughts of how this is going to mess up your day.

Breakdown Assistance Explained

Unlike road traffic accidents, mechanical faults with your car are not usually covered automatically by your motor insurance policy. That means that unless you take action to protect yourself in the event of a breakdown, you are on your own when it comes to arranging (and paying for) help.

Breakdown assistance comes in two forms. You can join one of the ‘motor clubs’ - the AA, RAC or Green Flag being the biggest - which offer roadside assistance and recovery to members. Alternatively, you can look for insurance policies which offer breakdown cover as an extra.

Many people find the service provided by the big clubs to be convenient, reliable and high quality. However, there are advantages to taking out breakdown cover as part of your main insurance which suits a lot of people more. For one, it means you have everything all in one place, and you call the same people to get help whether your car has packed in or you’ve been involved in an RTA. You could even get cost savings from having both services bundled into one package, rather than paying twice.

Different insurance providers offer breakdown assistance in different ways and attach different conditions. Most will offer it as a paid-for optional extra, but it is possible to find higher-value policies which include it as part of the core package. It is important to look at the details of the cover and select an option that will make it worthwhile for you. For example, there is little point in having a breakdown policy that kicks in when you are 30 miles from home if you do most of your driving and commuting in the same town or city.

Another thing to consider is whether to take out personal breakdown cover or vehicle breakdown protection. The former means you can call for help if any car you are in breaks down, whether you are a driver or a passenger - great if you often get lifts in a car pool, for example, or have more than one vehicle in your household. Vehicle protection, however, means help is available whoever is driving that car - great for concerned parents of newly qualified drivers sharing the family car, for instance.

*The information in this blog is designed to provide helpful information on the subjects discussed. Please seek a professional for expert advice as we can not be held responsible for any damages or negative consequences upon following this information.

Home Emergency Cover - What Is It? We’re Here to Breakdown the Jargon For You

Home emergency cover is great. When something goes wrong in your home, it’s a weight off your mind to know you have financial cover for any urgent repair work that needs doing.

But what exactly counts as an ‘emergency’ when it comes to this type of insurance? And when you already have policies to cover your home contents and buildings, why do you need it?

Let’s delve into some of the jargon and see if we can make sense of it all.

Defining an emergency

Let’s say you are unlucky enough to suffer a burst water pipe, which results in a large quantity of water flooding your home. It’s the middle of the night when you discover the problem. Your first priority is to shut off the leak, so you call an out-of-hours plumbing service to get someone out asap.

The water is stopped, the burst pipe fixed and you turn your attention to damage caused by the flood. It turns out that the spray of the water from the pipe has severely damaged the plasterwork on a wall, while the build-up of water has ruined a wooden floor. You are able to make a claim for these on your buildings insurance. Unfortunately, one of your children’s tablets also got caught in the crossfire of the spray. You claim for this against your contents insurance.

But what about fixing the initial problem, the burst pipe itself? You’re surprised to find out that neither your buildings or contents insurance policies cover you for this. And because it was an out-of-hours call-out, the plumbers’ fees don’t come cheap.

This is a classic example of a home emergency, and exactly what home emergency insurance policies are designed for - to cover situations that slip through the gap between contents and buildings insurance. A useful working definition is that home emergency insurance covers you for the cost of fixing the cause of a problem, not the damage that results from it - which is what buildings and contents insurance are for.

However, not all issues count as an emergency. You wouldn’t, for example, get very far if you called out a plumber to fix a leaking tap and then tried to claim against a home emergency policy. So what counts as an emergency?

There are slight variations from provider to provider, but in general terms, an emergency for the sake of making a claim is anything which threatens to damage your home, compromises the security of your home or endangers the health and safety of you and your family. So in the above example, the cost of calling out a plumber to fix a burst pipe out of hours would be covered by home emergency insurance because it prevents further flood damage being done.

Other examples of what home emergency insurance would cover you for include any issues with your gas supply or boiler, and likewise your electricity supply, on safety grounds. Similarly, if you find you have no running water and it is not down to an issue with the mains supply (your water company would tell you this), you could also claim for work to detect and repair the problem on health grounds. Likewise calling out a pest control specialist to deal with an insect or rodent infestation.

On the security side, a classic example is losing the keys to your home and either not being able to get in or lock your doors. While this might sound very different to fixing a burst pipe, many home emergency policies would pay out for calling a locksmith.

Hopefully, this has helped to clear up what can be a slightly bewildering area of home insurance. If you would like to find out more or are ready to get a home emergency insurance quote, click here.

*The information in this blog is designed to provide helpful information on the subjects discussed. Please seek a professional for expert advice as we can not be held responsible for any damages or negative consequences upon following this information.