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What could accidental damage cover on a high-value home insurance policy?
Accidental damage cover can protect against unforeseen events that cause damage to your property, belongings, jewellery, luxury watches, fine art, or other items within or away from your home, subject to selecting the correct cover. This short article looks at what accidental damage cover is, including the protection it offers for high-value home insurance customers.
What is accidental damage?
Accidental damage cover originates from a home insurance policy’s “perils” section. All home insurance policies generally cover damage caused by specific perils or events, such as fire, theft, vandalism, and certain natural disasters. Accidental damage, however, is a type of coverage that extends protection beyond these standard perils to include damage caused by unintentional, fortuitous, or accidental incidents.
This coverage typically includes incidents such as: **
- Accidental breakage of items like glassware, mirrors, or electronics (i.e., your children are playing ball in the house and unintentionally run into the 75-inch TV)
- Accidental spillage causes damage to carpets, furniture, or other fixtures (i.e., friends are over for dinner, and the bottle of red wine ends up on your carpet instead of the glass).
- Accidental damage to structures within your home, such as walls or fixtures if selected on a qualifying buildings insurance product (i.e., you unexpectedly drill into a water pipe when hanging up a piece of art).
- Unintentional damage to valuables such as art, jewellery, or high-end electronics (i.e., you scrape your ring across a brick wall).
**Terms, conditions and cover limitations could apply so we always encourage you to check your policy.
Is accidental damage cover included as standard on a high-value home insurance policy?
Accidental damage cover is an optional add-on to a standard home insurance policy. Policyholders can choose to include this coverage for an additional premium, and, importantly, the coverage typically only covers accidental damage to general contents and valuables within the home.
To add cover for accidental damage for items away from home, you have to add ‘personal possessions’ or ‘all risks’ to your cover, and the cost to do this will further increase the premium. In contrast, a high-value home insurance policy will, typically, automatically include accidental damage cover for items in the home and away from home worldwide, as standard (i.e. ‘personal possessions’ or ‘all risks cover’ is automatically included.) The cost of this cover is built into the product rating as standard.
With accidental damage cover included as standard, high-value home insurance, customers have peace of mind of knowing damaged items can be repaired or replaced without bearing the entire financial burden. Reviewing your policy’s specific terms and conditions to understand what is covered, including any exclusions that may apply, is essential – please consult your policy wording or call your broker for more information.