What does building insurance cover for accidental damage?

Buildings insurance accidental damage cover protects the physical structure of your home, permanent fixtures, and built-in systems against sudden, unexpected, and unintentional physical harm.

What Buildings Accidental Damage Typically Covers

• Fixed glass and windows: Smashed or cracked window panes, glass doors, or double-glazing units (such as a football crashing through a window).
• Sanitary ware: Accidental breakage of baths, toilets, bidets, and wash basins or sinks.
• Kitchen and home fittings: Damage to built-in ceramic hobs, glass oven doors, or integrated hob covers.
• Services and utilities: Accidental damage to underground drains, pipes, cables, or septic tanks serving your property (like cracking a pipe during excavation or unblocking).
• Extended structural mishaps (often with enhanced/optional policies): Putting your foot through an attic or loft ceiling or accidentally drilling into a hidden wall pipe or cable while doing DIY projects.
• External building damage: Impact or destruction caused by sudden single-off events to walls, roofs, or permanent structures (though routine fence, gate, and hedge damage is often excluded).

What Is Usually Excluded

• Wear and tear: Gradual deterioration, corrosion, rotting, or aging materials.
• Poor workmanship or design: Faults resulting from bad construction, improper renovation, or substandard DIY repairs.
• Pet and pest damage: Chewing, scratching, or nesting caused by pets, insects, or vermin.
• Mechanical or electrical breakdown: Appliances or systems failing due to internal mechanical or electrical faults rather than external physical impact.
• Unoccupied properties: Damage that occurs while the home is left empty beyond the insurer's allowed timeframe (commonly 30 to 60 days).
• Movable household items: Items inside the house like TVs, free-standing furniture, rugs, or laptops fall under contents insurance accidental damage rather than buildings insurance.

Accidental damage cover on buildings insurance is worth getting if you are doing DIY renovations, have children or guests over often, or want financial protection against expensive one-off mishaps like drilling through a pipe.

Standard buildings insurance only covers major disasters like fires, floods, and storms. It does not pay for sudden, accidental mishaps to the physical structure and permanent fixtures of your home.

What Buildings Accidental Damage Covers

• Smashing a fixed glass window or door.
• Cracking bathroom fittings like a sink, toilet, or bath.
• Piercing underground pipes, cables, or drains while digging in the garden.
• Pushing a foot through the ceiling or striking a pipe during DIY.

Pros and Cons to Consider

• Pros: Offers a financial safety net and peace of mind for costly structural accidents that standard policies reject.
• Cons: It increases your regular insurance premium, and you still have to pay a policy excess. If the repair cost is lower than your excess, you cannot claim anyway. Making a claim can also raise your future premiums or reduce your no-claims discount.

You can compare options and prices using a comparison tool like MoneySuperMarket.

Accidental damage is any sudden, unexpected, and unintentional physical harm caused to a property, structure, or personal item by an unforeseen single event.

Common Examples

• Home and Contents: Spilling red wine on a sofa, dropping a heavy object that cracks a ceramic sink, putting a foot through the attic ceiling during DIY, or knocking over a television.
• Electronics: Dropping a phone or spilling a drink onto a laptop keyboard.

What Is Usually Excluded

• Normal Wear and Tear: Gradual deterioration, aging, rust, fading, or mechanical and electronic failure.
• Neglect or Intentional Acts: Damage that happens over a long period due to lack of maintenance, or damage done on purpose.
• Pets and Pests: Scratches, chewing, or stains caused by household pets.
• Standard Perils: Major disasters like floods, fires, or storms, which are typically covered under standard base policies rather than specific accidental damage add-ons.

Accidental damage to buildings includes sudden, unexpected, and unintentional physical harm to the structure of your home and its permanent fixtures.

What Is Included in Buildings Accidental Damage

• Structural Elements: Putting your foot through an attic/loft floorboard or ceiling during DIY or maintenance.
• Fixtures and Fittings: Accidental breakage of permanent bathroom or kitchen items, such as cracking a sink, toilet, bidet, or bath with a falling object (like a perfume bottle).
• Glass and Ceramic: Breaking fixed window panes, exterior doors with glass, or fitted ceramic hobs.
• Services and Utilities: Hitting or puncturing underground or hidden cables, drains, or water pipes while hammering a nail or drilling during DIY work.

What Is Usually Excluded

• Wear and Tear: Gradual deterioration, rotting, or damage that happens slowly over time.
• Pets: Chewing, scratching, or fouling damage caused by domestic animals.
• Poor Workmanship: Faults resulting from bad design, poor construction, or defective professional building work.
• Movable Belongings: Items inside the house like TVs, laptops, and couches fall under contents insurance accidental damage rather than buildings cover.

Standard building and homeowners insurance policies usually do not cover damage from natural floods, earthquakes, ground movements, and lack of routine property maintenance.

Common Exclusions

• Floods and surface water: Rising water from heavy rains, overflowing rivers, or storm surges requires a separate National Flood Insurance Program or private policy.
• Earth movement: Earthquakes, landslides, sinkholes, and mudslides are excluded and require special endorsements.
• Wear and tear: Gradual deterioration, aging roofs, peeling paint, and general breakdown over time are the owner's responsibility.
• Pest and insect damage: Termites, rodents, birds, and other infestations are viewed as preventable maintenance issues.
• Mold and rot: Long-term moisture, slow leaks, and humidity-related decay are typically excluded unless tied to a sudden, covered water event.
• Sewer and drain backups: Water that backs up from sewers, drains, or failed sump pumps is usually excluded unless added via an endorsement.
• Intentional acts or neglect: Damage caused on purpose by a resident or resulting from a total failure to upkeep the property is never paid out.
• Building code upgrades: Costs required to bring an undamaged part of an older home up to current local building codes during a repair are generally excluded.