Changes to Your Home and How You Use It

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Changes to Your Home and How You Use It

Moving, renovation, home working and periods away can change both practical household risks and insurance needs.

A property can become a different insurance risk without suffering any damage at all, simply because the way it is occupied or altered has changed.

Guides in this section

How Long Can You Leave a House Empty Before Home Insurance Is Affected?It depends on the policy. Many insurers reduce or change cover after a set period of unoccupancy, so check the exact number of days before leaving the house empty.Do You Need to Tell Your Home Insurer About Building Work?For major structural work, yes. Extensions, loft conversions and large renovations can change the risk enough that the insurer needs to know before work starts.Do You Need to Tell Your Home Insurer You Work from Home?Sometimes. Ordinary desk work is often acceptable, but business stock, trade tools, customer visits or other commercial activity can change the risk.Is a Garden Office Covered by Home Insurance?It often is as an outbuilding, but the building, business equipment and valuable electronics can have different limits.When Should Home Insurance Start When You Move House?Buildings insurance may need to start before moving day, depending on the purchase and mortgage arrangements. Contents cover also needs to protect your belongings during the move.

Why this category matters

This section covers empty homes, building work, home working, garden offices and moving house as separate situations with their own practical issues.

The recurring insurance theme is disclosure: the insurer needs an accurate picture of how the home is currently used.

Insurance should follow the risk

Once the avoidable problems have been dealt with, compare policies on the parts that genuinely matter for your home. Limits and exclusions can be more important than a small difference in premium.

Choose a guide

The pages above are deliberately specific so that you can read about one risk without having to work through generic home-insurance material.