OVER 70s HOME INSURANCE

What level of over 70s home insurance cover do I need?

When you’re calculating how much over 70s home insurance cover you need, you should be careful not to underestimate the cost of rebuilding your home or the value of its contents.

Over 70s home insurance consists of two types of cover – buildings and contents. You can buy separate policies for each, or you can buy a combined buildings and contents policy to give you the over 70s home insurance for your needs.

• Buildings insurance – to protect the physical structure of your home, like the roof and walls, and permanent fixtures and fittings, like doors and windows. It covers what it would cost to repair damage to your house or rebuild it.

Don’t know what your rebuilding costs would be? For standard built homes, Saga offers cover for up to £1 million. If you property is over six bedrooms, listed, or built before 1850 we would need to know the specific rebuild cost. You can use an online calculator from the Building Cost Information Service.

• Contents insurance – to protect your personal possessions, like your furniture or TV. Depending on the cover you choose, you can cover your possessions for loss, theft and damage and some items can be covered when you're out and about too.

By making a careful inventory of the items you need to insure, you’ll have a reliable list of items should you need to make a claim and an estimate you can use to get an accurate quote.

At Saga we have a quick and simple online quote process, and you can get an over 70s home insurance quote in just a few minutes.

Saga Select cover

Both Saga Plus and Saga Select over 70s home insurance policies offer the following benefits as standard:

• Trauma cover – If you’ve experienced a violent crime at your home you can move into temporary accommodation, for example while your property’s security is improved. Or if you need to make changes due to permanent disability following an accident in the home, you can make up to £30,000 of home improvements, like installing a wheelchair ramp.
• Unoccupancy – Up to 60 days home unoccupancy is included as standard, so if your home is empty due to a hospital stay, while recovering from an operation and staying with relatives, you’ll still have cover. This will also help if you or a loved one need to sell your house in the future.
• Garden cover – Up to £5,000 with Saga Plus, or up to £1,000 with Saga Select, to cover garden contents, including lawn furniture, children's play equipment, ornaments, flowers and shrubs.

Will renovations affect my over 70s home insurance cover?

This depends on your over 70s home insurance provider. If you’ve chosen to include accidental damage on your home insurance policy, most insurers will cover you for redecorating or DIY accidents. If you’re making structural changes or erecting scaffolding then you may not be covered.

It’s a good idea to contact your provider before you get started with any renovation project so you can let them know what work is planned. They can then say if your home will still be covered or whether they need more information.

With Saga Plus and Saga Select policies renovations are usually covered, as long as you let us know in advance. However, we may not accept all renovations. For example, if the work isn’t being carried out by qualified professionals.