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The cost of Home Emergency cover will vary based on a number of factors. Your premium will mostly be affected by the amount of cover (e.g., £250 per claim, £1,000 per claim, etc.) and the types of events (e.g., boiler breakdown, a burst pipe, home security, pest infestation, etc.) covered by the plan. We've surveyed dozens of Home Emergency plans in the UK market to determine the average cost of Home Emergency cover. Use this information to help understand if you're being offered a good deal or not.

Add-On Home Emergency Plans

According to our survey, the cost of adding home emergency cover to your buildings cover is around £69 per year. This price has risen nearly 50% over the past few years. These add-on plans typically include the major cover areas, such as boiler, heating, plumbing, electrics, home security and pest control, plus most offer some reimbursement for alternative accommodation and travel (from £250 to £1,000) in case your home is temporarily uninhabitable as a result of the emergency.

Most add-on home emergency plans do NOT include an annual boiler service, so you'll need to source that elsewhere at a cost of roughly £75 - £200, give or take.

Below are home emergency cover prices from a group of popular home insurance providers, with costs ranging from £39.99 (Admiral) up to £167 (John Lewis).

Standalone Home Emergency Plans

The cost of standalone home emergency plans is highly variable, with policies typically ranging from around £60 up to £300+ per year.

Some companies provide discounts for the first year - but beware that you could incur a big increase in premium from the second year on. For example, HomeServe's Heating, Plumbing and Electrics Plus with Service plan costs £204 the first year (including a boiler service, making it a reasonably good deal) but the premiums jumps up to £514 in the second year - that's 2.5X the price of the first year. And British Gas offers a 20% discount in the first year for new HomeCare cover customers.

Here are some sample price so you can see the high variability of standalone home emergency cover (in terms of both prices and coverage):

Note that 24 7 offers a choice of excess from £0 to £95, which impacts the cost.

What to look for

A premium home emergency plan includes protection across the 6 major categories of:

• boiler

• heating

• electrics

• plumbing

• home security

• pest control

Buying a home emergency plan separately from your building cover is usually a more expensive way to get protection against events like a burst pipe or a broken boiler - but it may be your only option if your existing buildings cover doesn't offer home emergency as an add-on feature, or if you want emergency cover in the middle of your policy year but can only buy it as an add on at renewal time.

Our research shows that standalone home emergency plans costing under £200 per year don't usually include an annual boiler service or any financial assistance with boiler replacement, whereas the more expensive plans should give you both.

When purchased independently a boiler service will cost around £100, give or take, but this varies a lot by company. Whether or not it's included in your insurance plan, you should get your boiler serviced each year. This is important not just to help ensure the proper functioning of your boiler, but also because most home emergency plans won't cover a boiler that hasn't been serviced in the past 12 months.

^Boiler replacement is usually subject to terms and conditions, such as "We'll replace your boiler under 7 years old if unrepairable; If your boiler is over 7 years of age and we deem it beyond economical repair then we will give you a cash settlement of £300, that vary from provider to provider."

If you're not interested in home security or pest control, you may be able to find a slightly cheaper insurance plan. Cover including an annual boiler service starts around £175 and goes up to £300 or so for the first year - including the boiler service which is valued around £100.

Final Thoughts

Recent data from the FCA showed that the average home emergency claim was around £262 - £272 for add-on cover and £110 - £118 for standalone policies. Standalone home emergency plans are more likely to be used, with a claims frequency of over 25% common, compared to under 10% for home emergency cover added onto home insurance policies. Perhaps this difference is because people with add-on cover aren't even aware they have it; or perhaps since the standalone policies typically cover a wider range of incidents and even perhaps a boiler service, they are more likely to be used. Regardless, this difference may help explain the pricing differences between the two types of home emergency cover.

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