What does home insurance cover?

This is what home insurance covers

Below you find fictitious loss or damage situations involving home insurance. We describe the situation and whether it is one in which the home insurance policy could be expected to cover the damage. Please note that every loss or damage will be dealt with case by case, and that the indemnifiability of the loss may vary according to the nature of the loss event.

Will the home insurance cover: A mobile phone screen is shattered

Eddie is ironing his shirt in the kitchen, as he accidentally knocks his phone to the floor with his elbow. The phone falls screen down to the floor, and hits the tiled surface with a loud cracking sound. Suspecting the worst, Eddie turns the phone around, and yes, the screen is completely shattered. The phone is dead, and Eddie cannot bring it to life.

Will the home insurance cover: The washing machine won’t start

Eliza is doing her laundry. She loads her dark laundry into the machine, but, having closed the lid, Eliza sees that the machine does not respond, and that the programme display remains dark. Eliza tries all the tricks in the manual, but none of them seems to work. The laundry machine is broken, and Eliza cannot start any washing cycle.

Will the home insurance cover: The dishwasher causes water damage in the home

Daniel is raking the lawn of his semi-detached house. In the kitchen, his dishwasher is busy coping with the dishes used at dinner yesterday evening. While Daniel is doing his gardening, the drain hose of the dishwasher suddenly and unexpectedly breaks, spilling water all over the tiled kitchen floor, and onto the parquet in the living room. The parquet absorbs some fluid before Daniel gets inside his flooded house. Seeing what has happened, Daniel immediately turns the dishwasher off, but the damage is already done. The parquet, soaked in water, has sustained serious moisture damage.

Will my home insurance cover it: A child breaks the TV set

Heidi’s and Josh’s daughter Liam is in the living room playing with his new toy digger. The digger is hard at work digging pretend holes around the room, and the parents don’t notice as the action briefly moves on from the floor up to the height of the TV set. While lifting another load of pretend dirt, Liam accidentally takes a swing at the TV pedestal, causing it to tip over the side of the stand. Out of balance, the TV set crashes to the floor with a loud bang. To the relief of the distressed parents, the startled child is not hurt, but the same can’t be said for the TV: the screen has a massive dent, and the pedestal has come off. 

Will the home insurance cover: A fire damages the home or property

Susan is working remotely from home. A fully stacked dishwasher is swooshing away in the kitchen while Susan works in another room with her earphones on. The aged dishwasher overheats, and a small fire breaks out in the motor. At first, Susan does not hear the fire alarm in the kitchen, but she is quickly alerted by the smell of burning in the room. Susan races to the kitchen and sees smoke coming out from the dishwasher. She is able to turn off the machine and put out the fire, but notices that the fire has managed to also damage the floor and adjacent refrigerator.

Will the home insurance cover: An unknown person destroys outdoor furniture belonging to a detached house

Sonia and her family leave town to spend a relaxing weekend at their summer cottage. Returning home after a great weekend, the family notes that their outdoor barbecue has been tipped over, and the outdoor furniture lies scattered round the lawn. Taking a closer look at the situation, Sonia finds that the barbecue has been totally destroyed, and that the children’s locked bicycles have been stolen. The recently purchased robot lawnmower is also gone. The broken locks of the bikes is all that remains on the lawn. 

Will the home insurance cover: A kicked ball cracks the windscreen of a neighbour’s car

Tom’s preteen son Oliver is kicking a ball with some friends of his. In the heat of the game, Oliver inadvertently kicks the ball too hard and too far, and it lands squarely on the windscreen of a neighbour’s Audi. A crack appears in the windscreen. The neighbour sees the damage, and demands that Tom pay the costs incurred by the damage to the windscreen.

Will my home insurance cover it: A tree falls on the house in a storm

A hard autumn wind turned into a storm batters a large pine tree growing on the yard of Matt’s and Ashley’s detached house. The gusty wind pulls on the already sagging tree for a good while until the roots finally give in. The tree falls over against the roof with a loud thump and rolls off the building’s outer wall into the ground. The impact damages the detached house’s roof structures and breaks the study room window. The laptop computer on the table in the study is also damaged.

Does home insurance cover: A rodent chews on electric wires and causes fire damage

A mouse managed to get inside a holiday home to keep warm in the winter and decided to chew on the house’s wiring. The broken wires caused a fire that damaged the building’s structures, movable property and pipes.

Will home insurance cover it? I am unable to live in my home because it has suffered damage

Teemu’s home has suffered water damage, and his apartment is uninhabitable while it is being repaired. He must temporarily move to another rental apartment and move some of his furniture into storage so that his apartment can be repaired.

Does home insurance cover: a broken pair of glasses 

After a long day, Aino decides to spend the evening relaxing at home with her favourite book. Aino sits on the sofa and hears a crack. She has accidentally sat on her glasses, breaking them.