Most UK home policies lack automatic accidental damage cover

A consumer group analysis has found that most home insurance policies in the UK do not include accidental damage cover as a standard feature, leaving many households potentially exposed to everyday mishaps. Which? reviewed 78 home insurance policies from 35 providers and found that only 28 percent of buildings policies and 27 percent of contents policies included accidental damage cover automatically. Around 70 percent of policies offered it as an optional extra or basic cover that could be upgraded, while a minority did not offer it at all.

The research coincides with surveys showing widespread public misunderstanding about what home insurance covers. A Yonder survey conducted for Which? in October 2024 of 4,000 people found that 31 percent of consumers who had bought insurance believed their policy would cover them for anything that was not their fault. Twenty nine percent thought possession cover protected them against any event involving those items, including accidental damage. In a separate survey carried out by Deltapoll in June and July 2025 of 2,804 people who had attempted to make a claim in the previous two years, accidental damage accounted for about 19 percent of...