How often does someone claim on buildings insurance?

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It's time to purchase buildings insurance, and I'm not sure what level to set the excess at. How often do people actually claim buildings insurance? I've never done it in the ten years I've owned properties, but that's not to say it doesn't happen all the time and I've just been lucky? It's an Edwardian semi detached house.

Thank you!

Make your excess something which you could afford relatively easily without getting into debt. A lower excess generally won’t make an enormous Amount of different to your premium price unless you’re insuring an unusual or listed property etc. Claims on buildings insurance range from everything to a fire which destroys the entire property (and you hopefully never have to make a claim for) to structural movement, storm damage, or an escape of water / burst pipe - the latter two being moderately common, I’d say around half the people I know have had to claim for it to some degree of another at least once.

I've claimed twice. Set the excess at what you can afford. Buildings claims can be expensive

Once in 30yrs for damage caused by a burst water tank.

I work as a claims handler for home insurance and there's really no answer to your question - some customers can have 2/3 buildings claims a year whilst others have none.
Definitely agree with setting your xs to what you can afford - few years ago on my car insurance i set a high xs of £700 and then had two fault accidents 😂, never again!

Well the thing is that the risk of something happening is low, but the cost when it does can be astronomical. I had to claim within 2 months of buying my first house because we went away for a weekend and came back to the whole ground floor flooded and the kitchen ceiling caving in because the main pipe to the toilet had burst. I honestly though they would think it was a planned insurance job because of the timing but they did pay up and I dread to think how much it would have cost out of pocket. My parents and DP who've owned houses for decades on the other hand have never had to claim. But if something serious happens you really won't want to be without it.

Once in 6 years for a central London flat that got burgled (needed new door and locks etc)

Once in 25 years for our townhouse. A washer went on our loo cistern while we were on holiday. Water slowly leaked down through 2 (original) corniced ceilings a sofa and two large Persian carpets. That wasn't cheap as we needed replica cornice and two rooms redecorated.

If you are including contents, make sure you are including "like for like" cover if that is important. We were lucky to have valuations for the rugs and sofas (they were originally trying to palm us off with a dehumidifier and some vouchers for DFS).

I think we've used the legal advice line a couple of times too.

I've claimed on my insurance 3 times in around 30 years, all were accidental damage caused by dh.

I’m in the middle of a claim as our house flooded. All in the damage is likely to exceed £100k. In the end though they are taking the excess out of the contents claim amount. I think the bigger issue is not taking out a policy with the cheapest but with one that replaces whole sets, new for old, and read the fine print for what is exactly covered for buildings.

Twice in 40 years.
Once when snow brought the guttering down, and once when our washing machine connector leaked slowly over a long period and wrecked the kitchen floor.

Thanks all! I'm not suggesting not taking out buildings insurance btw - it's just working out what level to set the excess at. £250 was the default I think, and I was wondering whether to increase to £500.

I don't intend to get home contents insurance. Is that a mistake? We've never had it and never been burgled.

Definitely get contents insurance. What if there’s a fire, flood etc? I’ve never claimed on my buildings insurance but have claimed twice on my contents.

I had a water pipe above my dining room ceiling burst on the DAY the policy was taken out. Am I half glad I didn’t forget to renew!!

In 40 years of home ownership I've never claimed on buildings insurance - but been burgled once (no dog no burglar alarm which I think isn't a coincidence).

I'd not want to not have the contents insured. Imagine replacing all your furniture, clothes, everything if you had a fire or flood?

I don’t bother with contents insurance now. I paid monthly for nearly 20 years and the one claim I made was refused anyway. I would have been better off saving the premium.

Buildings is obviously essential.

A fire is so unlikely though, isn't it? We'll have an induction hob too. Flooding may be more likely I suppose...

I've never claimed in 30 tears of home ownership.

I always go for the biggest excess on the basis that if I did need to claim, it would be for something major, house fire, flood or burglary and £500 would be neither here nor there and in the meantime I keep premiums low.

I do have contents and buildings insurance, I imagine a situation where everything needs replacing at once because of some disaster

£250 excess - £200 insurance
£500 excess - £175 insurance

My contents insurance costs me about £100 a year to insure up to I think £100,000 worth of belongings. It doesn’t make any sense not to have it at that price. I had to claim on both buildings and contents insurance in my former flat when my upstairs neighbour left the bath running and fell asleep. The total payout was about £35,000 in return for my having paid about £600 in joint premiums over the three years I’d lived there.

I had 2 claims about 25-30 years ago when living in a flat and property above me had a leak and then I claimed after damaging bathroom sink .

In current property which we have owned for approx 18 years we had a claim in first year - was burgled whilst asleep in property - disturbed burglars - insurance assessor came round and we got full payout for the items stolen

In more recent years since having DS we changed our policy to include accidental damage - have claimed once for damaged tv (damaged by child).

I would never not have both buildings and contents - imagine if flooded (or fire) trying to replace everything - we have also updated policy for expensive items away from home etc

This might be a naive question, but what do burglars tend to steal? It's a £1.4m period house in London (not stealth brag, honestly, just setting the scene) but we're frugal people and don't have fancy tech or jewellery. Do they steal TVs? Furniture?

It isn’t even necessarily about professional burglars looking for big time loot. It could be chance amateurs or drug addicts who ransack the place looking for whatever you might have and damage or destroy stuff in the process.

If you can afford a £1.4 million house, why on earth wouldn’t you pay about £100 to insure its contents??

And even if you’re frugal, possessions add up. If a pipe burst and all your clothes, shoes, mattresses, bedding etc were soaked and went mouldy, they’d cost you a fair bit to replace.

I work in insurance and would say you absolutely need contents insurance. If you sit now and start to add up how much it would be to replace your curtains, carpets, bedding, jewellery, sofas, clothes, furniture. If you had a fire, flood, could you afford to replace all your contents if not you need contents insurance.

Set it to what you can afford.
I've never claimed on it but my dad had a very big claim a few years ago on his (years worth of rebuild and repair) and my mum had a small claim last year to repair damage when a car smashed into the front of her house, thing was if it had been a large excess she would have had to live with the damage because she wouldn't have been able to cover it as her income goes on her carers.

Sorry also include your electrical equipment, TV, laptops ipads, lights. Basically if you turn your house upside down everything that falls is a content.