Home insurance glossary.

Accidental damage: Sudden, unexpected physical damage which has not been caused deliberately (e.g. spilling wine on a carpet).

Bedroom(s): Any room designed, adapted, or converted for sleeping, even if it’s now used for other purposes. This will include rooms advertised as bedrooms in any sales documents.

Boundary: The area of land defined by the title deeds of the address shown on the policy schedule.

Broker: An intermediary who arranges insurance on your behalf.

Buildings: The main building of your home, and any other permanent structure within the boundary of your home including:

Buildings insurance: Insurance cover for the structure of the home (walls, roof, floors, and fixtures).

Claim: A formal request to the insurer for payment following a loss or damage.

Claimant: The policyholder making the claim.

Contents: The following items you, your family or visitors own or are legally responsible for, up to the limits defined in your policy schedule and in the boundary of your home:

Excluding the following: living creatures, motorised vehicles and all their accessories, caravans, trailers, boats, watercraft, hover craft, aircraft (including gliders, hang gliders and microlights), and all their accessories, contents held or used for any profession, business or employment other than home office equipment, contents belonging to business visitors, any part of the structure of your home, your fitted kitchen unless you don’t own or aren’t responsible for insuring the buildings.

Contents insurance: Insurance cover for personal possessions inside the home.

Contents total replacement value: The cost to replace all the contents shown in your policy schedule with new replacements.

Combined buildings and contents insurance: A single policy covering both buildings and contents.

Compulsory excess: An excess set by the insurer which is non-negotiable.

Computer viruses: Any type of malicious software that can perform an attack on a computer or electronic system including:

Cooling-off period: Time (usually 14 days) in which you can cancel a new policy without penalty.

Credit cards: Credit cards, cheque cards, charge cards, debit cards, cash cards and store cards, but not cards held for business purposes.

Cyber attack: Any unauthorised, malicious or criminal act or series of related unauthorised, malicious or criminal acts, regardless of time and place, or the threat or hoax of these actions, involving accessing, processing, use, or operation of any computer or electronic system resulting in physical damage or loss of property or data.

Domestic: Describes the private activities of you or your family.

For example, domestic use of a car describes journeys that are not for work or business.

Domestic motorised vehicles: The following motorised vehicles used In or around the home:

Duty of care: The policy holder's obligation to maintain the property and look after its contents to prevent unnecessary loss.

Duty of disclosure: The policy holder’s obligation to tell the insurer all material facts.

E-bikes: Electrically assisted pedal cycles (EAPC) that do not have to be registered, licensed, taxed or insured and have a maximum power output of 250 watts that should not be able to propel the bike when it's travelling more than 15.5mph.

Endorsement: A clause that alters the standard of cover provided by the policy. If any endorsements apply to your policy, they will be shown on your policy schedule.

Escape of water: Damage caused by a leak from internal plumbing or appliances.

Excess(es): The part of a claim you must pay. Sometimes more than one excess can apply, in which they’re added together.

Exclusion: Something specifically not covered by the insurance policy.

Family: Any person who permanently lives with you (not including lodgers or any other paying guests).

FCA (Financial Conduct Authority): The UK regulator overseeing insurance companies and brokers.

Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS): An independent body that resolves disputes between insurers and customers.

Fixtures and fittings: All items that are fitted to and form part of the structure of your home. For example:

Flood: A large volume of water entering the home from outside at, or below ground level.

General exclusion: An exclusion that applies across the whole policy.

Heave: The upward or sideways movement of the site on which your buildings are located caused by swelling of the ground beneath.

Home: The private residence (including the main building and any garages or outbuildings) at the address stated in your schedule, used by you for domestic and home working purposes only.

Home emergency cover: Insurance cover for urgent repairs like a boiler breakdown or a burst pipe.

Home office equipment: Office equipment and furniture within your home, that is used for you or your family's home working.

Home working: Any desk-based or childminding work done by you or your family at your home, with no employees.

Incident: An event that results in a valid claim under an insurance policy.

Indemnity: Restoring you to the same financial position you were in before the loss, factoring in wear and tear.

Insurer/underwriter: The company providing and backing the insurance cover.

Intermediary: Any third party involved in selling or arranging insurance.

Landslip: Sudden movement of soil or rocks on a slope, or gradual creep of a slope over a period of time.

Legal expenses cover: Covers legal costs arising from disputes with a third-party that relate to an incident covered by insurance.

Listed building: A property of historical or architectural significance, requiring specialist cover.

Loss adjuster: An independent assessor appointed by the insurer to investigate large claims.

Loss assessor: An assessor who works on behalf of the policy holder (not the insurer) to help maximise a claim.

Main building: The house, bungalow, flat or maisonette at the address where you or your family live.

Main residence: The home at your UK address, lived in by you and any other family members, where you sleep, live at for the majority of your time, and carry out day-to-day activities.

Market value: The amount of money a property would sell for.

Material fact: Information that could influence an insurer's decision to offer cover or set the premium.

Maximum claim limit: The most an insurer will pay for any one claim under a section (or its extension) of the policy schedule.

Money: Where a home insurance policy covers money as home contents, this includes:

Current legal tender (bank notes and coins currently accepted as payment), cheques, money orders, postal orders, unused current postage stamps (that aren’t part of a collection). National Savings stamps, National Savings certificates, share certificates, premium bonds, luncheon vouchers, travellers' cheques, travel tickets, season tickets, phone cards, gift tokens, and other tokens with a cash value.

But it doesn’t include: crypto-currencies, tickets for sporting, musical and cultural events and festivals, and any items used for business purposes.

New for old: The replacement of damaged items with brand new equivalents.

Period of insurance: The length of time the contract of insurance covers - this is shown in the policy schedule.

Personal possessions: Portable items that you or your family wear or normally take around with you, including portable medical equipment and wheelchairs. Personal possessions are considered part of the contents of your home. A personal possessions cover extension means the value of your personal possessions will be covered on top of the total replacement value of your contents.

Policy: The contract for insurance cover between the customer and the insurer.

Policy schedule: The document that summarises all the specific details of your insurance cover. It gives details of the period of insurance, the sections of the policy that apply, the premium you have to pay, the home which is insured, and details of any excesses or endorsements.

Pre-existing condition: Damage or defects that existed before the policy started.

Premium: The amount you pay for your insurance cover (monthly or annually).

Rebuild cost/Reinstatement value: The cost to completely rebuild the property from scratch (not its market value).

Renewal: When your policy reaches its end date and is continued for another term.

Settlement: Downward movement as a result of the ground beneath a property being compressed by the weight of a building within 10 years of construction.

Specific exclusion: An exclusion that applies to a particular section or item in the policy schedule.

Specified items: Portable items that you or your family wear or normally take around with you, which are each individually worth over £2,000, that have been individually specified to an insurer and are shown on your policy schedule.

Statement of fact: A document that shows the information that was given to the insurer (by the customer, or on their behalf). This forms part of the contract of insurance.

Storm: A single violent weather event with wind speeds exceeding 55mph, and/or snowfall exceeding 30cm in depth within a 48-hour period, and/or torrential rainfall at the rate of at least 25mm per hour.

For example, valuable jewellery or watches.

Structural damage: Damage affecting the integrity of the building's structure.

For example, the collapse of part of a wall, or a hole in the roof of a building.

Subsidence: The ground beneath the buildings moving downwards, other than by settlement, or the sea or a river wearing away the land.

Sum insured: The maximum amount the insurer will pay out.

Terrorism: Any person or people, whether acting alone or in connection with any organisation or government, using violence, biological, chemical or nuclear force or contamination, whether or not committed for political, religious, ideological or similar purposes. This includes acts intended to influence any government or to put members of the public in fear.

Trace and access: A feature of a home insurance policy that covers the costs of locating a hidden water leak and accessing it by removing then replacing flooring, or part of a wall or ceiling.

Unoccupied: A home that isn’t lived in by you or your family for more than 60 days in a row. Visits to check on your home and/or occasional overnight stays do not constitute it being occupied.

Unfurnished: A home that doesn’t contain the items of furniture normally required for day-to-day living in a property – such as tables, chairs, sofas, and beds.

Valuables: Jewellery, watches, items of gold, silver and any other precious metal, gems, crystals or stones, pictures, other works of art, furs, stamp, coin or medal collections, only.

Vermin: Living creatures that could cause damage to buildings and their contents (including rats, mice, squirrels, badgers, pigeons, foxes, bees, wasps and hornets).

Voluntary excess: An additional amount you choose to pay to reduce your premium.

Wear and tear: Gradual deterioration over time; typically excluded from cover.

If you have any questions about your cover, or need to make a claim, we’re here to help.

Tesco Home Insurance is arranged and administered by Tesco Insurance and is underwritten by Tesco Underwriting Ltd.

You'll find complete details of the cover, monetary limits, exclusions, excesses and terms in our policy documents.