Insurance

As your landlord and the freeholder of the building, we are responsible for insuring the building against damage.

You don't need to take out building insurance yourself as this is covered by your service change. We do, however, encourage you to take out home contents insurance.

What is covered by building insurance?

Damage to the structure of the building caused by things like fires, floods or subsidence. This includes:

  • internal ceilings
  • walls
  • permanent fixtures and fittings including baths, toilet cisterns and fitted mirrors, together with (normally) laminate flooring.

If you're a leaseholder or shared owner, you'll be covered by One Housing’s buildings insurance policy. You can download our buildings policy summary of cover here.

How to claim

If you need to make a claim, please call our building insurance provider Protector Insurance within 30 days of the loss occurring or becoming aware. They will explain the process for any subsequent make good repairs suffered as a result of an insured peril.

Freephone: 0161 274 9077

Please quote policy number 2150367

Alternatively, you can log your claim directly on the customer portal at https://protectorinsurance.co.uk/client/

If you have a managing agent, please report your claim to the Managing Agent instead as they will normally have responsibility for buildings insurance cover.

Contents insurance

We do not insure the contents in your home so it’s important you take the steps to protect your personal belongings. Home contents insurance covers your home items from:

  • Theft
  • Fire
  • Burst water pipes or floods
  • Vandalism or damage
  • Some accidents

It even insures you for lost or stolen house keys, your freezer contents (food) and the cost of alternative accommodation if you have to stay somewhere else after your home is damaged.

How can One Housing help me?

The insurance broker Marsh Ltd has teamed up with the insurer RSA to offer a low-priced insurance deal for you.

The scheme is provided by Marsh Ltd and RSA for our tenants, shared owners and leaseholders.

Applying is easy and you can pay weekly, fortnightly, monthly or annually. If you do make a claim, there is no excess to pay up front.

What you need to know about RSA’s tenants contents insurance

  • Tenants contents insurance financially protects the contents in your home, garage and shed.
  • Cover includes improvements you make to your home, such as new laminate flooring or a fitted kitchen.
  • You don’t have to have special door or window locks – as long as your external doors lock, its fine.

Find out more about RSA’s tenants contents insurance in their key information sheet.

Who do I need to contact to set up my home contents insurance?

The scheme is with Royal & Sun Alliance insurance plc*, it is called SIMPLE and SIMPLE+.

You can:

If you choose to go ahead with the Simple or Simple+ home contents insurance, it is up to you to make sure the policy fits your needs.

One Housing is not involved in the day-to-day administration of the scheme other than to let you know about this option available to you.

You can decide to pick your own home contents insurance from another provider if you think it’s better or easier for you.

*The scheme, which is optional to join, is administered for the insurer Royal & Sun Alliance by a company called Ryan Direct Group (which writes out as Royal & Sun Alliance).  Ryan Direct Group issues individual policies to the tenants who apply, collects the premiums, deals with queries, and arranges for settlement of claims. One Housing is not involved in the day-to-day administration of the scheme other than to issue prospectuses to tenants on request.

Submitting a claim

Submitting a claim for home contents insurance can be very stressful. To help the process you can now access an online claims portal provided by the insurer. You can use the portal to submit a claim and track its process.

You can find the claims portal here.

Common questions

I'm a leaseholder and my property has been damaged following a flood/leak/fire. What do I do?

Contact Protector Insurance directly on 0161 274 9077 who will take details of the event and discuss repairs with you. Subsequent damage caused to your property will be covered, but not the cause/source of the damage. Repairs can be arranged via our insurer’s contractors who will be authorised to carry out necessary works. External walls, roofs and communal areas would normally fall to One Housing to repair.

A leak is damaging my property, but I don’t know what's causing it. As the leaseholder, what do I do?

Our property insurers can offer something called ‘trace and access’ which will cover the work involved and cost for contractors (ideally the insurer’s contractors) to locate the source of the leak using thermal imaging CCTV, UV dye, removing flooring and panels and reinstating to their previous condition, together with the use of water/damp location equipment. Please note that the cost of repairing the cause of the leak itself, however, will not be covered (such as fixing a broken pipe).

Will I have to pay a policy excess?

Yes. A £100 policy excess applies to property claims increasing to £1,000 for all subsidence claims. Trace and access does not carry a policy excess.

As a leaseholder or tenant, are my personal items, belongings and contents automatically insured for loss, fire, theft or damage?

No. All leaseholders and tenants are responsible for sourcing their own contents insurance.

Buildings generally relates to: internal ceilings, walls, permanent fixtures and fittings including baths, toilet cisterns and fitted mirrors together with (normally) laminate flooring.

Contents relates to: carpets, sofas, tables, chairs, beds, bed furniture, toiletries, electrical appliances/white goods, jewellery, TVs, laptops, clothing, handbags, shoes, CD/DVDs etc.

Items such as iPads and iPhones can often be insured under a home contents policy and additionally covered for when they are away from the home.

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