New policies only. Cover on an equivalent basis to ours. Qualifying criteria apply. Doesn't apply for short term lets or when Rent Guarantee or Landlord Emergency Cover is added. Terms & Conditions.
Direct Line holiday home insurance is tailored specifically for owners of holiday properties, offering cover that caters to the unique needs and risks associated with owning a second home.
Having a holiday home can be a great investment or provide handy extra income from a second home, but you need to make sure you have the correct insurance, usually known as landlord insurance.
Most holiday homes won't be covered under standard home insurance, because the risks of a holiday home are seen as greater than your main residence that's occupied throughout the year. A holiday home will be rented out to paying guests, or could be left unoccupied for long periods.
Our holiday home insurance lets you build cover that's right for you, offering financial protection against fire, flooding, burglary and injury of a guest or employee.
With our landlord insurance, you can also cover yourself against lost rent for an additional premium, should you be unable to rent out your holiday home because of an insured incident.
The following cover types are included in our holiday home insurance, as standard:
For an additional premium, you can add any of these covers to your holiday home insurance policy:
You can extend your policy to help protect your holiday property against damage caused by acts of terrorism. We'll cover you up to the maximum sum insured on your policy for buildings, contents and/or loss of rental income. Acts of terrorism are defined as damage caused by someone acting on behalf of, or in connection with, any organisation which uses force or violence to overthrow or influence the UK government.
Terrorism cover is not available for properties that are located in the Channel Islands, Isle of Man or Northern Ireland.
Terrorism insurance is an optional cover so an additional premium will apply.
You can include Terrorism cover to your policy by either processing this online or calling us on 0345 301 5066 when you take out your policy with us or at renewal as it cannot be added to your policy mid-term.
If you take out a policy with us, you can also take advantage of the following benefits:
We also provide B&B insurance that's tailored to your needs, and landlord insurance for a second property.
When you get a quote, we'll send you a personalised policy document that shows the cover you've chosen.
These can also be found when you log into Account.
Here you can find examples of our latest landlord insurance documents which show the main cover types we offer, plus exclusions.
To make sure you download the right document, please select the dates that cover the period you bought or renewed your policy and the latest version of the document will be displayed.
No, we only cover holiday homes within the United Kingdom.
We cover holiday homes built of standard construction, so built of brick, stone or concrete and roofed with slate, tiles or concrete. We currently do not cover static or mobile caravans.
Whether to family, friends or paying guests, as the property owner you have a number of legal responsibilities and duties to ensure that the property is safe - so our holiday home policy comes with £2m Public Liability insurance as standard. This limit can be increased subject to an additional premium.
Public liability covers the sums you are legally liable to pay for compensation and claimants costs and expenses following accidental bodily injury to a third party, or accidental damage to third party property arising from your activity as a holiday home business.
Cover is based on you being negligent, and does not cover intentional actions.
No, there are no minimum security conditions, such as having 5 lever mortice locks rather than a 3 lever mortice lock on the policy.
If you have selected the optional cover of Accidental Damage, we do cover damage by pets — but there is a general policy exclusion of damage caused by 'scratching'. Accidental damage caused by the pet as a one-off incident, such as chewing, tearing, or if the pet were unwell and vomited, would be covered. It doesn't cover incidents where the pet has repeatedly caused damage, as this is not a one-off accident.
If you create an inventory of the items in your holiday home, you can allocate a cost to replace them as new to get a total of how much you should insure for. This may take a little time to begin with but will be easy to update and manage going forward. Remember to keep the sum insured up to date when you buy new items or upgrade items in your holiday home. Keeping receipts and photos is also a good discipline and helps support any claims that you submit.
You could use a contents calculator as a helpful tool. Check out the contents calculator used for our Home customers. Please be aware that this is for people's main residences and not holiday homes, so do not include items that are not covered such as valuables. Please be aware the bullet points about limits and cover relate to the Direct Line Home policy and not the holiday home insurance policy.
If you select our Buildings cover, you'll automatically get Equipment Breakdown cover. This pays to repair or replace your boiler, irrespective of its age, if it breaks down, but excludes wear and tear. Read more about our boiler insurance cover.
To make a claim, you need to arrange for a boiler engineer to visit your property and assess the boiler. They need to submit their report to us, so we can assess whether the claim is covered. If it is, we'll reimburse you for the repair/replacement costs, including parts, labour and call out charges, less the £200 excess.
This cover is not a maintenance contract - it doesn't cover servicing or Gas Safety Certificates (CP12).
The rebuild cost is the total cost of the work needed to completely rebuild your property to the condition it was in before it was destroyed beyond repair. This includes costs for materials, labour, professional fees, debris removal and VAT (if applicable). This is not the property's market value.
If you're unsure, you can get the rebuild cost from a qualified surveyor or use the ABI Public Rebuild Calculator.
It's your responsibility to make sure the insured rebuilding cost is enough to cover the cost of rebuilding the property.
The property must be used solely as a holiday home and not used for business use and we don't cover holiday homes where any form of non-motorised or motorised cycle or vehicle is provided (e.g. pedal cycles, scooters, Segway's, quad bikes, motorcycles or cars).
Our virtual assistant is ready to answer your questions.
Start a WhatsApp chat and get the help you need wherever you are. You can make many policy changes directly on WhatsApp.
