A person wearing red rubber gloves is holding a leaking U-bend pipe.

Home emergency cover

Call the 24/7 claims team and we'll get a certified contractor to your home to prevent further damage. You are covered up to £1,500 per claim, with no limits on the number of claims.

Cover can only be added at New Business and Renewal. Home businesses only. Only insured emergencies are covered.

Here's what customers say about our small business insurance.

If you run your business from home and have your home buildings insurance, home contents insurance or business contents insurance on your Direct Line business policy, you can add home emergency cover.

  • Got an emergency at home? Call the 24/7, 365 days a year claims line.
  • No excess to pay.
  • We'll cover up to £1,500, inc. VAT, per claim to cover labour costs and materials.
  • Unlimited claims.
  • We'll pay for hotel accommodation up to £300, inc. VAT, if your home is uninhabitable. Not available if your home is a B&B, guest-house or hotel.
Stolen laptop? Damaged mobile? We'll replace your essential tech within 24hrs of claim approval, with Business Tech Essentials.
Cover & claim limits apply. Mon - Fri 8am - 6pm, except Bank holidays. Essential tech items are mobiles, laptops, tablets, desktop PCs and phones, TVs and printers used for business purposes.

24-hour, 365 days a year emergency claims line

If something goes wrong, and you need a tradesperson in an emergency, you'll need to act fast to minimise the impact on your business and family.

Thanks to the 24-hour claims line, help is never far away. Once an insured emergency has been registered, we'll send out a certified plumber, electrician, glazier, locksmith or drainage engineer to your home within 4 hours, to help prevent any further damage and make your home secure. We'll cover costs up to £1,500 inc. VAT per claim, including call-out charges, labour costs and materials.

In addition, you have access to gas engineers, pest control services and roofers, to help with your insured emergencies up to the same costs of £1,500 per claims incl. VAT, but these are not subject to the 4 hour response time.

Extreme weather and remote locations may extend the response time.

What emergencies are covered by the policy?

The insured emergencies we cover with Home Emergency for home-based businesses are:

  • Roof damage and any related internal damage.
  • Drains or plumbing system that are damaged, broken or leaking.
  • Main heating system failure for boilers up to 70kW, which is most domestic boilers.
  • Electricity or gas supply failures.
  • Damage to toilet, including mechanical failure.
  • Internal or external key-operated door damage or lock failures.
  • The loss of, or damage to, the only available set of keys.
  • Windows damage that leaves your home insecure.
  • Infestation by vermin like mice or rats.

The full list of the contractors we provide for insured emergencies are:

  • Drainage engineers
  • Electricians
  • Gas engineers
  • Glaziers
  • Locksmiths
  • Pest control services
  • Plumbers
  • Roofers

Frequently asked questions

Home Emergency doesn't apply to commercial properties. Full terms and conditions can be found in the policy document, but the following key circumstances aren't covered:

  • Incidents that happen in your home when it's been unoccupied for 60 days or more.
  • Incidents relating to mains electricity, gas, and water supply.
  • Properties with boilers larger than 70kW.
  • Incidents relating to shared roofs, communal areas or property not owned by you.
  • The costs of normal day-to-day property maintenance.
  • Any costs incurred prior to the claim being accepted.
  • Events that started before your policy did.
  • Damage caused when getting access to do the repairs.

Home emergency cover covers call out charges, labour costs and any essential materials. Any damage to your home buildings, home or business contents will fall under your main business policy.

We're not the emergency services

The most important thing is to make sure you and anyone in your home is safe. If the incident is dangerous, call the fire, ambulance or police services.

If you have a gas leak, call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999.

If you have an emergency relating to a service such as your mains water or electricity supply, contact the supplier.

If the emergency is insured, it's important that you, or an authorised person, call our home emergency cover provider DAS, as soon as possible, on:

They'll ask you to confirm:

  • the name of the policyholder and the address of the insured property, including the postcode.
  • the nature of the problem.

Don't arrange a contractor yourself, because this won't be covered by the policy. And don't start any work that hasn't been agreed with DAS in advance.

Someone aged 18 or over must be at the property when our approved contractor arrives.

Once the claim is accepted, DAS will arrange for a contractor to get to your property, with the aim of resolving the emergency. This could mean any number of actions, including:

  • Carrying out a temporary repair (or a permanent repair if this is no more expensive).
  • Isolating a leaking component.
  • Getting access to the property if the keys are lost.

We'll get to the property as soon as possible. However, it may take longer during bad weather conditions. Or if the weather could put the contractor in danger, it might not be possible to get to your property at all until conditions improve. For instance, high winds may restrict a roofer carrying out repairs, and damp electrics may pose a risk to an electrician.

Where necessary, we'll attempt to provide replacements parts but can't be held responsible if these are delayed or unavailable.

Once the emergency is dealt with, your main business policy will take over to deal with any damage to your home buildings, contents or business contents.

You can't get it on its own. If you run your business from home in the UK, have home buildings insurance, home contents insurance or business contents insurance on your Direct Line business policy, and have no more than 15 bedrooms, you can add home emergency cover to your new business policy, or to your policy when you renew. It can't be added part way through your policy year.

If you buy home emergency cover with your new or renewed business insurance policy, you are no longer eligible for Guarantee to Beat.

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