household contents insurance legal protection cover

Household Contents Insurance Legal Protection Cover

Find out what household contents insurance legal protection cover is – plus when it can be used to fund the legal costs of making your personal injury claim.

Access our legal protection insurance Q&A. Accident victims’ real life questions answered.

Table of Contents

If your own your own home or even rent a property – you will often have put in place household contents insurance. This is generally for the protection of your household items in the event of damage or theft.

However, unbeknownst to most individuals there is always (or at least in most cases) a clause on the policy, best known as legal protection cover.

Legal Protection Cover May Be Included At No Extra Expense

Although most household contents insurance policies will have a clause referring to legal protection cover – it will not always mean you have the benefit of the cover.

Sometimes you may have had to pay extra when taking out (or renewing) your policy to have the benefit of the legal protection cover.

However, many times legal protection is included without any extra expense.

Therefore – even if you think it may not apply to you, always check your policy.

You should be resident in the premises

Household contents insurance legal protection cover will typically cover all household members resident in the premises in the event of a personal injury.

However, it will typically exclude personal injury suffered in a road traffic accident when you are a driver or passenger in the vehicle. For this you will need motor legal protection cover on your motor policy.

Not Just The Policy Holder Is Covered

You do not necessarily need to be the policy holder. You only need to be resident in the premises.

For example – you may have your son living at home with household contents policy in your name.
Should your son be involved in an accident (whether an adult son or as a child) – legal protection will typically cover the legal costs for your son to make his personal injury claim

Legal protection will not pay compensation for the injury itself. However, it will cover the legal cost of instructing a solicitor to pursue a claim for compensation from the person or business at fault.

Typically your household contents insurance legal protection cover will be for £50,000 – £100,000 of legal costs.

The terms of your household contents insurance legal protection cover will often require you to use the insurance panel solicitor to make your personal injury claim.

The insurance panel solicitor is a law firm that has a relationship with the specific insurer.

Alternatively, some large insurers have their own in-house legal team whom you may be required to use.

You May Be Able To Choose A Solicitor

More rarely – your legal protection cover may allow you to choose your own solicitor to make your personal injury claim.

Your chosen solicitor will have to agree terms with the insurer before being given authorisation to proceed. These terms may be so onerous that the solicitor may choose not to assist.

You may then be back to having to use the insurance panel solicitor if you wish to benefit from the legal cover.

Accident during term of insurance

Typically, your personal injury must have been suffered during the term of the insurance.

Accident before you had insurance

Therefore, should you be involved in an accident before you had insurance – after which, you took insurance out. Typically, your legal protection policy would not cover the legal costs for your personal injury claim.

Accident after insurance expired

Equally, if you were involved in accident after your insurance had expired – your legal costs of making a claim would typically not be covered.

Claim commenced after insurance expires

However, should you have an accident when you had insurance in place and seek to make a claim after your insurance expires. It is likely the household contents insurance that was in place at the time of your accident will cover your legal costs.

Industrial disease and medical negligence can be covered

Your household contents legal protection cover may also cover your legal costs in making an industrial disease or medical negligence claim.

This might include occasions when negligence occurred in the past (before you had legal protection cover), but you only became aware of injury at a later time (whilst you had legal protection cover).

In other words – knowledge of your cause of action arose at a later time, when your household contents insurance legal protection cover was in place.

Road traffic accidents are excluded

Household contents insurance legal protection cover will generally not cover the legal costs of making a personal injury claim suffered in a road traffic accident. You should however check the wording of your policy carefully to see what is expressly included and excluded.

family legal protection cover
Family Legal Protection Cover

We suggest you take the following steps:

Check your policy for the clause referring to legal protection cover.

The term we are most familiar with and the one we use most often is legal protection cover.

However, insurers may use many different names for the same cover. For example – legal expenses cover, etc.

You may be tempted to call your insurer immediately to check if you have legal protection cover. However – we recommend your first root out your policy and try and find the specific clause.

It will be obvious when you see it.

Thus, when you contact your insurer – you can use their own terminology and reference the specific clause number.

Insurers Love To Avoid Incurring Costs

Remember – insurers love nothing more than avoiding incurring cost. Even when your policy includes the correct cover.

Therefore – by using the wrong name of the cover provided may give them the excuse to say that you are not covered.

Tell your insurer about your accident as soon as possible

Although – you typically have three years from the date of injury or knowledge of injury to make a claim at court, your household contents insurer will often have a much tighter timetable for using the legal cover.

Your insurance policy will only allow you a short time, such as three months, to do this – so act quickly.

Your insurer will send you a claim form

This claim form is generally sent by post or as an attachment to an e-mail. Alternatively, you may be provided with an online link to complete the form.

You should complete and return this form.

The policy may require you to use an insurance panel solicitor or you may be able to choose your own solicitor.

Insurers In-House Legal Team

Some of the bigger insurers may well have an in-house legal team whom they will expect to use in preference to selecting your own solicitor.

Remember – if you are entitled to choose your own solicitor, then it is advisable to speak with that solicitor before returning the form.

Contact from an accident solicitor

The insurer’s chosen panel solicitor (or in-house solicitor) will contact you to discuss your claim.

If you have chosen your own solicitor. Your insurer will write to that solicitor to seek a written opinion about the strength of your compensation claim.

Commencement of the compensation claims process

Generally, before confirming that your legal costs are covered to make a personal injury claim, your insurer will require:

  1. The insurance panel solicitor (or in-house solicitor) provides an advice that your personal injury claim has sufficient merit (good chances of success).
  2. The insurer accepts your chosen solicitor’s written opinion as to the strength of your claim.
  3. Sometimes you will have to pay the first £50 or so – known as your “policy excess”.

We provide free online and telephone assistance in a number of ways – including speaking to you direct, arranging a solicitor callback, answering your online questions and assessing your potential claim.

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