Home Insurance
Your largest asset, and usually your only uninsured one
Home Insurance
Home insurance covers the building and its contents against fire, flood, earthquake, storm and allied perils — and, where you add it, against burglary. Since April 2021 every insurer must offer a standard product, Bharat Griha Raksha.
For most Indian households the home is the largest asset they will own, frequently financed over two decades. It is also, in most households, the only large asset carrying no cover at all.
The standard product removed most of the traps that used to sit in home policies: contents are covered automatically at 20% of the building sum insured up to ₹10 lakh, and underinsurance is waived outright.
What is home insurance?
Cover for the place you live and the things in it — the building against fire, flood, earthquake and allied perils, and the contents against damage and, if you add it, theft.
For most Indian households the home is the largest single asset they will ever own, frequently financed by a loan running two decades. It is also, in most households, the only large asset carrying no insurance at all.
In plain terms: the loan survives the building. Insurance is what stops you paying for a home you no longer have.
What a home policy actually does
- Rebuilds or repairs the structure after fire, flood, earthquake or storm
- Replaces contents damaged in the same events
- Covers burglary and theft, and valuables, where you add those sections
- Pays for alternative accommodation while the home is uninhabitable
Bharat Griha Raksha
Since 1 April 2021 every general insurer in India must offer a standard home insurance product on identical terms, written in plain language. It removed most of the traps that used to sit in home policies.
Contents cover, automatically — 20%
Where you take both building and contents cover, home contents are automatically insured for 20% of the building sum insured, up to ₹10 lakh, without your having to itemise anything. A higher contents sum insured can be declared and paid for.
Underinsurance — Waived
Underinsurance does not apply to this policy. If the sum insured worked out from the information you gave turns out to be lower than the actual value at risk, the shortfall does not reduce what you are paid — a materially better position than a conventional fire policy.
Wording across insurers — Identical
Every insurer must offer the standard product on the same terms and the same plain-language wording. What differs is service and price, not what you are covered for.
In force since — 1 Apr 2021
The IRDAI guidelines for standard fire and allied perils products — Bharat Griha Raksha for homes, and the two Udyam Suraksha products for businesses — took effect on 1 April 2021.
Source: IRDAI Guidelines for Standard Products for Fire and Allied Perils. Insurers may also offer wider proprietary home policies alongside the standard product; the features above describe the standard one.
Structure, contents, or both
They are separable, and which you need depends entirely on whether you own the place or rent it.
Home building cover
The structure itself — walls, roof, floors, fittings, fixtures and typically the garage, compound wall and outbuildings. The sum insured is based on the cost of rebuilding at the carpet area and construction rate, not on the market value of the property, because the land is not at risk.
For ownersHome contents cover
Furniture, appliances, electronics, clothing and household goods. A tenant needs this and not the building cover, since the structure is the landlord’s to insure.
Owners and tenantsValuables and jewellery
Jewellery, precious stones, curios and works of art usually sit outside the general contents section and are covered on a declared, and often valued, basis. Keep valuations and photographs.
Declared separatelyBurglary and theft
The standard fire and allied perils cover does not include burglary. Theft cover is added as a separate section, and it is the one most households assume they already have.
An added sectionLandlord cover
Structure cover plus loss of rent while the property is uninhabitable after an insured event, and liability towards the tenant. Distinct from the tenant’s own contents policy.
If you let the propertyLong-term policies
Home cover can be written for several years at a time — convenient where the property is financed, and it removes the risk of a renewal being forgotten.
Multi-year termsThe insured perils
- Fire, lightning and explosion. Including self-ignition and implosion. The core peril the policy is built around.
- Storm, cyclone, flood and inundation. Storm, tempest, typhoon, hurricane, tornado, flood and inundation — the seasonal risks that account for the largest Indian property losses.
- Earthquake. Earthquake, including fire and shock damage arising from it. Included in the standard product rather than sold as an extra.
- Subsidence and landslide. Subsidence of the land on which the property stands, landslide and rockslide.
- Riot, strike and malicious damage. Damage caused by riot, strike or malicious acts.
- Terrorism. Damage caused by an act of terrorism, which the standard product includes.
- Impact damage. Damage caused by a vehicle, animal, falling tree or an aircraft or article dropped from one.
- Bursting of water tanks and pipes. Escape of water from tanks, apparatus or pipes, and damage caused by it.
- Missile testing operations. A listed peril in the standard wording.
- Architect and surveyor fees, debris removal. The professional fees and clearance costs involved in rebuilding, which are frequently forgotten when people estimate a rebuild.
What is not covered
Wear, tear and gradual deterioration
Ageing, rust, damp, fungus and normal maintenance are not insured events.
Willful or deliberate damage
Damage caused deliberately by you or by anyone acting on your behalf.
Property left unoccupied
Extended vacancy beyond the period stated in the policy, without the insurer being told, will usually suspend cover.
War and nuclear risks
Standard across all classes of insurance.
Loss of cash and documents
Cash, bank notes, cheques, securities and title documents fall outside the general contents section.
Pollution and contamination
Except where it results from an insured peril.
Defective design or workmanship
The cost of putting right faulty construction, as opposed to damage caused by an insured event.
Consequential loss
Loss of value, loss of use or business interruption, unless separately insured.
Undeclared valuables
Jewellery, works of art and curios beyond the limits in the wording, if they were not declared.
Extensions worth having
The standard product covers the building and its contents against physical perils. These fill the gaps around it.
Burglary and theft
Loss of contents by burglary or housebreaking. Not part of the fire and allied perils cover, and the omission most households do not notice until they claim.
Jewellery and valuables
Declared cover for jewellery and precious items, usually with valuation requirements and specific storage conditions.
Alternative accommodation
Rent for somewhere to live while the home is being repaired after an insured event. Often the difference between an inconvenience and a crisis.
Loss of rent
For a landlord, the rental income lost while an insured property is uninhabitable.
Portable electronics
Laptops, cameras and phones taken outside the home, which the contents section covers only within the premises.
Public liability
Your legal liability for injury to a visitor or damage to a neighbour’s property arising from your premises.
Domestic staff compensation
Statutory liability towards employed domestic staff for injury arising in the course of their work.
Electrical and mechanical breakdown
Cover for appliances and electrical installations failing, which the perils-based policy excludes.
How to choose a policy
The checks that change the outcome, in the order they matter.
How a claim actually works
Most rejected claims fail on process rather than on cover. These five steps are the process.
Make the property safe and limit further loss
Cut power or water where necessary and take reasonable steps to prevent additional damage. The policy requires it, and it also protects your position.
Report to the authorities where relevant
A police report for burglary, malicious damage or riot. A fire brigade record where there has been a fire. These are prerequisites, not formalities.
Notify the insurer immediately
Within the period stated in the policy. Photograph everything before you clear up, and keep damaged items until the surveyor has seen them.
Survey and assessment
For anything beyond a small claim the insurer appoints a surveyor, who assesses the loss and the cost of reinstatement. Provide invoices, valuations and your inventory.
Settlement
The building is settled on a reinstatement basis in the standard product, and contents according to the basis stated in the policy. Under Bharat Griha Raksha, underinsurance is not applied to reduce the payment.
Myths and facts
Terms you should know
Frequently asked questions
Other products in our suite
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