Does home insurance cover your garden?

As with your home, insurance policies split things in your garden into two categories: buildings and contents. So, make sure you're fully covered you'll need both types of insurance.

Buildings insurance will cover you for damage to:

• Garden walls, gates and fences
• Drives and footpaths
• Domestic outbuildings, like your shed, and garages
• Swimming pools and tennis courts
• Septic tanks and central heating oil or gas tanks

Contents insurance will cover things like:

• Lawnmower
• Bicycles
• Gardening tools, including power tools
• Children's outdoor toys
• Garden furniture
• BBQ and patio heaters

This is a general overview but will vary from policy to policy, so you’ll need to check whether your home insurance excludes high value items (because they exceed the limit you can claim for a single item), or if you need to insure certain items separately – for example, a garden sculpture, ride-on mower or top of the range BBQ.

If you have any livestock in your garden, such as outdoor pets or fish in a pond, they’re unlikely to be covered by your home insurance.

Yes. The things you keep in the garden shed, outdoor office or garden room are all covered under your home insurance for fire, theft and flooding. Depending on your policy, you may also have accidental damage cover, too... which may come in handy!

So, if tools or bikes are taken from the shed, or bad weather ruins your home office equipment, you're covered in the same way you would be for the contents of your home.

Remember, home insurance covers your belongings and the building itself, but if you only have contents insurance, you'll need to add buildings insurance to your policy to cover the physical structure of your garden room.

Take some time to look around your garden and make a note of everything in it – things like plants, ornaments, garden tools, children's toys, furniture and garden room gear. It could total more than you think and would cost a lot to replace if a thief or severe weather were to strike. So, check the details of your home insurance policy, as very basic home insurance may not provide any garden insurance.

If you think you need more cover than what you have as standard on your home insurance policy, you may want to get in touch with your insurer to increase your level of cover. You may also consider adding accidental damage cover to those higher ticket items.

Remember, when you value the items in your garden, your lost or damaged items will be replaced with new items, so you’ll need enough insurance to cover the cost of replacing them at current prices, which could be higher than what you bought them for.

Every insurer will set a limit on the total amount of cover they’ll pay out, and how much they’ll pay out for an individual item. These limits will vary between insurers and cover levels, so make sure everything in your garden is fully insured by checking the cover limits in your policy documents.

At Allianz, we offer cover for your garden under our home insurance, so from fences and furniture, to BBQs and bicycles, we’ll protect your garden’s best bits - so you can sit back, relax and enjoy your little piece of peace.