How do Trees Affect Home Insurance?

How do trees affect my home insurance?

It is a common misconception that damage from trees in close proximity to your home can raise your home insurance price because of a risk from fallen branches. We’re happy to say that, at Towergate at least, this is not the case. Our range of home insurance policies will cover you for this as standard, and we won’t raise the price.

So even with a forest in your back garden, the cover from our standard and non-standard insurance products will keep you protected against tree damage of this kind, even during bad weather and storms.

Trees around a property with subsidence

In some cases however trees can put your home at risk, but not from branches, or even from falling over. It’s from the roots underground. Roots can push against foundations or grow underneath them and over time this can weaken and even move the foundations or the house itself. This is one of the causes of subsidence.

Subsidence is the movement of the ground that causes structural damage to the building. Properties with subsidence may need to have serious structural repairs or be underpinned to rectify the damage caused. 

For an insurer, previous subsidence at a property can be a concern and if there have been previous issues, they may want to ask questions about the proximity of trees to your property. In fact, at Towergate,when quoting for properties with previous subsidence this is the only time any questions of trees in the grounds will even be asked!

So while some insurers will raise the premium just for having trees, at Towergate, we only need to know this information if there has been previous subsidence. In these cases we will use our specialist expertise to arrange a fair quote based on the extra risk taking into account things like the last time there was any issue and the maintenance and preventive work already done.

Home and property insurance from Towergate

For more information on the cover Towergate can provide for your property, visit our home and property insurance webpage.

About the author

James Cooper is a respected industry leader with over 10 years' experience in the home and property insurance sector. He works across a broad range of insurance product and policy development and delivery, including product development; customer sales and marketing; and P&L accountability.