From DIY disasters like drilling through a pipe to everyday accidents like drink spills, life is full of "oops" moments. While standard policies cover major events, such as fires or floods, accidental damage insurance provides an essential safety net for sudden, unintentional mishaps that happen inside your home.
Explore our guide to understand what is typically included, what remains excluded and how this popular add-on can safeguard your investment and lifestyle.
Accidental damage insurance provides coverage for sudden, unexpected and unintentional damage to your home (buildings) or your belongings (contents), such as spilling red wine on a carpet, breaking a television or cracking a sink.
It is often an optional add-on to standard home insurance for an extra fee, though it may be included in comprehensive policies.
To simplify its meaning, here are some of the key aspects of accidental damage cover:
Accidental damage insurance enhances your home insurance by covering sudden accidents, providing financial protection and peace of mind.
Accidental damage insurance covers a range of mishaps. Some types of accidental damage may fall under buildings insurance, while others come under contents insurance.
At sagic, you can add accidental damage cover to your home insurance as an add-on. This covers any accidental damage to your buildings and/or contents.
Let’s take a closer look at what’s covered and what’s not.
You can find out more information about what our accidental damage extension covers in our Home Insurance Policy Document and Home Insurance Product Information Document.
Always review the policy wording carefully.
Are you an existing customer? Visit our portal to review the cover provided under your existing policy. Sign in here.
Accidental damage cover means you’re protected financially when a single, unexpected one-off event occurs in your home.
The cost of accidental damage insurance depends on how much cover you want and the value of your home and/or belongings.
In 2024/2025, according to our data, the most common accidental damage claims we received involved:
| Peril | Total Claims |
| Laptop/iPad/Phone | 23% |
| TV | 19% |
| Carpet | 19% |
| Window | 10% |
| Bathroom | 8% |
| Hearing Aid | 8% |
| Furniture | 8% |
| Glasses | 5% |
Whether it’s worth you having cover is your call, but it can be particularly valuable if you have young children. For example, if your child accidentally smashes your television while playing with a ball, you may only have your excess to pay to replace it.
Similarly, if you’re a DIY enthusiast, live in an older property, or a tenant wanting extra protection, you should consider it.
With sagic, accidental damage cover is optional and added to your home insurance, so you can weigh up the likelihood of whether you’ll actually need it.
Either way, adding it to your home insurance covers unexpected mishaps that standard policies may exclude and gives you extra reassurance.
Accurately documenting your DIY project is essential in ensuring any future accidental damage claim isn't rejected for poor workmanship. This includes creating a before, during and after record. Make sure you do the following.
Whether it’s worth making a claim on your home insurance for accidental damage depends on the cost of the damage and how much excess you’ll have to pay.
If your excess is £250, for example, you’ll have to pay the first £250 towards any replacement costs. So, if the cost of the damaged item is only £350, you need to ask yourself whether it’s worth claiming for.
Another consideration is that an accidental damage claim could raise your home insurance premium when it’s time to renew and impact any no claims discount you’ve built up.
However, it’s important to remember that the reverse is also true. If you don’t make a claim, your no claim discount will likely increase.
In 2025, according to the Association of British Insurers, insurers paid out almost £3.4 billion across more than 560,000 home insurance claims. The average claim rose by almost £800 to £6,000.
Get a quote with sagic and you can find out how much accidental damage cover adds to your home insurance in minutes.
Our tailored home insurance protects everything of value to you, including additional extras to bolster your cover, such as accidental damage to your buildings and/or contents.
