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The UK home insurance market can hardly be called dynamic. Indeed the substance of many home policies has changed little in the past ten years.

Apart from the addition of a few headline-grabbing covers, and gradual movement upwards, insurers have found little to differentiate their products from competitors in recent times.

One key area where insurers can attempt to show their leadership however is in their claims handling services. Defaqto has analysed a selection of claims related features from a wide selection of home insurance providers to see how much difference there really is.

Among household providers, 25% now offer home emergency service either as standard or as a paid-for option. Providers seem to see this service as a way of improving their image in claims service. The add-on would also generate additonal premium in the competitive home market.

The ubiquitous £50 excess appears to be changing. For years insurers have offered policies with a standard £50 excess. Over the past year or so insurers have begun to increase their buildings and contents excesses to £60-£100, with almost half of all the policies from the major providers now having excesses greater than £50.

Some providers - notably the direct writers - have a standard excess that appears high. This helps to keep the initial quote lower to attract customers, although proposers are able to choose a lower or zero excess if they wish.

It would appear that for most customers a move towards standard excesses of £75 or £100 is certain over the next year or two.

There is mixed opinion as to the value of no claim discounts for home insurance. Unlike motor insurance, policyholders are often not easy to hold responsible for home insurance claims.

It can be a bit of a shock therefore, not to mention a source of grievance, if policyholders find their premium significantly increased at renewal because they had a minor claim for, say, weather damage.

The customer can hardly be said to be at fault, yet there is no hope of restitution of discounts via third parties as there is with motor policies.

A small number of insurers appear to have recognised this problem and now allow customers to protect any discounted entitlement (for a small fee, of course).

Policy discounts

Some commentators argue that customers should look for policies without a discount. That way, in the event of a no-fault claim, there will be no surprise premium increase at renewal.

These arguments do not appear to have dissuaded insurers however - over 60% of policies listed in the following tables have some form of no claims discount.

Almost every insurer has an emergency helpline. In-house helplines staffed by claims departments also allow customers to register a claim at the same time, but some insurers outsource their helplines.

There are wide disparities however in the range of services which the helplines provide. Most insurers can arrange some form of emergency repairs service. This can range, however, from simply giving the customer the phone number of a local tradesman, through to the insurer locating and commissioning the tradesman to carry out repair work on behalf of the insured.

Also of interest to customers could be guarantees of the quality of workmanship carried out by the repairer.

Most insurers also offer a legal advice helpline, particularly if the customer takes legal expenses cover - although often this helpline is provided free either way.

Some insurers have attempted to add extra benefits such as counselling helplines, although these may be restricted to counselling only on issues such as stress or bereavement.

Emergency cover

For some time insurers have been offering home emergency services to customers, typically as an optional extra.

Not to be confused with the home emergency helpline, the true home emergency cover provides for the cost of call-out fees, and often parts and labour charges too (typically cover ranges from £150 to £250), to assist customers faced with problems like plumbing or heating failures, or storm damage at the home.

There is a lot of interest in this area within the market, and Defaqto believes more insurers will add this benefit to their policies within the next year.

Insurers are constantly seeking to differentiate themselves when it comes to claims handling. However, in the absence of independent data on the things that customers might truly value - like speed of payment or restitution, quality of claims staff, or customer satisfaction - insurers will continue to use helplines and repairs services as a key differentiator.