Your Garden and its treasures. Keep them covered with your home insurance.

We all know to secure our homes against the threat of thieves. But how many of us take the same steps to protect the valuables in our garden? It is essential to ensure your home insurance has adequate cover. Using our home insurance comparison service you can find a policy which will do just this and, with over 40 providers, we can also find you a really competitive quote.

However there are some insurance companies who specialise in attracting customers who have taken special effort to enhance their gardens. And as some of these do not appear on comparison websites we felt they were well worth bringing to your attention!

As you can see, the cover levels differ dramatically and with our gardens hosting outdoor furniture, barbeques and fire pits, ornamental trees and pots and a whole lot more it is important to think through the insurance level that is right for you.

Garden structures that cannot be moved can be covered under buildings insurance.

And its not just theft that is a risk - vandalism is unfortunately a source of entertainment for too many, so cover for non moveable items is also worth consideration.

Company	Product	Non Movable Items	Contents in the Open	Contents of Outbuildings	Plants and Shrubs	Garden Cover as Standard	More Info
	Gold Cover
	Accidental damage is an optional add-on for policies with John Lewis.
	Standard Policy
	Option to add accidental damage. Aviva will also cover items temporarily taken outside the garden up to £12,000.
	Premier
	Accidental damage can be added to your policy for an additional premium.

According to police statistics thefts from gardens occur roughly every eight minutes with over 60,000 victims reported in one year. Summer months with longer evenings are the most popular with criminals. Many people have bought new garden furniture, ornaments or tools and these are all targets for the thieves. Normally these are left out even during holidays when you are potentially thousands of miles away from your home. They will even steal plants and turf! We can easily underestimate the value that is in our gardens but it is a good idea to look around yours and think about how much cover you may need to replace anything that is stolen.

Items in your garden fall under different categories in home insurance:

• Non-movable objects - such as sheds, walls and fences. These are often covered by buildings insurance as they are considered to be fixtures and fittings. You must, however, check the terms and conditions of each policy to find out if they are covered.

• Contents in the open - includes barbecues, garden furniture, pots, ornaments or any other movable object.

• Contents of outbuildings - with many policies these contents are normally covered if the outbuilding is locked securely.

• Plants and shrubs - some policies have separate cover for plants.

With all policies it is vital to check all the terms and conditions carefully as they can vary and there can be exclusions. Some policies will not include expensive potted plants such as Bonsai, or ride-on mowers. Storm and flood damage is often not covered.

Pedal cycles, although normally stored in outbuildings or garages, often need separate bicycle cover. Some insurers list them as excluded from 'Contents of outbuildings' cover.

This content was last reviewed on 20/08/2024