Does Home Insurance Cover Rewiring? When Insurers Pay (and When They Don't)
Updated: Oct 9
Usually not. Home insurance pays when an insured event such as fire, lightning or a leak damages the wiring, not for old, worn or faulty wiring. Below is when buildings cover pays for a rewire, when it doesn't, and how to handle a claim.
Does home insurance cover rewiring?
In most cases, no. Standard home insurance won't pay for a rewire just because your wiring is old, outdated, or no longer up to current regulations. Buildings cover usually does pay when an insured event, like a house fire, lightning strike or burst pipe, damages your existing wiring. The cause is what matters.
Insurers split electrical problems into two buckets. One holds sudden, unexpected events covered by your policy. The other holds gradual deterioration, age, and faults that have built up over years. The Association of British Insurers is blunt about it: home insurance is not a maintenance contract, and policies do not usually cover general wear and tear, damage caused by a lack of maintenance, or electrical breakdown at the end of something's useful life. Rewiring tends to fall in that second bucket, which is why most claims for it are turned down. Wiring being "dangerous" isn't enough on its own. There has to be a covered event behind the damage.
Does home insurance cover electrical wiring and electrical problems?
Buildings insurance treats fixed wiring as part of the structure, so it covers the wiring when an insured event damages it, subject to your excess and policy limits. It does not cover electrical problems caused by age, wear and tear, a lack of maintenance or electrical breakdown, and faulty workmanship is usually excluded too. Appliances fall under contents cover, and home emergency cover pays for urgent call-outs rather than replacing old wiring.
When home insurance will pay for a rewire
Buildings insurance is built around damage from insured events, also called insured perils. Your policy lists which events are covered. If one of these damages your wiring beyond repair, a partial or full rewire can be claimed as part of the reinstatement work, subject to your excess and policy limits.
Insured events that can lead to a rewire claim, if your policy covers them, include:
Fire and smoke damage to your home, including kitchen fires and chimney fires
A lightning strike that surges through your circuits and damages cabling
Escape of water from a burst pipe, leaking tank, or failed appliance
Flooding or storm damage
Impact damage from a vehicle or a falling tree
In each of these cases, the insurer may send a loss adjuster, or ask you for a report and quote from a registered electrician, before agreeing what needs replacing. If the damage is widespread, a full rewire may be the only safe option. A flooded kitchen or a small loft fire can end up needing far more electrical work than the homeowner expects once the walls come down.
When home insurance won't pay for a rewire
Standard cover excludes anything that builds up over time or comes down to maintenance. Rewires for safety or to bring an old house up to modern standards almost always fall outside the policy.
Typical exclusions include:
Wear and tear from age
Old wiring (cloth, rubber, lead-sheathed) that's reached the end of its life
Electrical breakdown, where something simply stops working through age
Pre-existing faults the policyholder knew about
Faulty workmanship or design, including poor DIY work
Upgrades for convenience, like adding sockets or installing a smart home system
Issues flagged on a previous inspection and left unresolved, which insurers treat as a lack of maintenance
Does home insurance cover an electrical fire caused by faulty wiring?
Usually the fire damage, yes. If the wiring causes a fire and that fire damages the rest of the property, buildings cover will usually pay for the fire damage, subject to the policy terms. The worn-out wiring that caused it still won't be funded as an upgrade. The dividing line sits between the consequence of an event and the cause.
Buildings cover, contents cover, and home emergency: what each one does
Three types of cover come into play with electrical work, and they aren't interchangeable.
Buildings insurance
Covers the structure of your home, including fixed wiring embedded in walls, sockets, switches, and the consumer unit. If an insured event damages any of that, buildings cover funds the repairs.
Contents insurance
Covers the things inside your home: appliances, furniture, personal items. If a power surge from a lightning strike fries your TV, contents cover may pay out. It won't pay to rewire the house.
Home emergency cover
A separate add-on or standalone product. It typically pays for urgent call-outs and short-term repairs to keep the house safe and liveable, up to a limit per claim. If you lose power to a circuit and can't reset it at the consumer unit, home emergency cover that includes the electrics can send an electrician out. It won't pay for a full rewire, but it can stabilise things while you arrange longer-term work.
What about accidental damage cover?
Full accidental damage cover is usually an optional add-on rather than standard. It covers one-off, unexpected events caused by you or someone in the household. The classic example is drilling into a wall and hitting a cable. If you have accidental damage cover, that repair is normally paid for, less your excess. Whether the rewiring of the wider circuit is covered depends on what the electrician finds and how the insurer interprets the policy. Read the wording carefully before assuming anything.
Does an EICR help your insurance claim?
Yes. An Electrical Installation Condition Report, or EICR, is the formal inspection record of your home's wiring. It logs faults, gives them a code (C1, C2, C3, or FI), and shows the date of the assessment.
If you make a claim after an insured event, having a recent EICR on file shows that:
Your wiring was in a known condition before the incident
You weren't ignoring safety issues that had been flagged
The damage is attributable to the event, not to existing faults
Electrical Safety First recommends a fixed wiring inspection at least every ten years for owner-occupied homes, and every five years for rented properties. Keeping the report and any remedial invoices makes the claims process a lot smoother. As electricians serving Wolverhampton and the West Midlands from Shifnal, we would always keep that paperwork: when an insurer is deciding whether damage came from an event or from old faults, it is the evidence you have.
How to claim on your home insurance for a rewire
If you think an insured event has damaged your wiring, the order you do things matters. Insurers expect you to limit further damage, keep evidence, and use qualified people.
Make the area safe. Isolate the affected circuit at the consumer unit. Don't attempt any electrical work yourself.
Photograph everything. Take wide shots and close-ups of the damage, the source of the incident, and the surrounding area.
Contact your insurer promptly. Most policies require you to report the incident within a set window. Delays can affect cover.
Get a qualified electrician to inspect. Use a registered electrician who belongs to a Competent Person Scheme. A written report carries weight.
Keep all invoices and certificates. Receipts for emergency callouts, parts, and any temporary repairs should be filed away.
Don't authorise major work without insurer sign-off. Temporary repairs to stop the damage getting worse are expected, ideally after a call to your insurer's emergency line, but insurers may want to send their own assessor before permanent work. Going ahead without approval can put the claim at risk.
Signs your home might need a rewire (insurance or not)
An old fuse box with rewireable fuses, rubber or lead-sheathed cable, warm or scorched sockets and breakers that trip for no obvious reason are all worth an EICR, whether or not you plan to claim. Our list of signs your house needs rewiring explains which ones are urgent.
What if your insurance won't cover the rewire?
This is the most common situation, and it's worth being realistic about it. A standard policy is unlikely to pay for rewiring a sound but ageing system. That doesn't mean nothing can be done.
Most rewires can be staged. We often handle the highest-risk areas first (the kitchen, the bathroom, the consumer unit), then book the rest of the property in over time. Spreading the work out spreads the cost, and it keeps the most dangerous parts of the system at modern standards while you save for the rest.
A clear, written quote from a registered electrician is the starting point. We provide one for every job so homeowners know exactly what they're committing to before any work begins.
Home insurance and wiring questions, answered
Does buildings insurance cover electrical wiring?
Yes, when an insured event damages it. Fixed wiring counts as part of the building, but buildings cover will not pay to replace wiring that is simply old or worn out.
Does home insurance cover drilling through a cable?
Only if you have accidental damage cover, which is usually an optional add-on. With it, the repair is normally paid for, less your excess.
Will my insurer ask for an electrician's report?
Often, yes. The insurer may send a loss adjuster or ask for a report and quote from a registered electrician, and a recent EICR shows the wiring was in a known condition before the incident.
Talk to a qualified electrician before you commit
If you are claiming on insurance or paying out of pocket, the rewire itself needs to be done properly and certified. If you're in the West Midlands and want a straight answer on what your property actually needs, we can help with house rewiring in Wolverhampton and across the wider region. Get in touch for a written quote and a clear assessment of the work involved.
Comments