What is kitchen appliance insurance?

Nowadays, most kitchens contain a plethora of appliances. These broadly fall into two categories. Small electrical appliances, such as toasters, filter coffee machines, sandwich makers and kettles, which are usually reasonably inexpensive to buy, and replace if they are damaged. The other group are the larger kitchen appliances, sometimes known colloquially as white goods. Typical white goods found in the kitchen are; washing machines, dishwashers, tumble dryers, fridges, freezers and cookers, and it is these that are usually included in kitchen appliance insurance.

What is kitchen appliance insurance?

Kitchen appliance insurance is designed to cover you against the breakdown of your white-goods when they are out of warranty. Examples of cover would be repairing a leaking washing machine. Kitchen appliance insurance can cover multi appliances ie: all the white goods in your kitchen or just individual white goods, Examples of this are, dishwasher insurance, tumble dryer insurance and washing machine cover.

Appliance cover or appliance insurance can be purchased when you buy your appliance, through the store. Alternatively, your store or manufacturer may contact you and offer you an extended warranty, in the form of kitchen appliance cover. If you want to cover all your white goods, then it may be more cost-effective to take out home appliance cover, which covers multi-appliances.

Does contents insurance cover kitchen appliances?

• Basic content insurance will cover your kitchen appliances against damage caused by unforeseen circumstances. That is, from a natural disaster such as storm damage, fire damage, flood damage and theft.
• Accidental damage of household appliances is not covered under a basic home contents insurance policy. However, some enhanced home insurance policies will cover all your contents, including kitchen appliances against accidental damage. This will normally require payment of an additional premium.
• Neither of these versions of home contents insurance covers your kitchen appliances against damage resulting from age or wear and tear. Comprehensive appliance cover in an appliance insurance policy offers this protection.

What cover is provided by kitchen appliance insurance?

Kitchen appliance insurance covers domestic appliances or white goods against breakdown caused by wear and tear. Different layers of the cover are available. You need to shop around to find the most competitive price for the amount of cover you require. If you opt for a multi-appliance cover, and your appliances are expensive, you may need to take out the higher level of cover. Generally speaking, the more appliances you want to cover, the more you will have to pay for your cover. However some companies may offer a small discount for multi-appliance insurance.

A few things to consider:

• Some policies limit the age of the appliance covered, so you need to check what this and how it affects your appliances.
• Check how many appliances are covered by the appliance insurance. Many quality insurance policies do not limit the number of appliances covered. However, it is worth remembering that many cheaper policies limit the amount of appliance cover. This means they will not pay out above the maximum level of cover.
• If you are insuring expensive domestic appliances, you also need to check if the policy has a single item limit, as this may affect which policy you decide upon.

Check that your appliance cover provides you with:

• An emergency helpline number
• Uses suitably qualified professional repair engineers
• Covers you against call-out charges, in the event of a domestic appliance emergency
• Covers you for all parts needed to repair your breakdown
• Covers you for all labour costs needed to repair the breakdown of your domestic appliance
• Provides for a replacement appliance, within a realistic time frame, if your kitchen appliance is beyond economic repair
• Guarantees all breakdown work

Important Information

Some providers offer insured plans to look after your Boiler and Heating and other home services like plumbing, drains and electrics, whereas other providers offer non-insured plans. An insured plan will be underwritten by an insurer and also regulated by the [Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)](https://www.fca.org.uk/). Non-insured plans are not backed by an insurer and are not regulated by the FCA. Often non-insured or maintenance plans include an annual service of the equipment covered, whereas these may or may not be included in insured plans.

How do you pay for your appliance cover?

Like many insurance policies, appliance cover can be paid annually or in fixed monthly payments, which make budgeting easier. Appliance cover can be expensive if you want to cover more than one appliance, so it’s important to search for the most competitive policy.

If your white goods have extended warranty, there is no need for additional appliance cover, as the same benefits are usually included.

Kitchen appliance insurance for landlords

Most appliance insurance is intended for homeowners, but clearly landlords may also wish to protect the white goods in their rented properties against damage and breakdown. There are bespoke policies for landlords appliance insurance. These policies are intended to cover the landlord against the repair and replacement of their properties’ white goods.

Like household appliance insurance, landlords’ appliance insurance may cover a single expensive appliance, like a washing machine, or be a multi-appliance policy.

The main reasons for landlords’ appliance cover are first, to ensure that their tenants have the minimum inconvenience if a kitchen appliance breaks down. Second, to protect the landlord from an unexpected additional expense, if one of his tenants’ white goods breaks down.

Keeping your tenants happy should be a primary concern for a landlord. Taking out landlords’ appliance insurance, should provide your tenants with timely access to a repair engineer, if the white goods in the rented property breakdown.

Landlord appliance insurance is available in a variety of levels of cover, which offer differing maximum levels of cover.

To recap:

• Kitchen appliance insurance is also known as domestic appliance insurance, white goods insurance and kitchen appliance cover.
• Kitchen appliance cover is designed to bridge the gap between home contents insurance and manufacturers’ appliance warranty.
• Appliance insurance covers your kitchen appliances against breakdown repairs as a result of wear and tear, and sometimes accidental damage.
• There are many kitchen appliance insurance policies on the market. Do your research. Find a policy that contains the comprehensive coverage you require.
• Will it cover all your appliances?
• Is there a single item limit?
• Are callout charges, parts and labour costs covered?
• Is there an emergency helpline and qualified repair engineers?
• Is the work guaranteed?
• If your appliance isn’t economically repairable, Is a new appliance provided?
• Similar policies are available for landlords.

Kitchen appliance cover gives homeowners peace of mind that their kitchen domestic appliances will be repaired or replaced if they breakdown through wear and tear.