May 2, 2013 | Mum In The Madhouse

May 2, 2013

What is Home Legal Expenses Insurance and why do I need it?

What is Home Legal Expenses Insurance and why do I need it?
Legal Expenses Insurance (LEI) can provide cover for legal costs if you have to go to court for a claim. Generally, the most common scenarios involve what is known in legal parlance as pursuing a claim, which means trying to get compensation from a third party for causing loss or damage to you or your property. In other circumstances you may be defending a claim – if for example you have crashed into another person’s car – and in fact many LEI policies are sold alongside or included in car and home insurance packages.
Home LEI policies, includes cover for things like personal injury and compensation claims, and consumer disputes over the buying and selling of goods and services. Home Legal Expenses Insurance can also meet the cost of pursuing a claim against your employer for breach of contract, such as unfair dismissal, and can also provide funds to finance the mediation of disputes with your neighbours – this can be issues like access to your home, or the boundaries of your land, or complaints about noise.
So just how important is it to have Home Legal Expenses Insurance? Like all insurance, a sensible way to look at the situation is to consider the alternative to taking out cover. This could mean having to cover the cost of legal action on your own, if you end up in court for a claim that would have been covered by a Home LEI policy.
Perhaps a comparison could be useful here. Home insurance is considered a necessity because of the massive cost of rebuilding your home, should a disaster such a house fire occur. When you consider that the cost of legal action can run to tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of pounds, Home LEI starts to look like an essential type of cover.
You may find that the basic LEI provided through your home insurance leaves you underinsured, and that you need additional cover. However, it is also important not to over insure – most Home LEI policies cover the whole family, so unlike car insurance, two partners don’t usually need separate policies.
At Allianz Your Cover (www.yourcoverinsurance.co.uk) you can add Home Legal Expenses insurance to your current Allianz Your Cover home insurance policy at any time.

What is Home Legal Expenses Insurance and why do I need it? Read More »