How much does home insurance go up after a claim?

There is no fixed figure, and any site quoting one precise percentage is guessing. Insurers price on their own view of risk, so what matters is the peril, the pattern of claims and whether the cause has been fixed. This page sets out what drives the increase, how long a claim follows you, and how to cut the cost at renewal.

How much will my premium go up after a water damage claim?

There is no set amount, and be wary of any site that quotes a precise percentage. Insurers price on risk, so what happens to yours depends on the size and cause of the claim, how many claims you have made before, the property itself, and that particular insurer's appetite for the peril. Two households with identical claims can see very different renewals.

What is predictable is the direction of travel on this peril. Escape of water accounted for 28.63% of home insurance claims declared in 2024, the largest single category, and the ABI put the average claim for flooding, storm and burst pipe damage at £8,548 in the second quarter of 2026. A peril that both arrives often and costs several thousand pounds is one insurers rate carefully, which is also why it usually carries a higher excess than the rest of your policy.

One piece of useful context that rarely gets mentioned. Market premiums have not been rising lately: the average combined buildings and contents premium was £379 in the final quarter of 2025, £14 lower than a year earlier, and £383 between April and June 2026. So if your renewal jumps after a claim, that is a decision about you rather than the market moving, and it is a decision another insurer may price differently.

What drives the size of the increase?

Insurers do not apply a standard uplift. The rating reflects what the claim suggests about future risk, which is why some factors matter far more than the amount paid out.

How long does a claim stay on your record?

Insurers share claims data through a central industry database, commonly known as the Claims and Underwriting Exchange, so a claim is visible to the whole market rather than only to the insurer you claimed from. Changing provider does not leave it behind.

Records are generally held for around six years, and most insurers ask about claims over the previous five when you take out a policy. A notification that never turned into a payment can still appear on the record, which is why it is worth being explicit at the point you report whether you are making a claim or only putting an incident on file.

Declare claims when asked, and declare them accurately. A policy taken out on an incomplete claims history can be challenged at the moment you next need it, and a refused claim is a far worse outcome than a higher premium. This is the same principle that sits behind misrepresentation refusals.

Does an incident I did not claim for still need declaring?

Often yes, and this is the question people get wrong most. Many insurers ask about damage, incidents or losses rather than only about claims. An escape of water you paid for yourself can fall inside a question worded that way.

Read the question as written and answer that question. If it asks about claims, a self-funded repair is not a claim. If it asks about damage or incidents in the last five years, it is. Where the wording is ambiguous, disclosing and letting the insurer decide costs you a conversation; not disclosing can cost you the next claim.

So is it worth claiming at all?

On a small claim, often not. On a serious escape of water, almost always. The calculation is the repair cost against your excess, and then against the premium effect over the years the claim stays on your record.

The worked arithmetic sits on our guide to the escape of water excess, which includes a table of repair costs against what you recover. The short version: below roughly twice your excess, think hard; above three or four times, the claim usually pays for itself. Our FAQ on whether it is worth claiming for water damage covers the situations where you should claim whatever the sum says, including anything involving another property, electrics, contaminated water, or a home that may become uninhabitable.

What if the leak was someone else's fault?

This is the single biggest lever on the renewal cost, and it is routinely missed. Where the water came from a neighbouring property, a landlord's pipework or a tradesperson's mistake, your insurer can recover what it paid from the party responsible. That process is called subrogation and it runs in the background without holding up your repairs.

Where the recovery succeeds, two things usually follow: your excess is refunded, and the claim is recorded as non-fault, which affects any no-claims discount far less and is rated more gently at renewal. Be active about it rather than waiting:

• Tell your insurer at the outset that another party may be responsible, and give their details.
• Keep the evidence of where the water came from, per the evidence checklist.
• Ask later whether recovery was pursued and what the outcome was.
• If recovery succeeded but the claim is still recorded as fault, ask for the record to be corrected. It follows you across the market for years.

Where the leak came from a flat above, the liability picture is more involved. See a leak from the flat above.

How do I reduce the increase at renewal?

The renewal quote from your existing insurer is a starting figure, not a verdict, and accepting it automatically is the most expensive thing you can do after a claim.

• Shop the whole market, not one comparison site. Some insurers price escape of water claims more gently than others, and a few of the larger ones do not appear on aggregators at all.
• Get quotes a couple of weeks before renewal rather than on the day. Last-minute pricing is usually worse.
• Evidence the remedial work. A replaced section of pipework, a new flexible hose or a rewired supply is evidence the risk has changed. Say so, in writing, with the invoice.
• Consider a higher voluntary excess, provided you could fund it, and check what it does to the escape of water excess specifically.
• Check the sum insured while you are there. Underinsurance costs far more at claim time than any premium saving is worth, and a low sum insured lets the insurer cut a future settlement through the average clause.

For context on what you are comparing against, claims costs made up 48% of home insurance premiums in 2025 on the FCA's own measure, so pricing genuinely does follow claims experience rather than being arbitrary.

We are not an insurer, a loss adjuster, or regulated by the FCA, and we cannot tell you what your insurer will do at renewal. This page is general information, not financial advice. Check your own policy wording for your excess and whether a claim affects any no-claims discount.

Common questions