What is a single article limit on a home insurance policy?

By Steve Moores Client Director

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If you’ve recently purchased a significant new item for your home, whether that’s an exquisite piece of jewellery to celebrate an anniversary or an expensive piece of furniture, one of the most important things to do is to tell your insurance company as soon as possible.

Why? Because of something called the ‘single article limit’. This can sometimes cause confusion, and that’s where we can help. A typical home insurance policy will have various sections. Each of these sections (except usually buildings and contents) will have a single article limit. Usually, but not always, pictures/paintings, antiques, books, rugs, gold and silver will have one limit while jewellery and watches will have another, lower, limit.

Any item over the respective single article limit must be specified, that is, specifically noted on your policy along with its value on the insurance schedule. This could be one item, or a pair or set of items such as a set of dining chairs.

The confusion arises as sometimes clients presume that when they purchase a new item, they do not need to add it to the policy if it falls under the single article limit. This is incorrect.

As an example, a £5,000 necklace would not need to be individually specified on a policy that has a £10,000 single article limit for jewellery and watches. However, it still needs to be insured. In this case, we’d increase the unspecified jewellery and watches figure by £5,000.

This is important to remember – just because an item falls below the single article limit, it doesn’t mean that it won’t affect your insurance policy.

More specialist insurance policies have higher single article limits. A higher single article limit gives you more flexibility. In the event of a claim, you are not limited to a figure (which in the case of jewellery is often higher) and you don’t need to produce a valuation for every small piece of jewellery or art you purchase.

We can provide single limits on policies up to £100,000 so check your policy and, if you’re hampered by low single article limits, call us for a chat on 01622 476433.

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Abode is a trading name of Howden UK Brokers Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority No. 307663. Registered in England and Wales under company registration number 02831010. Registered Office: One Creechurch Place, London, EC3A 5AF. Calls may be monitored and recorded for quality assurance purposes.