By clicking a retailer link you consent to third-party cookies that track your onward journey. This enables W? to receive an affiliate commission if you make a purchase, which supports our mission to be the UK's consumer champion.
Dean is an award-winning personal finance writer who’s spent over 15 years helping consumers navigate the tangled and fascinating world of insurance.
In this article
Founded in 1887 to provide insurance cover to Church of England buildings, Ecclesiastical also now offers home insurance to the public.
We've reviewed its two levels of cover: Set Sum Insured and Sum Insured – the latter for more expensive homes.
Both policies must be bought directly from Ecclesiastical and don't appear on insurance comparison websites.
Ecclesiastical is part of the Benefact Group, an international family of charity-owned companies that donate available profits to good causes.
Please note that this article is for information purposes only and does not constitute advice. Please refer to the particular terms and conditions of an insurer before committing to any financial products.
This insurer isn't available on MoneySuperMarket, but you can get quotes from other insurers and compare the cheapest with our reviews.
Compare dealsWhich? earns commission to fund its not-for-profit mission if you buy a product
Ecclesiastical’s cover was consistently up to Best Buy standard.
Policies
See how this compares with the best home insurance, or read more about how we rate home insurance.
We've reviewed two Ecclesiastical policies. Select a policy from our table to see what it offers and what we scored it.
| Buildings - Alternative accommodation | £300,000 | |
| Buildings - Burst pipes | Included | |
| Buildings - Escape of water excess | £250 | |
| Home emergency cover limit | £1,000 | |
| Home emergency - central heating/boiler repair | £1,000 | |
| Buildings - Groundwater flooding | Not covered | 0 out of 5 |
| Subsidence excess | £1,000 | |
| Contents - Valuables unspecified single item limit | £3,500 | |
| Contents - Alternative accommodation | £50,000 | |
| Contents - Accidental damage | Optional extra with some cover included as standard | |
| Contents - Guests' belongings | £2,500 | |
| Contents - Theft of contents in the open | £2,500 | |
| Contents - Damage to contents in the open | £2,500 - optional extra | |
| Contents - Theft from outbuilding | £5,000 | |
| Contents - Damage to contents in an outbuilding | £75,000 | |
| Contents - Personal possessions cover single item limit | £3,500 |
Table last updated in September 2026. Next update in September 2027. We recommend checking policies before buying.
Dean Sobers, Which? home insurance expert, says:
Ecclesiastical’s Sum Insured policy was narrowly the better-scoring of its two policies. It was a Best Buy for both buildings and contents cover with scores of 73% and 71% respectively.
The policy is aimed at owners of more expensive homes – with a buildings sum insured of up to £1,500,000 and a contents sum insured of up to £250,000.
Among its perks, it provides alternative accommodation cover of up to £300,000 (20% of the sum insured). It also doesn’t charge fees for making changes to your policy or interest for paying in monthly instalments.
We did notice that it didn’t define ‘storm’ or ‘flood’ in its policy wording and instead defaults to industry definitions. We thought a bit more transparency here would be helpful.
It’s also one of a minority of insurers in our analysis to have an ‘average clause’. This means that if the rebuild value of your home or total value of your contents are higher than what you’ve declared, the insurer may reduce what it pays out by a proportionate amount.
Ecclesiastical offers home emergency cover as standard, with up to £1,000 for call-outs, up to £1,000 for boiler repair and up to £250 for one night's accommodation elsewhere if required.
Set Sum Insured has a maximum buildings sum insured of £750,000 and contents cover of up to £75,000. It was otherwise very similar to the other policy.
It was also a Best Buy for both buildings and contents cover, with scores of 73% and 70%, respectively.
Ecclesistical's underwriter is Ecclesiastical Insurance Office Public Limited Company, but we have no data on its claims acceptance rate on buildings-only policies. Nor do we know the percentage of claimants who lodged a complaint.
However, the underwriter accepted 90-95% of claims on contents-only policies – a good bit higher than the industry average of 71%. Some 0-5% of claimants complained, which is below the 7% average.
When it came to claims on combined policies, the underwriter accepted 90-95% of claims, which is higher than the 71% average rate. Some 5-10% of claimants complained – below the 12% industry average.
You won't find Ecclesiastical on comparison websites, making it slightly less convenient to compare with insurers that are.
It's still worth checking out what the competition offers on comparison sites, though.
Both of Ecclesiastical's policies are available over the phone and online – where you'll get a cheaper quote. There is a discount if you take out buildings and contents cover together.
Want to pay monthly? Good news – Ecclesiastical doesn't charge interest if you pay monthly rather than annually.
The above information is correct as of August 2026. For more ways to save money when buying insurance, see our guide.
While we didn't have enough customer feedback to calculate a customer satisfaction score for Ecclesiastical, its standard Set Sum Insured buildings policy scored 73% and ranks joint 10th in our standard buildings cover table. It was tied with Aviva's Online policy .
As for contents insurance, Ecclesiastical's standard Set Sum Insured policy scored 70% – the same as a standard policy from Tesco – and sits in joint 9th place among standard policies.
If you need to make a claim, visit the Ecclesiastical home insurance website or call 0345 603 8381.
For home emergency claims, call 0345 268 8469.
We couldn't rate Ecclesiastical's customer service and claims handling, but we were impressed by its cover levels and high claims acceptance rate in the latest Financial Conduct Authority data, so we made both its policies Best Buys.
This means it could be a great choice if the price suits you.
Find the right policy for your home using the service provided by MoneySuperMarket
Get a quote now