Just 18% of home insurance policies cover this

It's just as important to compare the policy features as the price.

Standard home insurance policies – that's buildings insurance and/or contents insurance – might surprise you with what isn't covered.

Accidental damage cover

The clearest example of this is with accidental damage cover. Most policies offer some basic cover for TVs and DVD players as standard. Just 7% make you take this cover as an optional extra, according to financial information specialist Defaqto, and just 1% don't offer the cover at all. 90% will also cover breakage of glass as standard, and another 8% as an optional extra.

But if you want to get full accidental damage cover, for such things as laptops, clothes, furniture and your best crockery, you can't expect it in a normal policy. Just 18% of policies include this as standard. To get this cover, you need to ensure you ask for it on top of the standard policy, because 79% will give it to you for an extra charge. 3% won't offer it at all.

Note that wear and tear and electrical failure is never covered, even as an extra, and major DIY or pet-related damage is also more rarely covered.

Home legal cover

The next big item you can't expect to receive as standard is home legal expenses cover. 7% of policies don't offer the cover at all, and another 67% will sell it to you as an extra only.

From my experiences in the insurance industry some years ago, I know that the limitations to home legal cover surprise some policyholders, because it's not as comprehensive as many think. Often you can get the same service and payback if you go direct to a lawyer after an event for a free consultation, or a no win, no fee agreement. That said, the insurance does help people out with many problems.

Home emergency cover

Home emergency cover is another big one not usually offered as standard.

This is a dedicated 24-hour line for such things as burst pipes and broken windows. It gives many customers some peace of mind, although you could keep a list of 24-hour plumbers, boiler-repair services, locksmiths and glaziers in your area instead.

45% of policies don't offer this cover at all, and another 40% offer it just as an extra, leaving only 15% that offer it as standard.

Non-standard services

Defaqto's research of 304 policies revealed more common areas that aren't offered as standard:

When you use lovemoney.com's home insurance comparison tool, you can choose to search for policies that include full accidental damage cover only, or as an extra. When you get to the results page, you can also add a filter to just show policies that include home emergency cover (on the left-hand side) and you can check if a policy has legal cover easily by clicking “Details” (on the right-hand side).

More: compare home insurance through lovemoney.com | Get £100,000 if you can't work | How to spend less and have more