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Founded in 1887 to provide insurance cover to Church of England buildings, Ecclesiastical also now offers home insurance to the public.
Ecclesiastical is part of the Benefact Group, an international family of charity-owned companies that donate available profits to good causes.
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 do not appear on insurance comparison websites.
Please note that this article is for information purposes only and does not constitute advice.
Here's how Ecclesiastical scored in our latest survey.
See how this compares with the best home insurance, or read more about how we rate home insurance.
We 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 | As standard |
| 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 |
| Subsidence excess | £1,000 |
Table last updated in September 2025. Next update in September 2026. We recommend checking policies before buying.
This insurer isn't available on Confused.com, but you can get quotes from other insurers and compare the cheapest with our reviews.
Get a quotePlease note that the information in 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.
Dean Sobers, Which? home insurance expert, says:
Set Sum Insured provides buildings cover up to £750,000. It scored 77% for buildings cover and 74% for contents cover, which were comfortably above the average scores of 71% and 68%.
Among its perks, Ecclesiastical provides alternative accommodation of up to £150,000 (20% of the sum insured) under the buildings policy should your home become uninhabitable and require repairs. It also features garden cover with up to £2,500 for re-landscaping costs, and personal possessions cover when away from home as standard – with £3,500 of cover for mobiles.
However, among its drawbacks, Ecclesiastical doesn't cover damage due to the gradual build-up of groundwater over time, does not cover boiler replacement under home emergency and there's no cover for credit cards in or away from the home.
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.
Ecclesiastical also offers Sum Insured, a home insurance policy that allows a sum insured of up to £1,500,000 for buildings and £250,000 for contents (compared to £75,000 for Set Sum Insured).
It provides similar Best Buy-winning cover as Set Sum Insured, but has higher potential cover limits in areas that vary as a percentage based on the set sum. For example, its alternative accommodation allowance is 20% of the sum insured, which would mean £300,000 of cover on a property with an overall limit of £1.5m.
Sum Insured scored 78% for its buildings cover and 75% for its contents cover. These placed it in the top fifth of buildings policies we analysed and the top third of contents policies.
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.
Ecclesiastical's Set Sum Insured policy is available online and over the phone - and is cheapest online - whilst its Sum Insured policy can only be bought by phone. For both policies, there is a discount if you take out both buildings and contents cover.
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 2025. For more ways to save money when buying insurance, see our guide.
Ecclesiastical's building cover for its standard Set Sum Insured policy scored 77%. Standard policies from Which? Recommended Provider NFU Mutual and Nationwide both scored 78%.
As for contents insurance, Ecclesiastical's standard policy scored 74%, just below a standard policy from SAGIC, which got a score of 75%.
If you need to make a claim with Ecclesiastical home insurance, visit the website or call 0345 603 8381. For home emergency claims, call 0345 268 8469.
We couldn't rate Ecclesiastical's service, but we were impressed by its cover levels and its 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 for you, if the price suits you.
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