Home legal expenses covers your bill for defence in a court case or help with solicitor's fees when you need legal advice. Your home insurance policy may already include it or you can add the cover when you get a quote.
Legal expenses cover can also go under the name home insurance legal protection or family legal protection.
What does legal expenses cover?
Although you can buy legal expenses cover with your home insurance, a possible dispute doesn't have to be related to your property. Policy features vary, but the cover can help with:
- Property disputes such as noisy neighbours, boundaries, trespassing and damage to your home.
- Consumer disputes that come from any goods you may have sold, bought or rented.
- Personal injury in case someone is injured on your property and wants to make a claim – you're usually covered for compensation cases.
- Employment disputes that involve a tribunal – these could be for things such as discrimination at work or unfair dismissal.
- Tax investigations or enquiries from HM Revenue and Customs that may involve the cost of an accountant.
If you need to make a claim, most insurers will cover costs up to a certain amount – normally between £50,000 and £100,000 – though they'll usually only pay if your claim is more than likely to succeed.
What does legal expenses not cover?
- Divorce cases are often excluded by legal expenses policies, as well as libel (slander) cases.
- Disputes that happened before the insurance, in which case you should look at after the event insurance (ATE), often used with a 'no-win, no-fee' agreement.
- Compensation you're ordered to pay, even though you may be covered for the legal fees and costs.
- Disputes that can be state funded, such as criminal trials for instance – Legal aid in England and Wales would likely cover these kinds of disputes instead.
Legal protection for liability
If you're renting your property to tenants as a landlord, using it for business, or have a holiday home, you may need different levels of cover such as public liability insurance or personal liability insurance.
Home insurance policies usually have a level of liability cover, so it's worth checking this if you think you need extra cover.
Some insurers ask whether anything has happened that could start legal proceedings, otherwise they may refuse to cover you. It's best to contact the Financial Ombudsman if you're unsure about your legal cover.
Lawyers' fees can be costly, so legal expenses cover can be helpful if you find yourself in trouble. Find out more about the legal protection you can add to our home insurance.
You can add legal expense cover to our Silver and Gold buildings and contents insurance when you get a quote.
Or choose our Platinum level of either contents or buildings and contents insurance, which already come with legal expenses.
Author: The AA. Updated 6 June 2025.