Self Storage Insurance UK: What You Need To Know
27 June 2025
Home / Self Storage Insurance UK: What You Need To Know
When you decide to store your belongings in a self storage unit in the UK, one of the first questions you may ask is: “Do I need self storage insurance?”. While most storage facilities offer secure, well-managed environments, unexpected risks —like floods or leaks from neighbouring units — can still occur. These unpredictable events highlight the importance of having self storage insurance to protect your items.
When it comes to self storage insurance UK providers cover a range of potential risks, from fire and theft to water damage, ensuring that your belongings are protected against unforeseen circumstances. Whether you’re storing valuable items or just need additional space for household overflow, having the right level of coverage is crucial to ensuring your peace of mind.
In this blog, we’ll explain what self storage insurance is, the types of coverage available, factors to consider when choosing insurance, and the limitations of standard policies. We’ll also discuss the coverage options available at Wigwam to help you make an informed decision about protecting your items.
What Is Self Storage Insurance?
Self storage insurance is a specific type of cover designed to protect your belongings while they’re stored off-site, typically in a self storage unit. It provides financial protection against a range of risks, including fire, theft, water damage, flooding, infestations, and even vandalism — risks that can happen unexpectedly, even in well-maintained facilities.
While most self storage facilities in the UK offer secure environments, with features like CCTV surveillance, alarms, and controlled access, there are still unforeseen events that could lead to damage. For example, your items might be damaged by water from a leak in a neighbouring unit, or a fire could break out in another area of the facility. In these cases, self storage insurance ensures you are financially protected.
In essence, self storage insurance gives you the peace of mind that your stored items are covered against a variety of risks. Whether you’re storing furniture, electronics, valuable antiques, or business stock, having the right level of cover ensures that you’re protected against unexpected events, helping you avoid financial loss if something goes wrong.
Does Home Insurance Cover Items in Storage?

Home insurance may offer some coverage for stored items, but this is often limited or short-term. In most cases, home contents policies only cover belongings at your home address. Even if your insurer includes storage, many exclude risks like theft from a storage unit or damage caused by vermin or leaks.
If you plan to store goods for longer periods, or want full protection, dedicated insurance for self storage is a smarter choice.
Do Storage Facilities Provide Insurance?
Self storage providers typically offer insurance options, but it varies from one facility to another. Some providers include insurance as part of their service, while others offer it as an optional add-on.
The insurance typically covers risks like fire, theft, water damage, and pests. Many facilities offer tailored contents protection (like at Wigwam), specifically designed to cover the unique risks associated with storing items off-site. This type of insurance ensures that your goods are protected from unforeseen events while they are in storage.
However, some self storage providers also allow customers to use their own insurance, provided it meets the facility’s requirements. For example, the insurance must cover items stored off-site and name the storage facility on the policy.
If you choose to use your own insurance, you’ll generally need to provide proof within a specified time period (often within 14 days of moving in). If you fail to provide this proof, you may be required to take out the provider’s own insurance.
What Should I Consider When Buying Storage Insurance?

When choosing the right insurance for self storage, consider:
What Risks Are Covered?
Not all insurance policies offer the same protection. Things to look for would be:
- Water damage from leaks or burst pipes
- Theft involving forced entry
- Fire, lightning, storms and natural disasters
- Infestations from moths or vermin
- Impact, riots, malicious damage and more
Replacement Value and Costs
A good policy will base premiums on the full replacement value of your belongings.
Why Wigwam Requires Contents Protection
When storing your belongings with Wigwam Self Storage, contents protection insurance is a mandatory requirement for all customers throughout the duration of your rental. This ensures your goods are protected against unforeseen events, such as fire, theft, water damage, or other risks that might occur while in storage.
Choose Your Level of Cover
At Wigwam, we give you the flexibility to choose how you want to be covered. You can either:
- Take out Wigwam’s tailored contents protection cover, or
- Provide proof of your own self storage insurance immediately.
If you opt for your own insurance, you’ll need to supply proof of cover straight away. We recommend initially taking out our contents protection cover to ensure your goods are protected from day one. Once we receive proof of your own insurance, we’ll refund the cost of Wigwam’s coverage.
Why Choose Wigwam’s Contents Protection?
Wigwam’s contents protection cover offers comprehensive protection against a wide range of risks.
This cover ensures that your items are safeguarded, with new-for-old replacement in the event of damage, providing full peace of mind.
Providing Your Own Insurance
If you prefer to use your own insurance, it’s important to ensure your policy covers items in a self storage facility. To verify this, check that:
- The policy specifies coverage for self storage
- The insurance policy includes the storage facility’s name and full address
Once you’ve arranged your own cover, you’ll need to provide proof of insurance to Wigwam immediately. If you don’t, our standard contents protection cover will be applied automatically, and a charge added to your account. If proof of your own cover is provided later, we’ll refund the cost of Wigwam’s coverage.
What’s Covered by Wigwam’s Contents Protection?
Wigwam’s contents protection cover includes a wide range of incidents that could affect your items in storage. Coverage includes, but is not limited to:
- Water damage caused by burst pipes or leaks
- Theft involving forcible entry or exit
- Vermin or insect damage originating from external sources
- Fire, explosion, and storm damage
- Malicious damage or vandalism
Wigwam’s tailored contents protection ensures your items are covered from the moment they enter the storage unit, right up until you retrieve them.
What’s Not Covered Under Self Storage Contents Protection?
Certain items are prohibited from being stored or insured at Wigwam and therefore, naturally will not be covered by any contents protection insurance.
These include:
- Fireworks, weapons or explosives
- Perishables and flammables
- Living creatures
- Cash, securities and high-value art
- Hazardous chemicals or waste
- Tyres, power inverters and generators
- Illegal goods or stolen items
Ready To Store? Let Wigwam Take Care of the Details

Whether you need a quick storage insurance comparison, or want to store your belongings immediately, Wigwam has you covered. Our team is here to answer your questions and help you protect your belongings from day one.
Get in touch today for a free quote or learn more about contents protection.
Customer Reviews

location. Good access in opening hours using the App. (Be prepared to check mail filter if the initial email giving access to the App and hence to your store does not seem to come through.) Clean, well lit. Kasey gave a very helpful introduction and registration process.

I've never used self storage before so it was all new to me but Wigwam have made it so intuitive and simple to use. You download the app which gives you easy Bluetooth access to the entire building. I've only used the facility out of office hours and it was all so easy. There are flat bed trolleys, a pump truck and a sack truck to make moving your items hassle free. Safe, secure storage, easy to use, accessible until 10pm and reasonable prices. Top marks all round.
I'd recommended Wigwam to anyone wanting self storage.
Lenny called as soon as I emailed and was extremely helpful on making this process quick and easy so i could get into the unit the next day.
there was an issue with the app when i went to use the unit but i emailed Lenny and he rang back within 5 mins and managed to resolve the issue very quickly.
would recommend and thanks to Lenny for making the process smooth.
Units are clean and well maintained with easy access.
Many thanks!! 😊
Peter & Heather
Set up went well and app appears to work well and is easy to use.
Cheers
Containers are amazing excellent lighting and very clean.
Thank you Lenny 👍xx

Wigwam are highly recommended by me!
I can’t recommend Wigwam Storage in Lincoln highly enough. From start to finish, the whole experience was fantastic. Every member of the team was incredibly helpful, friendly, and professional — nothing was too much trouble, and they genuinely went out of their way to make the process easy and stress-free.
The facility itself is excellent: clean, secure, well-maintained, and clearly run with a lot of care. It’s obvious they take real pride in what they do, and that gives you total peace of mind when storing your belongings.
If you’re looking for a reliable storage facility in Lincoln with an amazing team and top-quality facilities, Wigwam Storage is the place to go. I wouldn’t hesitate to use them again and will happily recommend them to anyone.
Would recommend to everyone.
The signing up process was easy, and the service from the staff was speedy, friendly, helpful and professional.
The app used to access the premises was easy to use and gave added assurance of the security of my items.
Once inside the premises were modern, clean, well lit, and directions to the storage unit were clear and easy to follow…. Even the lift had step by step instructions!
All in all a fantastic company and storage facility.
Thank you!


The customer service is second to none, and facilities utterly perfect.
11 out of 10.

I was very impressed everything is via the app and that side of things is very responsive and I have had no issues so far.
They even play the radio in there.
Holly was an absolute star, we were panicking as we were in the middle of our house moving and needed a quick storage area. Less then an hour after our first call we were already putting boxes to our Storage.
The site is nice and clean, the entry system is truly clever and makes the storage Access easy and quick.
Customer service is top notch 👌
They talked me through the entering and exiting the facility. Jess was outstanding dealing with all the paperwork quickly and me being forgetful and dim.
Thank you very much, hopefully I won't set any alarms off again




My one suggestion is to extend the timers on the doors when entering the storage unit as sometimes it enough time to unload big deliveries onto a trolley and get back to the unit building before the doors close!
All in all, AMAZING company! Couldn’t recommend more :)


All the staff are very helpful and friendly highly recommended
Access is available 6am to 10pm

System 4 Stars
Sarah 5 Stars

The whole experience was excellent.
TheWigwam staff saw the shipment into the storage unit for us and made it all as simple as is possible when moving home and countries at the same time.
The storage building is well organised, clean, tidy, secure and access was available everyday for a significant number of hours.
Most of all ,the staff were kind, concerned, helpful and friendly. as anyone using the storage facility will learn.
Mary Welstead

Staff were very helpful on the phone setting everything up and compared to other units in Alton Wigwam are very reasonably priced.
Would definitely recommend them
Highly recommend this storage facility to anyone looking for safe, affordable, and hassle-free storage in Bath!



Much Appreciated ☺️
I’d highly recommend them to anyone!

Great service for a great price. Highly recommend.










Very happy client so far, thanks to Lenny and team 🙏😃


The units are easy to access, they are spacious and clean. I have a lot of camping equipment plus all my Xmas decorations (I have a lot) in the winter we will also be storing our hot tub. We also have lots of stuff that was the children’s when they were growing up. It has given us the spare room back at the house.
Staff are always polite friendly and very helpful.





The staff are extremely friendly and helpful. Thank you Lenny for dealing with our emergency fast and supportive,

For full disclosure, we've only just rented the unit and filled it up, but the experience so far has been great. Response times to emails and helpfulness of staff has been excellent.
Thankyou
I would highly recommend .

Would highly recommend.
Beautifully clean facilities, fully automated access. Ample parking and menouvering space for cars and vans.
So easy to use the storage unit.
Thank you to Wigwam self storage Lincoln.
5*****
My wife and I moved back and forth between Cheltenham and other European countries during our two months long trip, Mr.Harrison( Kasey) supported us friendly and professionally.
We will definitely use it again next time.
See you !
We needed sudden storage after selling our parents’ house. I stopped in at the Bromsgrove branch and found it unmanned, (which I now know is normal).
I rang the number and spoke to an extremely helpful employee who offered me immediate, remote access to the building and let me see inside two different sized units.
After that, the set up was extremely quick!
I applied in the morning and was able to drop stuff off the same day. Everything is activated by an app on your phone but staff can be contacted by phone if needed.
On my second visit (after lots of rain) I did notice a pool of water not far from my unit. I rang up and by next day it had been sorted. No recurrence.
I am really happy with the unit and the excellent service.
Lift so you don’t have to struggle in and out with your things lots of parking too
The best thing that made me hire space is the ladies in reception they were so accommodating and helpful so thank you
I hired storage for my daughter to store all her Uni belongings while she was away for the summer.
Sasha provided excellent friendly service. Always at hand to help with any questions from the beginning to the end of our contract.
Great value for money.
Thank you Sascha.
Helen was efficient, proactive, enthusiastic, engaging and more importantly had a great sense of humour.
You could not ask more of a person or company.
Thank you.
Highly recommend this company
Would definitely recommend.

