Home insurance safe rating UK: cash versus the booklet

The renewal note mentioned a safe, and the product page answered with a cash figure. A home insurance safe rating UK is the grade, or the maker’s cash line, that an underwriter may accept up to a stated amount. It answers a different question from the personal-money limit in your contents booklet.

You might be looking at £1,000 for cash and £10,000 for valuables on Burg-Wächter’s Favor page, or at £750 for personal money in the home on one insurer’s summary. The first pair is what a maker presents a box as suitable to hold. The second is what that policy says about money kept at home. Ordering the box leaves the schedule unchanged until the insurer amends it.

Peter F. read the TSB home insurance summary of cover, Secured by Design’s home-safe guidance, De Raat’s insurance-rating note, the Burg-Wächter UK Favor page, Howden’s note on jewellery in a safe, and the amazon.co.uk listings in our Burg-Wächter comparison, in October 2026. We did not test a safe in a lab, and we did not ask an underwriter to accept a model. A qualifying purchase through our links can earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.

In short

Your contents policy sets its own limit for money in the home, while a cash rating is a separate indicative figure tied to a tested grade or a maker’s line. Secured by Design’s guidance puts EN 14450 S1 at £2,000 cash and £20,000 valuables, and S2 at £4,000 and £40,000, and still tells you to ask the insurer. A Favor line of £1,000 and £10,000, with no EN number, sits below that S1 pair.

Two different numbers

Start with the schedule. On the TSB home insurance summary of cover, personal money in the home is £750. It is one insurer’s summary, a poor stand-in for a United Kingdom cap. Your insurer can print a lower sum, a higher sum, or a sum that applies only when the notes are in a safe of a named type.

A ten-times step from cash to valuables is a trade rule of thumb. £1,000 of cash beside £10,000 of valuables is the pattern on many maker pages. Your policy can still cap jewellery and watches on its own single-article limit. If you keep £400 in notes and a ring over that limit, the money section answers the notes and the valuables section answers the ring. A safe comparison can sort a document box from a lockable cupboard.

The indicative EN ladder

EN 14450 is the lighter cabinet standard UK sellers use for home and small-office units, at security levels S1 and S2. EN 1143-1 is the high-security safe standard, and retailers often continue the ladder above S2 into Eurogrades. London Safes sets that ladder out from S1 upward as its own explanation. Your insurer’s wording is what a claim follows.

Ask whether your underwriter uses the Secured by Design pairs. De Raat publishes indicative bands for EN 14450 and EN 1143-1 and warns that underwriters can differ, so a guidance pair and your booklet can disagree by hundreds of pounds. One firm can ask for a higher grade, or a lower cash sum, than a table suggests. An S1 certificate does not force every UK insurer to pay £2,000.

The grade is a test result on a defined product. Weight and a familiar brand do not move a box up the ladder. If the schedule names S2, an ungraded cupboard fails that sentence. This article leaves Grade 0 and above without a cash figure, because public tables diverge past the S1 and S2 pairs, and your schedule may ignore them. If a broker has asked for a Eurograde, take the certificate back to them. A security safe comparison is where to look at steel cupboards for burglary resistance, and the printed grade still has to match. Sold Secure medals, from Bronze to Diamond, are a separate UK attack scheme, so a medal is a question for the insurer when the schedule names an EN grade.

A maker's £1,000 line

Burg-Wächter’s UK page for the Favor freestanding home safe prints an indicative £1,000 for cash and £10,000 for valuables. The page does not place the Favor in an EN class, so the catalogue figure and the policy wording stay separate until the insurer joins them.

The £1,000 cash line sits below the £2,000 Secured by Design attaches to S1, and £10,000 of valuables sits below the £20,000 on that step. If a broker has asked for S1 or better, the Favor pair does not meet the ask. The range can still suit a smaller sum once the insurer has confirmed the exact model in writing.

On amazon.co.uk, the Favor S3 E in our Burg-Wächter set is about £57.99, with a PIN, a mechanical emergency key, and four AA batteries. The bullets give 8.6 litres and about 4.6 kg, and they include mounting material. The listing states no fire time, prints no EN 14450 or EN 1143-1 grade, and the warranty field says no guarantee. The S3 in that model name, and in the Favor S3 K beside it, is a size. Security level S2 is an EN 14450 grade. Buying an S3 because the character looks higher than S2 spends the money on the wrong idea.

The Burg-Wächter FP 22 K is a 5.6-litre document box at about £42.00, with a stated fire time of 30 minutes up to 1,093°C and 4.4 from 1,548 reviews. It has no EN burglary grade, so it is a weak home for a cash float. A furniture safe is the closer label for a light Favor cupboard.

What to ask before you buy

Ask before you order, and keep the reply. Name the model, the lock, and the sums, split into notes and valuables. Say whether a certificate cites EN 14450, EN 1143-1, or Sold Secure. If you only have the maker’s £1,000 and £10,000, say so, and ask whether that model, fixed as you can fix it, meets the policy.

You want the money limit, the valuables limit, any single-article limit, and the safe condition in words a claim handler can read later. A remark that a safe is sensible does not set the cap. If the condition demands S2, a stated fixing, or an alarm, those words belong in the reply. If the insurer will not write them down, treat the box as unconfirmed.

The safe clause often sits in the full wording, past the summary. The TSB figure of £750 is a summary line for personal money in that one booklet. Your summary may park a safe condition on a later page. If you rent and the policy wants bolts while the tenancy forbids drilling, you do not yet have a place that satisfies both. A Burg-Wächter safe page shows locks, litres, and amazon.co.uk prices. Acceptance for a given sum still comes from the insurer, and a rise in the cash you hold means you ask again.

Bolting does not create a rating

A bolt kit makes a light safe harder to carry away. It does not print EN 14450, EN 1143-1, or a cash figure on a box that has none. The Favor S3 E listing includes mounting material and a floor mount, which helps when the floor is sound and you may drill. The maker’s £1,000 line is unchanged once the bolts are in.

Howden’s note on jewellery draws the same line for concealment. Hiding a safe is a different job from an approved installation. A wardrobe or a false panel can slow a casual search. When the policy asks for a grade, a stated fixing, or a survey, the hiding place does not supply them. Tell the insurer where the safe will stand, and wait for that description to be accepted.

A box of about 4.6 kg, the bullet weight on the Favor S3 E, can leave with the contents if it only stands on a shelf. Plasterboard with no timber behind it, or a floating floor over a void, is a poor home for a domestic fixing kit. The FP 22 K’s stated 30 minutes up to 1,093°C does not certify a cash rating, and these listings do not combine an EN burglary grade with a stated fire time. For both jobs you need documents that cover both, accepted by the insurer.