Semi detached house - does my insurance cover my neighbour’s house too if my house burns down?

Patp303

I have buildings and contents home insurance and it includes public liability, but I can’t work out if this would cover me if damage to my semi-detached house impacted on my neighbour? I had thought this must be the case - but now feeling unsure. Would it be under public liability or does it need to be specified in another section?

Sandtree

Depends on the cause of the fire...

Your house is struck by lightning causing a fire which spreads to your neighbours - its not your fault (its an “act of god”) and so you both claim off of your own policies.

You decide to fry some chips on the hob and get distracted on a telephone call and the pan boils over and ignites, fire spreads to the neighbours. You have clearly been negligent and therefore the neighbours can claim off the PL section of your Contents insurance.

PL on contents covers issues resulting from your being the occupier of the property (as the example above) whereas PL on buildings covers issues resulting from you being the owner of the property (eg the postman that trips on the uneven pathway you’ve been meaning to fix for years)