House Insurance & Subsidence

I would check your policy wording and find out who your actual insurer is, who is underwriting the policy and get a quote from them. I would definitely stay with the same people who paid the claim.

The reason is that if you stay with the same Insurer they will always offer renewal and importantly when you sell the house they will allow the new purchaser of the home to transfer the policy into their name.

(Both assuming you remain acceptable re claims etc)

If you go to a new Insurer, there is no guarantee that a) they will continue offering cover for you b) they will offer cover to a new purchaser of the home.

I've seen people in your position take cover out with an Insurer who had changed their acceptance on Subsidence and start taking new clients on. When they were selling the house I would receive a desperate phone call from them as their new Insurer had started receiving subsidence claims from the clients they took on and would not allow the policy to be transferred to the house purchaser.

The calls were all on the day of exchange and without fail the old (Original) Insurer refused to offer cover again as the client had broken the chain and insured elsewhere.

The majority of the sales fell through leaving the owner to remarket the house.

This may not be the case with the new Insurer you select but as someone who has been in the market a long time, I've seen this process happen with a few different companies who have dipped their toes in the market and then exited.

Your premium is not very high for a property with subsidence.

I would recommend you look at ways to reduce the premium.

This could include seeing if Tesco's offer discounts off your Home Insurance if you take other policies with them.

Seeing if a bigger excess offers a discount worth taking.

Looking if it's cheaper to just Insure your Buildings with Tesco but insure your contents with someone else (You only need to keep the continuous Building Insurance in place for the gurantee to continue)

I'm not an expert on subsidence and insurance but I was in a similar position where Swinton were increasing my insurance by ridiculous amounts each year. My house had subsidence and underpinning carried out 18 years ago.

A couple of years ago I made so many phone calls for quotes as I was determined to reduce this heftly monthly outgoing. Finally Legal & General not only said yes they could insure me but saved me approx £38 a month!

BUT my subsidence had been over 18 years ago and I could state clearly that there had not been any movement since the underpinning work. I notice your just 5 years into it so you might have to wait 10 years (for Legal & General).

I would give them a ring though and see, you've nothing to lose.

Good luck! The day I reduced that horrible monthly payment I felt a big weight lift. :j

(Just remembered I think I actually posted on here about it at the time in case it helped anyone else.)

That premium isn't normal for contents cover, even in london!

What CSI do you have, and are there any specified items (like jewellery)?

Or, perhaps whoever you spoke to got their numbers backwards? I.e it's the buildings which is £300+ and the contents are £180