cheap building and contents discussions (Merged Discussion)

IvanOpinion

Hi oooOOOooo (may I call you 'o' for short?)
Congratulations on your new house and I hope the move goes smoothly for you. You will need buildings and contents insurance. You can surf various sites on the web to get comparative quotations (also check out Martins insurance section). The problem is that like everything else several places will not quote NI.

I am personally with Legal and General (quoted and organised through the web several years ago - generally I just receive a renewal now). Recently I have been told that the Halifax policy is quite good (no personal experience).

The main things to keep in mind when sorting this out
- you only need to insure the buildings for the cost of rebuilding (not the market value of the house). Take proper advice on how much this is - the ABI (Association of British Insureres does have a calculator byried on its site)
- make sure that you have enough insurance for your contents. Some people under insure themselves and find that the insurance company will not pay out the full expected amount. I basically went round the house and priced everything into a large spreadsheet and was surprised at the bottom figure that came out.

I think that most Building and Contents insurance policies cover you for public liability as well (related to your property). Again, talk to a trained independent financial expert - but do a bit of homework first.

Good luck
Ivan

SnowyOwl_2

When you phone for quotes they will be interested to know if your house is timber frame or standard (ie brick) construction. Some of them won't insure timber frame houses.

Let us know how you get on (if only because my renewal is due!!).

All the best.

ooo000ooo

Why, when you're trying to suss this stuff out online do they wait until you've spent half an hour ticking boxes and answering questions across about 10 pages before telling you either their site is down for essential maintenance (Endsleigh) or they can't give you a quote for some reason they've omitted to give you (Northern bank)!!?!!? :mad:
Best so far is Tesco's undercutting everyone else by about 150 quid (£217) for buildings and contents. Do i need life insurance as well?

isayoldchap

ooo000ooo wrote:

Why, when you're trying to suss this stuff out online do they wait until you've spent half an hour ticking boxes and answering questions across about 10 pages before telling you either their site is down for essential maintenance (Endsleigh) or they can't give you a quote for some reason they've omitted to give you (Northern bank)!!?!!? :mad:
Best so far is Tesco's undercutting everyone else by about 150 quid (£217) for buildings and contents. Do i need life insurance as well?

Hello
Firstly if you had moved to Hawaii I could call you Hawaii nine o-
Ok the usual would be for you to go to confused.com and insure supermarket.Use the links from this site(that way they get a cut and it helps to keep this free blah blah ).I know that some of the quotes won't impress you but if they do you will need to visit the companies website.The requote should give you a cheaper price(as they are charged on the search sites).Alot
of talk on MSE is to visit Halifax,Barclays and my favourite is Egg.com(they also give you free european travel insurance for the whole family for a year.
(well that's the current offer).Consider having acc damage just on the buildings and try to include Legal cover(very good for suing).Also visit some cashback websites like greasypalm or rpoints(through Mse).One that seems to be gaining popularity is quidco.com where they seem to pay double cashback.Always remember to register and login to your account.Then visit the insurance website through the cashback link.If you don't do that you will not get your cashback.Check all t&c's as to when you are paid as they do vary.This should give you an extra £30 back with some sites.My mother did get a good quote with Motorquotedirect (use quidco.com for £30)last year and they insured up to £200,000 just incase any damage affects the one neighbour's house next door.The personal quotes I have received affect our
circumstances.Of course your quotes may be sky high.But it's a start.
As for your life insurance.Again a good link here was with cavendishonline(go
through MSE)
Just one extra point....I note you are getting the keys next week.When we bought in 2000 we were advised by our then lender (Britannia BS)that we needed to start the insurance for buildings at the exchange of contracts date
(usually two weeks before you finalise).This actally cost just 0.88p more for our insurance(moved in 08/08/00).Surprised that your lender hasn't mentioned it.I am of course assuming you have a mortgage.Maybe just Britannia are concerned if the other party may not have insurance.

IvanOpinion

ooo000ooo wrote:

Why, when you're trying to suss this stuff out online do they wait until you've spent half an hour ticking boxes and answering questions across about 10 pages before telling you either their site is down for essential maintenance (Endsleigh) or they can't give you a quote for some reason they've omitted to give you (Northern bank)!!?!!? :mad:

Drives me scatty as well, fortunately most seem to ask the postcode up front :rotfl:

Best so far is Tesco's undercutting everyone else by about 150 quid (£217) for buildings and contents. Do i need life insurance as well?

You know the figures you are trying to insure so as long as you are comparing like-for-like.

As far as life insurance is concerned ... hmmm ... this all seems to have changed lately (according to some people I have been talking to). It used to be that if you took out an interest-only mortgage you HAD to have an endowment policy (or some other means of paying back the capital); if you took out a repayment mortgage then you HAD to have some form of life insurance to repay the capital.

Lately people have been telling me that they have not been forced to take out either of these ... maybe it is because the bank/building society will simply repossess the house. I know of several people who have neither ... but they are also single (which makes a difference, most people with marital/children obligations will try to provide something for when they pop-their-clogs). Can anybody clarify the situation on this?

I would always recommend that you have some form of life insurance. You would need to consider whether to take out a flat-rate or decreasing term policy.

Ivan

ooo000ooo

Quick update - Abbey insurance have quoted me £166 for buildings and contents (150K building, 35k contents) including accidental damage and thats with the missus as a registered child minder with her own liability insurance.

criminal_smile

ooo000ooo wrote:

Quick update - Abbey insurance have quoted me £166 for buildings and contents (150K building, 35k contents) including accidental damage and thats with the missus as a registered child minder with her own liability insurance.

Almost sure Abbey have a product which offers unlimited insurance for buildings, and high cover for contents (£35k +), for about £8 something per month. I DO have the details somewhere at home. I'll try to find them later.

Teerah

When I had to get buildings and contents for the first time last year, we found that Allianz Direct gave us a much lower quote than anywhere else I tried. Maybe worth a look?

isayoldchap

Teerah wrote:

When I had to get buildings and contents for the first time last year, we found that Allianz Direct gave us a much lower quote than anywhere else I tried. Maybe worth a look?

Only for Northern Ireland I was advised when I emailed them.They suggested Cornhill Allianz. :beer:

NAR

isayoldchap wrote:

Only for Northern Ireland I was advised when I emailed them.They suggested Cornhill Allianz. :beer:

Not being nasty here, but I think you need some punctuation to make your post make sense.