Urgent Help Needed!

betho_2

Any advice appreciated. My buildings insurance policy is about to come up for renewal at the end of this week. The premium is just over £3k. I shopped around ages ago and got a much better quote but have run into problems with this.

7 or 8 years ago there was a case of subsidence which was fixed - not a big job, no underpinning. I can't find documentation to support this and am therefore being turned away by potential new insurers.

Therefore my current insurer has me over a barrel.

Does anyone have experience of this? Can anyone recommend an insurer who I could deal with?

dacouch

Which insurer is it?

betho_2

The insurere is Zurich

dacouch

That is what I would expect from Zurich, do you deal through a broker or direct or is it a branded policy.

How much were you paying before the claim?

betho_2

it's through a broker. i just bought the place a couple of years ago so I don't know what the premium was before. do you know of anyone that I could speak to?

dacouch

They should not increase the premium this much, what quite often happens with Zurich is that they increase the rating for your post code because they class it as a subsidence risk (Your claim which I'm guessing was upwards of £30000 will be affecting it). They increase the rating as they do not want to attract any new clients in your post code.

What they would normally do is offer you cover but at an increased rate, I would not expect say a £400 premium to incease to £3000 it is more likely in your case to increase to say £600 to £800.

Ask your broker to ring them up and sort this out, its what you pay the broker for, failing that ring them yourself although I would expect a decent broker to be able to get a good response.

It is important that you get this resolved with Zurich as you need to stay with them see my posts here.

If it was me that was ringing Zurich I would say to them, I see you have increased the rating for homes in that post code as you deem it a high subsidence risk now. However this does not apply to Betho as her home should not subside as you have paid out for subsidence and it will not subside again as you will have done all of the work properly havn't you. Betho is prepared to pay a small increasein thier premium but £3000 is unresonable. Also get them to put in the conversation that the broker and you chose Zurich for their reputation and quality of cover (This helps as Zurich sell themself on not being the cheapest company but on their reputation and cover.

I have seen similar cases as yours with zurich a few times and its just a case of getting hold of the right person at zurich and talking them through it

If they speak to a superviser this should work,

Insurers have an unwritten agreement between them that if they pay out on a subsidence claim they continue offering cover at a reasonble premium. Zurich are a very good company and are reputable so they should honour this (Your renewal has probably just been generated by their computer that see your in a high post code now and charges a high premium, I doubt a human looked at it and said this increase should be capped).

Be warned that once you have sorted this out with them your renewal will go up a bit more each year than it normally would

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1446059&highlight=subsidence (Please read this thread as it has helpful info)

If you do not receive help from zurich their are a couple of companies that will offer cover but it is expensive. (None of the normal companies will touch you know)

If you have any problems let me know

betho_2

thats great - thank you very much