I don't want to be forced to have "Minimum Security"

ianrberts

Hi all,

I live in a very nice area, but am surrounded by some slightly less nice areas, and so consequently despite never had any need to claim on my contents insurance in the 10+ years of living here, I find that most insurance companies demand that I have security measures in place e.g. locks on windows.

Now actually all the doors and windows do have the requisite amount of security, but I am paranoid that one day I would leave a window unlocked (not open, just unlocked) and that if that was the day that we got broken into then the insurance company would say "tough, you're not covered".

Consequently I am looking for companies that do not force you to have security in place - I don't mind having to pay extra for the policy, or of having an additional excess should I get burgled and a window had been unlocked.

I've so far found that Admiral and Asda will for an increase in the policy allow you to not specify locks, and that the co-op and IngDirect will similarly do it for an increase in the excess.

Does anyone know of any other companies?

Thanks

silvercar

chubb...........................

mattymoo

Possibly Hiscox as well but this and the Chubb policies are in a different league to the likes of Admiral and Asda. They are both designed for mid-high net worth customers who are prepared to pay extra for superior service.

ianrberts

Thanks for the tips.

I presume that if security was needed, then Hiscox would come out and mention it somewhere? I've put in a quote and took it all the way through until it started asking for credit cards and could not see it mentioned anywhere, apart from the key facts document where it says "while we may ask for a minimum level of security ... we leave it to your sensible discretion".

Is there a website for Chubb? I went to chubb.com but it looked like a corporate site and could not find any links to get to actual quotations.

ps when looking I was surprised that Asda offers up to £55000 contents which is not too much below Hiscox's standard of £63000.

Quentin

Have you tried Asda? Although they ask whether or not you have lock security, burglar alarm etc it seems to make no difference to the premium whether you answer yes or no!

dogbot

Forget Chubb, I mean this will all respect, but you are not their market and neither are most of the rest of us. They have very high minimum sums insured and you would need a very specialist broker to access them.

Hiscox are superb. They have the reputation that, rather than any quibbling, they actualy suggest things they can pay for if you have a claim, but you pay accordingly. You can also try Home and Legacy who are a broker/insurer specialising in high net worth so they should also be able to offer wider cover.

If there is no minimum security requirement indicated in the quote (an endorsement would be applied and usualy shown to you) then you are fine. If there is one when you get the schedule you have 14 days to cancel anyway (assuming you have some time before renewal).

To explain all this, an endorsement or requiement for minimum security will be applied in 4 ways.

1) You identify that you have certain security on you home, e.g. an alarm, certain locks, window locks. This generates an endorsement that will say you have to use these when not at home (to paraphrase).

2) Your postcode indicates that there is a certain level of theft risk there and so this triggers a minimum security requirement

3) You select a certain level of sum insured, specified items etc, again triggering the requiement

4) Some combination of the above.

ianrberts

Thanks for the answers so far.

One other company that I should have mentioned is esure. I'm actually with them at the moment but was looking at other quotes to see how competetive they were - surprisingly when I checked online to see how much a quote for a new person at esure would be, it actually was £100 more than the renewal quote that they offered me!!!!

I wish that all of the sites were upfront about the endorsements - some have the fact that you need security buried deep in the legalise.

Regarding asda and the quotes being the same regardless of selecting security or not, I actually found that the prices were different (about a fiver or so) which is one reason why I actually believed them and so put them down in my original post. Some other sites did give the same prices, and these are the ones that when you delve into them, you find that actually they've decided that you're going to have to have security after all but they're not always upfront about the fact.

One thing that puts me off about Hiscox is the £250 minimum excess which seems a bit high - though as I've never claimed maybe it wouldn't affect me.

Regarding cancelling - did you know that some of the brokers say that they will charge you an admin fee even if you cancel within 14 days. Asda for instance says that they'll charge you a £20 fee.

dogbot

Asda home insurance is actualy provided by BDML on a panel basis (lots of insurers). BDML are a broker/fulfilment house.

It may not be an admin fee but you will have to pay for the cover you used during those 14 days IF that is after the policy inception date. I think they are allowed to charge an admin fee but at £14 this is much lower than the regular cancelation fees most charge.

Is the Hiscox excess a compulsory theft excess or just total contents excess? If the primary then it could be their way of dealing with a high risk postcode (assuming you have one). Alternativly it could just be a reflection of the fact their clients can easily afford to absorb a £250 loss.

ianrberts

My insurance isn't due for a few weeks so it should just be the admin fee that I would have to pay - though if it did arrive and after all of my efforts found that it mentioned that they wanted security then I'd spit blood before letting them get away with charging me any admin fee...

The Hiscox excess was just the contents excess - so obviously I'm not their intended audience as I only wish I could easily afford to absorb that loss

Thanks

dacouch

Ian it is refreshing to find a consumer who reads and understands their policy, people opting for security discounts without understanding the implications is something that concerns me. As you have rightly discovered by reading your policy not using the locks and being broken into can result in the claim not being paid or a much bigger excess (With Hiscox and Chubb etc this is not always the case). Dogbots post number 6 explains the situation pretty well. If you do not fall into his points 2, 3 & 4 then you can normally avoid the security warranty by not selecting the security discount.

The reason Hiscox tend to go for high excess is their typical clients do not expect Insurance to cover smallish claims so only claim on their policies for major claims.

cogito

FWIW, Hiscox have withdrawn their mid net worth policy and are now only in the high net worth market.