home insurance, do you get a no claims bonus certificate?

stolt

hi can someone offer advice with regards to home insurance.
We are currently in rental and have been for 18months which we have content insurance previously we lived in a house for 6 years and have both buildings and contents insurance and were claim free.

We are just about to move into our new house and want to get both buildings and contents insurance which i'm in the process of getting quotes for.

When i phoned aa insurance who we have contents with to cancel bcause there quote was a lot higher on the new house than what i could get elsewhere i mentioed that would they send me a no claim certificate and they said for home insurance it was different they dont issue them they bascially accept what the customer tells them and if they find out at a later date then the insurance is invalid. i asked them how they go about proving it then if i had a claim bearing in mind that i havent got a certificate. I'm sure my previous insurer issued a certificate and i sent it off to AA.

lastly is there a rule as with car insurance that if you dont have insurance for 2 years your no claims startback at 0 again?

thanks for taking the time to help.

Quentin

Proof of no claims is not usually given with home insurance.

There is no "rule" about when your NCD is out of date, each company has its own policy, though many do consider it out of date at 2 years - some more, and some less.

stolt

Quentin wrote: »

Proof of no claims is not usually given with home insurance.

There is no "rule" about when your NCD is out of date, each company has its own policy, though many do consider it out of date at 2 years - some more, and some less.

thanks for answering. How do you got about proving the no claim years if the insurers dont provde a certificate. I would have thought the industry would want something like there is for car insurance. I dont understand what stop people saying they have 10 years no claims to avoid paying a higher premimum.

Quentin

Generally people are honest, don't want to lie, don't want to commit fraud.

Those that aren't bothered about that are bothered that if they lied, then their house burnt down that they would have just wasted their money buying the insurance as they wouldn't get paid out!

stolt

Quentin wrote: »

Generally people are honest, don't want to lie, don't want to commit fraud.

Those that aren't bothered about that are bothered that if they lied, then their house burnt down that they would have just wasted their money buying the insurance as they wouldn't get paid out!

thats true, but i still dont understand how the insurance companies prove that you havent got the said number of years no claims when they dont provide anything to verfy when you move insurers. unless of course there is an insurance database detailling previous insurance. I'm not advocating insurance fraud but it made me wonder after speaking my contents insurer how i go about proving my no claims to the next insurer. Just seems a bit open to abuse when you think that how tight it is with car insurance.

lisyloo

I don't work in the industry but it would not suprise me in the least to find a claims database to avoid fraud.
If people lie and abuse it then the chances are they won't get paid out, so the insurer doesn't need to worry, they simply refuse to pay.

mattymoo

lisyloo wrote: »

I don't work in the industry but it would not suprise me in the least to find a claims database to avoid fraud.
If people lie and abuse it then the chances are they won't get paid out, so the insurer doesn't need to worry, they simply refuse to pay.

The database is called CUE - Claims and Underwriting Exchange. Records details of all claims made against subscribing insurers. Most firms now subscribe to it.

NCD on home insurance policies is a bit of a marketing gimmick to be honest with you Stolt. IIRC NU were the first firm to offer it. The discounts on offer are not as high as they are for motor. Max NCD on motor is 65-70% whereas it is only around 25% for household.

To the best of my knowledge there is no standard "proof of NCD" for household cover and some firms will generally only accept their own system. So in effect, the NCD is only any good while you stay with that insurer.

stolt

Thanks for that, makes more sense. I've been been messing around with moneysupermarket with different factors today and between having 0 claims and 6 years no claims it equates to about £100-£200 difference in the premimum.

lisyloo

You might want to try quidco as well.
I got £120 back last year with Lloyds TSB.
That offer is probably not still there, but I always get the best deals that way.

There are some gotchas but it's how I get the best prices.