Home contents insurance in wife's name

mooch

In my search for home contents insurance, I got a reasonable quote from Legal & General.

I then amended the quote to put it under my wife's name instead and the quote came in £30 cheaper.

In my original quote, I said that I was the owner (outright), which I am.

On my wife's quote, is it okay to keep it as owner (outright), even though her name is not on the deeds (bought before we were married)?

trafalgar_2

I would say technically no as she doesn't own it as her name isn't on the deeds(even though technically it will be half hers through marriage ;D)...............if your wife is therefore answering the question ,it would be no

mooch

Thanks, that makes sense.

The other options in the dropdown are:

Owned on mortgage by proposer
Rented by proposer
Leasehold

There's no mortgage, so that can't be right. Rented option means that I don't get the L&G quote (going through keyconnect), which just leaves leasehold.

I'm not sure what they mean by leasehold as an option, but if I use that, I get the same quote as owned outright.

Any thoughts?

trafalgar_2

Is the insurance your getting contents only or buildings and contents ???

mooch

contents only.

trafalgar_2

It's probably just a standard format form so as you and therefore your wife ;D actually do own it I see no reason why you can't put that (sorry for the confusion) as it is for contents only ..................


whether you own the house doesn't really play any part in the equation except to rule out the rented aspect ,if you rent somewhere and wanted contents cover that incuded say accidental damage say then you would in effect be insuring someone elses property because the rented fittings /fixtures would not be yours and therefore you are less likely to take good care of them .......thereby being more of a risk,insurance wise

It would matter if it was buildings and contents

Does that make sense ???

In short go ahead and put that she owns it (if your at all worried about it not being technically correct , put in a note of explanation )I'm sure it will have no bearing on acceptance

mooch

thanks for your help trafalgar.

insurance bought. money saved ;D

trafalgar_2

Your welcome

thefirs

On a related tack, I received my renewal for Tesco home contents insurance last week. I thought that a rise of 16% year-on-year was rather steep so shopped around the usual suspects. A few pounds could be shaved off, but there's all sorts of terms and conditions to check out with a new insurer, so was inclined to stay put.

I then thought to apply for a new quote in my wife's name - same values and conditions - the premium is back to last year's level. I imagine this reflects a new policy discount, but if they accept the business...hey I'm happy to play tweedledee and tweedledum as long as they wish.

MarkyMarkD

I don't agree with the advice above - sorry it's a bit late.

Your wife does NOT own half of your house just because she's married to you. That's just cobblers. You own it and therefore you should insure it. In your own name.

Insurance requires the insured to have an insurable interest in the property insured - usually through ownership. It's not valid to insure something that you don't own.

That's why the proposal form didn't have an "owned by my spouse" option.

IMHO your insurance is invalid and you should get it alterered to the correct name ASAP.

mooch

I don't agree with the advice above - sorry it's a bit late.

Your wife does NOT own half of your house just because she's married to you.  That's just cobblers.  You own it and therefore you should insure it.  In your own name.

Insurance requires the insured to have an insurable interest in the property insured - usually through ownership.  It's not valid to insure something that you don't own.

That's why the proposal form didn't have an "owned by my spouse" option.

IMHO your insurance is invalid and you should get it alterered to the correct name ASAP.

Thanks for the advice. The insurance kicked in this week, so we've still got a few days to cancel or amend. I'll get back to you on what the Insurers say.

As I mentioned before, the insurance is contents only, and the contents in the apartment does belong to both of us. The online application didn't seem to have an option which applied for my wife (who is certainly entitled to ensure her belongings), so I think a call to L&G is best