House Insurance hard to find (asbestos, previous 'movement')

TimGS

Hi,

We are trying to get insurance for a house we are moving to in the Scottish Highlands. Our mortgage company (Halifax) are quoting £1282! Its a three bedroom detached building of mainly stone/slate construction. The surveyor estimated it at 240yrs old - although we are skeptical of this age, its the only figure we have.

Having tried to shop around we seem to come unstuck on one of two things.

1. Although the bulk of the house is stone/slate, there is an extension of breeze block walls/asbestos tiles. The surveyor mentioned the presence of the tiles...

"The extension to the front of the property is of single leaf concrete block construction under a pitched roof clad with asbestos tiles."

...but verbally said they were not anything to worry about. Nevertheless as soon as you say asbestos, some insurance companies are no longer interested.

2. The survey also mentioned some previous movement:

"Evidence of previous movement was noted in the property, but within the limitations of our inspection, we found no evidence to suggest that the movement appears serious or that there were obvious signs of recent movement having occurred. It is our opinion that this evidence would not have an adverse effect on future saleability."

As fas as I know, movement = subsidence, and certainly after passing on this extract, insurers don't seem to want to know either. This seems a bit odd, given that just about any old property will have initial settlement, but thats how it is.

So, we are somewhat stuck at the moment - any recommendations?

-- Tim.

dacouch

Speak to a local broker

pedro123456

Have a look here Tim

http://www.unbiased.co.uk/find-a-mortgage-adviser/

TimGS

Thanks - the local broker in Skye (or rather the ex-local broker who appears now part of a larger network) has come up with something promising.

-- Tim.

dacouch

In places where the local houses are old and / or have unusual constructions its normally best to speak to a local broker as they will have experience arranging cover for the local properties and will know which Insurers are happy to cover these properties.

It also has advantages dealing with a local broker especially in an area as remote as the OPs as if there is a claim they will almost certainly know of reliable local builders to carry out the work. If you just deal directly with an Insurer they will normally send a contractor (Who could be good or bad) from many miles away.

It also keeps the money local which is a good thing in the current climate.

Timgs let us know what price you got in the end, the brokers name and the Insurer as other MSE members may have a similar problem to you and it can be helpful to them (We're nosey too!). Have a look around the main MSE site as well as there are loads of tips to save a canny Scotsman money

P.S You will probably save a lot of money if you shop around on the open market preferably with an Independent Financial Adviser for your Life Insurance / Mortgage Protection covers as if you just went with your mortgage companies advice you will pay a fortune extra over the duration of your mortgage

TimGS

My quote from the 'local' brokers (actually the Skye office put someone in Glasgow on to the job, but in the grand scheme of the global village thats probably as local as it gets!) was £464.72

With the bigger/familiar companies I got the impression that the people who I was talking to were simply not that bothered about anything that slightly hinted of unusual (i.e. too much effort for them + they were in a call centre and quite frankly didn't seem that knowledgable + they were covering their own back). Alternatively it would be refered up a ladder, and eventually you would get to someone else who couldn't be bothered about something unusual.

It got rather frustrating that two issues that the surveyor highlighted but had told us not to worry about were causing so much hassle.

thanks for the help.

-- Tim.

pedro123456

Tim have a look at this also, I couldn't find it earlier

http://www.biba.org.uk/ConsumerHome.aspx

dacouch

You have discovered how direct Insurers work, they employ lots of staff with little knowledge of Insurance. The Insurers want to deal with large volumes of standard business where it fits into a certain box. This means the length of the calls are shorter so they need less staff and the staff can be less knowledgeable.

It sounds like your dealing with a broker that has been bought out by Giles.

£464.72 sounds about right for an old property, if this is your first Insurance you should find it reduces next year as you earn some no claims bonus.

On a premium of that size it can be worth looking at increasing the excess from the standard £50 or £60 by a further £50 as this will probably save you circa £25 so you only have to go a couple of years without a claim to make an overall saving. If they have not quoted with a £100ish excess ask them how much it is as its worth considering

TimGS

Its the second insurance we've had.

We owned a house in Yorkshire (we're just wannabee Scots at the moment ) between June 2002 and July this year.

I will indeed ask about the excess. Its £50 at the moment.

-- Tim.