home insurance - do you have legal cover?

saving_pennies

Hello everyone,

I am looking around for home content insurance which is up for renewal next week. I always shop around rather than just renew with same company. This year I am reviewing what I am insured for as I have actually been over insuring myself. My income is low and with current financial climate I am keeping a close eye on everything I spend.

My renewal is £160 which is full accidental cover (which I do need) for £25000 with legal cover, cover away from home and excess of £50.

I am looking for full accidental cover for £10000 content, no cover away from home, excess £100, no legal cover. Cheapest I found is £64.

The £10000 will cover my content; I have been over insured in the past. I do not take anything valuable out of home except mobile which is covered by its own insurance. What I am wondering about is the legal cover. I have never needed to use this and not sure if I need it. I think if I ever needed legal cover I could go CAB and get advice and I am sure it is possible to get free legal advice from somewhere.

If anyone can offer advice re: legal cover

Many thanks

lisyloo

The CAB might give you advice but they won't fight a case for you.
If you are really talking about legal cover and not advice, then this typically covers you for £50K - £100K worth of legal fees.
So let's say a motorist hit you off your pedal cycle.
You could use this insurance to fight your case to get your time off and personal injury compensation.
Of course you could also in certain cases use a "no win no fee" lawyer, but bear in mind they aren't interested in every type of case (usually only only the ones with a big fat fee).

Do you need it?
It depends on serveral things, including you atttitiude to risk.

As a cyclist I'm not happy without any legal cover, so I prefer to have a policy, but if I wasn't a cylist I might take a different view.
I have acombined policy that covers car, motorbikes and home for £12 and I think it's worth paying that amount for peace of mind and not worth going without for that small saving.

Are you sure £10K contents is enough?
For all your carpets? curtains? etc.
I obviously don't know your circumstances but it's a very small amount.

saving_pennies

Hello lisyloo,

Thanks for replying. I didn't really know what the legal cover was all about, but what you have said does make sense. I see a lot of those adverts on tv about "no win no fee" and did think that maybe in that case I didn't need legal cover as there is CAB and these companies that advertise themselves everywhere. But I see that legal advice is very different from legal cover. And for £12 a year it certainly sounds worth it!!

I will relook at my content. I didn't actually include carpets and curtains in my calculations. I just looked at big things like white goods in kitchen, sofa, bed, tv, wardrobe etc. that I would essentially need if I had to make a big claim due to a fire or something, but you are right I need to add in carpets, curtains, and smaller items like rugs, cost of small tables. I guess looking to save money is one thing, and I really hope I never have to make a claim to replace all my contents due to a fire or something, but I need to realistically make sure if something tragic like that happened I am covered.

Thank you very much, your post has helped me think more about this other than just getting a cheaper policy.

SandC

I don't have legal cover for my home insurance but I do have it with my bank and with a work health care scheme I am in. I pay extra for it on my car insurance - I just feel it's more likely I'll get someone specialist in motor and that it's more likely I will need it in connection with motor.

Don't forget things in the house like your non fixed kitchen applicances, your possessions such as CDs/DVDs (I was burgled 11 years ago and just the CDs they took were valued at over £1000 and would be more like £3000 now), clothes, bedding, curtains etc.

I actually don't think having a low cover figure reduces the premium by all that much. I am paying £160 coincidentally for both contents and buildings and that covers me for £75k contents which is more than enough. Any loss would be adjusted by them anyway - really it's being under insured that you should be wary of because if they think you deliberately under insured to save on premiums they can invalidate a claim.

lisyloo

Yes, remember to include things like clothes adn cds/dvds.
Evening wear could cost a few hundred pounds and all your underwear could cost a few hundred to replace.
Remember in a lot of cases you need to provided the NEW value.

You can't decide to under insure in the hope you don't lose it all.
Let's say you have £20K and only insure £10K.
Then if you claim £5K they will only pay half if they decide you only insured half.
They won't pay up to £10K, they will pay the % that they decide you insured for (by sending someone to loko at your house and make value).

The policy I have is here
http://www.payless.me.uk/clubspecial.htm
I have no connection but from my own research feel it's a good deal and a great price. However I'd always advise people to do their won research.

You could go without, but remeber then you might have to research finding a decent no-win no-fee lawyer perhaps at a dififcult time e.g. when in temporary accomodation or in hospital. If something does go wrong, you won't be ideally placed to deal with it.

It's quite valid to go without if you want, but I think there are a lot of other places you could save more than £12 (like mortgage, gas & elec etc.) so it's always at the bottom of moneysaving priroties for me. However I do think that paying £25 PER policy for everal policies is almost certainly too much.

Astaroth

You are much less likely to make a claim under your home insurance legal expenses cover than you are your car but the big difference is that home legal expenses cover also includes advice and frequently on any topic. Ok, they won't fight the case on any topic but if you simply want to have information so that you yourself can make a more informed decision on how to deal with something then in my opinion it is exceptionally good value for money when you consider the normal per hour charges for a solicitor to give advice

Crazy_Jamie

lisyloo wrote:

So let's say a motorist hit you off your pedal cycle.
You could use this insurance to fight your case to get your time off and personal injury compensation.
Of course you could also in certain cases use a "no win no fee" lawyer, but bear in mind they aren't interested in every type of case (usually only only the ones with a big fat fee).

No disrespect intended here lisyloo, because you are one of the best members in this forum by some distance, but this is a poor example. If you're involved in a cut and dry RTA as a cyclist, or with a car for that matter, you don't need legal expenses cover because you'll easily find a solicitor who will take the case on a CFA (Conditional Fee Agreement, the technical term of 'no win no fee'). There are so many common misconceptions about these types of solicitors. The simple fact of the matter is that vast majority of solicitors who handle PI claims do so under a CFA, and in reality if your case is strong you will find a solicitor who will take it under such conditions irrespective of value.

However your general point is a good one. There are circumstances where you can be faced with needing to bring a claim that cannot be taken by a solicitor under a CFA. Now in such cases you will often be able to recover the solicitor's costs if you win anyway, but in case you don't (or you need help paying the fees in the mean time) it is useful to have the legal expenses cover there as peace of mind. For £12 a year or thereabouts it can easily turn into a sound investment if bad luck strikes, and even if it doesn't it's not a lot of money for peace of mind.

So in other words, I took issue with a specific example (because if I didn't point out the details I wouldn't be very good at what I do), but on the whole I agree that it is worth it

Treacle1983

If you are on a low income or in receipt of benefits - you can prob get free legal cover anyway.

CAB also has free legal advice.

Legal advice cover would cover you for any legal advice needed as long as it does not arise from you being negligent or being the accused.

eg: if you were to get arrested for punching someone - you couldn't claim for legal costs.
if you knocked someone off their pushbike whilst driving - you couldn't claim for legal costs.

however if it was you on the bike or you that was punched - you could.

Also useful for things like land disputes with a neighbour, unfair dismissal from work etc....

dacouch

Legal Expense cover DOES include legal advice vie a telephone line if you are negligent or not negligent

lisyloo

Hi Jamie,

you don't need legal expenses cover because you'll easily find a solicitor who will take the case on a CFA

Isn't that exactly what I said here????

Of course you could also in certain cases use a "no win no fee" lawyer

I didn't use the cycling as an example. It's a seperate sentence.

Anyway putting that aside, let me give you an example.
My FIL was hit in his car by a pedestrain (yes the pedestrian ran into the car and not the other way round).
My FIL claimed his £120 car policy excess back via legal cover.
I really don't think a "no win no fee" solicitor would be interested in claiming £120 off someone who may or may not have any insurance/money.

OK, it's not a massive amount of money for some people, but I think it's a valid point to make that a new solicitor has a choice whether to take on the case, whereas if you have insurance ALREADY in place and it's a valid case, with a good chance of success then they have to offer you the service.

Also bear in mind that you may not want to be researching the quality of "no win, no fee" lawters from your hospital bed.
So researching a policy up front and having it in place could save stress.
By defitnition you'll only need to use the policy in a stressful situation.
You might only be slightly harrassed after a small bump on the other hand you might be in a coma and your partner may be dealing with things.
So I would see a value in doing your research and getting it sorted UP FRONT.

Of course, that doesn't mean it's the best choice for everyone.
If I was really skint I'd go without.
There are arguments both ways.

hethmar

We had never used any insurance cover for 30 years and then we got a neighbour from hell. We started to fight this with a local solicitor and quickly ran up hundreds of quid fees and then someone told us to check our insurance and low and behold we had legal cover. Its not straight forward, they have to believe you have at least 60% chance of winning a case before they take you on but they did take our case. Have to say the solicitors themselves are useless - with the AA you have to use their chosen panel. They have changed 7 times and each time there seems to be a huge gap where they forget about the case. But having said that it has saved us thousands of pounds (though they have wasted even more thousands of pounds having to keep correcting stuff we notice and they dont).

Once this case is over - and its four years now guys - but at least judgment has been made against the neighbour from hell so its all done by the shouting. But once its over I shall change insurer from AA to another company with solicitors who have a better reputation.