home insurance - do you have legal cover?

saving_pennies

Thank you everyone for your comments.

I think for £12 a year it is worth me taking legal cover.

In terms for amount I need covered, I now know that £10,000 is not sufficient when I take into account the amount it would be to replace clothes, cd's, books, computer software etc. I have a support lady who is coming tomorrow and hopefully together we can get a more accurate estimate.

I used several comparison sites basing the quote on £10,000, and this call centre phoned me and transferred me to various companies. HomeDirect can cover me full accidental cover for up to £50,000 and with excess of £50, for £69 a year. I can't remember if this was with legal cover or not, but even adding legal cover it would still be much cheaper than £160 quoted by my current insurers. I haven't taken this out yet, and thinking that when I do I need to tell them I am changing the amount I need to be insured for. But as this company will cover me up to £50,000 will they have a note of what I requested my cover to be? or do they have there own idea of what a one bed flat would contain. I'm assuming the cost of policy will remain the same however much content I have as long as it doesn't exceed £50,000. Obviously I have no where near £50,000 of content, and they say "up to £50,000" so how do they work out content amount if for example everthing had to be replaced due to some unforeseen event sure as a fire.

Thank you all once again.

Astaroth

Treacle1983 wrote: »

CAB also has free legal advice.

Does the CAB ever give good advice though? Have to say from personal experience they are OK for run of the mill questions (eg debt, faulty items etc) but anything slightly out of the ordinary (hotels responsibility for items left in room etc) they are poor at best or simply wrong (as was their advice to me)

brokeinyorkshire

Hi.

I have worked in Insurance for the past two years.

The Legal cover offered by my company only covers certain things such as contract disputes, bodily injury, employment disputes, legal prosecutions, and a few other things, It also entitles you to free legal advice 24/7 365 days a year..
Additionally they provide a solicitor for you if you do make a claim.

I have used the helpline on my own policy and they are quite helpful.

One thing though. make sure you are covered fully for accidental damage. Most insurers offer this as standard but what they don't tell you is that there is an additional accidental damage cover which applies to spillages on carpets, rips to furniture etc. This comes at an extra cost and many people think they are covered until they come to make a claim.

brokeinyorkshire

But as this company will cover me up to £50,000 will they have a note of what I requested my cover to be? or do they have there own idea of what a one bed flat would contain. I'm assuming the cost of policy will remain the same however much content I have as long as it doesn't exceed £50,000. Obviously I have no where near £50,000 of content, and they say "up to £50,000" so how do they work out content amount if for example everthing had to be replaced due to some unforeseen event sure as a fire. ....................

They have based the premium on £50,000,000 worth of cover and they also use other factors to work out your premium such as postcode, claims history, security of your home etc.
If your home was destroyed they woud send out a loss adjuster to work with you to ascertain what needs to be replaced. They use ' utmost good faith ' which means they will take your word for it as to how much you have lost although obviously you wouldn't want to go mad and overexagerate.
Some insurers offer unlimited cover and some have limits. Ask the company you have got a quote with if they can reduce the amount of cover for your contents as it might save money on the premium. If its a set limit then it won't make any difference.

Hope this helps.

Joanne

dacouch

Not only should you not over exagerate, you should not exagerate your claim at all

saving_pennies

Thank you all for your comments.

I'm very pleased to have found home content insurance for about £86 (compared with renewal price of £160). This includes full accidental damage and legal cover. There is two differences between my old cover and this new one: firstly, my old cover was for £25000, and the new one is £17500 which is sufficent for everything plus anything I may purchase over the year. Secondly I have chosen not to have cover away from home, as I no longer need this. I now know the importance of legal cover and I did take it out with the home insurance because of the deal I got, but I will remember for next year that I can take out the legal cover seperately.

To find something half the cost of my renewal took time looking over internet, plus some annoying phone calls from insurance companies/agents, and then some haggling of the price. One of the annoying phone calls was useful as the man went through a content estimate with me, where I read out everything in each room and he did the sums for me, on a new for old basis, which gave a more realistic value of my contents.

I am very happy with my decision; it mets my needs and also saved me just under £80 :j

Thank you all for guiding me in my search.