Help with Home Insurance!

Captainblunder

Hello, I was hoping the good people on this forum might be able to give me some advice.

In a nutshell I am assisting my mother in law. Her husband passed away recently and the home insurance is in his name. The home insurance renewal quote was £1700 for building and contents and started on 4th July this year. I have now become involved and got quotes from the usual websites for about £500, with a quote from Aviva for £800.

I would just cancel the policy and swap to a cheaper policy, but there is actually a problem with the roof which needs to be claimed on the policy and will cost in the region of £1000 to fix. This will be covered under the existing policy.

So my question to you lot, if you care to think about it, is what is the best course of action? Claim for roof and then swap policies? Or reduce price of existing policy with Aviva and then claim? Or swap to alternative supplier, cancel Aviva, and then claim (if I do that I feel I should tell the new supplier the situation...).

Sorry for the long rant - just complicated!

Any advice or thoughts would be welcome.

dacouch

What is the problem with the roof ?

Do you know why the premium is so high, does your MIL have an above average amount of contents and / or very large house

sparkydellboy

do not go to another insurer, they will ask you for honest details about what happened and when and will refer you to your old policy anyway if they find it was before them. secondly what caused the problem as if it isnt an insurable peril then it may not be covered as there can be a few things that can be classed as wear and tear and that will never be covered if it is. also if you submit a claim with your present insurer, other insurers wont even quote until you have completed that claim - this can take a while as inspectors will need to validate and submit reports and can take at LEAST a week or two.

lisyloo

What is the problem with the roof?
If it was storm damage when did it happen?
Has it been left a long time?
I don't think you can pick & choose when to claim, you have to claim off the insurance in place at the time.

sparkydellboy

if it was storm damage youl need to find what date range it was as weather data will be checked.

Captainblunder

Thanks for the replies! The roof leaked back in February of this year and the roofers who came round made it watertight for the winter as it was too wet to work. However I believe it might be a case of wear and tear - the house is old and large and the roof boards had rotted with the water - not sure what let the water in in the first place though! In the meantime my father in law died and things like roofing claims fell by the wayside.

To update - I called Aviva and explained their quote was too high - they reduced it to £950 for the year without me even pushing. I also put a claim in for the roof so the surveyor will come out to have a look and let us know whether it is wear and tear so not claimable or if there is a claim... we will wait and see...! I think given the complicated situation probably best to stick with them until this roof situation is sorted out.

Also - there are no particular valuables but the house is large and in central London.

dacouch

Try Hiscox, Home and Legacy and also Oak for quotes