Which Home Insurance company is best?

[Deleted User]

It's clear from all the reviews I have read that everything is wonderful when you want to buy insurance but terrible when you want to make a claim - surprise surprise- not!

Does anyone have experience of actually making a House Building Insurance claim and being satisfied?

I'm buying for the first time. MoreThan got some good reviews but their policy document says that I have to pay the first £250 of any claim. I think that is too much. Because of this recent weather I have had tiles off, gutter bracket broken cos of the weight of the ice that collected and holes in a plastic roof after the large lumps of ice from the roof fell on it. It didn't cost £250 quid each time. So no point in insurance with them. It seems that some companies are also saying it was "Frost" or "an act of god" and so won't pay for gutters.

*Scarlett

Many companies will allow you to vary the excess - usually from £50 compulsory and then choose a voluntary excess after that, £50, £100, etc.

For the problem that you described you may want to have an extended accidental damage cover for the building to cover weight of snow / ice.

Also when getting quotes you may be required to declare these incidents even if you didn't claim for them.

You can compare policy features and ratings on this website. You can check the star rating and also compare different benefits of each policy.

http://www.defaqto.com/insurance/home-insurance

Hope this helps.

[Deleted User]

Thanks for that. I was rather hoping to hear from anyone who had had a good experience when claiming on their policies - I read user reviews on dooyoo, reviewcentre, ciao etc and they are mostly very bad. Great at getting, poor at giving seems to be the user experience. I suppose since one is as bad as another I'll just choose the "best" and hope for the best.

dunstonh

I was rather hoping to hear from anyone who had had a good experience when claiming on their policies

That would be the majority of people.

I read user reviews on dooyoo, reviewcentre, ciao etc and they are mostly very bad

The internet is a haven for bad news stories. The more typical normality of claims wouldnt get written up in the same way.

There is no one best company. Its about getting the right cover most of the time rather than buying the cheapest on a quote site that is only cheap because it has lopped off a load of options.

dogbot

Some of the things you are talking about you are correct - it is hard or impossible to find cover for because they are not insurable events, or are maintenance issues.

The £250 you are talking about for More Than sounds like an escape of water specific excess. Usualy household standard excess levels are either £50 or £100, with the option to increase these in return for a premium reduction. In addition you then get higher standard levels of excess for Subsidence (typicaly £1000) and now escape of water (£250 - £350) as a response to a dramatic increase in the frequency and severity of these claims experienced in the last few years.

As indicated above - the web is a haven for bad stories and quite rightly people want to complain and seek help when they have a bad experience. Some of those people are justified, some have unreaslistic expectations, some are just stuck in a missunderstanding, and some are just unreasonable (oh yes, and then there are a few trolls).

You also have to remember that, even with the best service on offer, a genuine claim is often an unpleasant experience for the claimant - they have lost something in some way and that is often up-setting. Naturaly this can colour peoples expectations, optinions and how they regard those involved.

If you want to be sure you have the best levels of cover and will receive the best level of service on offer, then I would suggest you explore the High Net Worth market - names like Hiscox, Home and Legacy (actualy a broker so you get a panel of insurers competing), Sterling, Chubb if you can afford it, or even the top level cover offered though John Lewis (also Sterling underwritten). You can find many local high net worth brokers accross the country. Even using a good local broker to buy a more "standard" product will give you extra service. Companies like legal an general, ecclesiastical etc are smaller and mainly broker based so can offer better personal service. Of course, you will pay a bit more for this.

The best bet, is to actualy take the time to read and understand what you are buying, however you buy it, so your expectations of the product you are buying are accurate.

theJudge

http://www.broking.co.uk/insurance-age/opinion/1563999/the-bad-average

As you can see, insurance companies are mainly bad according to the guys responsible for selling their policies to Joe Public.