Building Insurance with subsidence

germatt

My boyfriend made an insurance claim about 12 years ago for the house he resided in which suffered from subsidence. I have been living with him in it for about 3 years. After the claim he continued to be insured with the same insurer and the premiums were resonable. The house was rendered safe and all trees in the area were cleared. Subsequently the person he was living with left and cancelled the insurance. I moved in and we had to cover the property as if from scratch and have only been able to get isnurance from one company, Towergate, which claims to specialise in subsidence. At about £700 a year the premiums are far too high for us. It does include contents too but at the third year running is as stated too high. I'm sorry about the length of this but wanted to give detail as really hoping someone could help or advise us where / how to get more reasonable insurance. For the record the company did come out and check the property and were content with the state of it currently. Thanks in anticipation of any help.

dacouch

£700 for building and contents for a property with previous subsidence is a very good deal.

How much is your excess ?

germatt

Hi dacouch

Is it really even though the claim was over 10 years ago and if only the original insurance hadn't been cancelled as this was much more resonable.

The excess is £5k

dacouch

I meant the excess for normal claims

germatt

It seems to be £100

dacouch

You may find there is a further excess as Insurers often have a compulsory excess (Built into the policy) and a voluntary excess (You opt for it and receive a discount).

I don't normally recommend having an excess over £100ish as the discount you receive for voluntary excesses is not very generous, however on the size premium you have the discount could make it worth while.

Give Towergate a ring an ask how much your total excess is, then ask them to give you quotes with different voluntary excesses. Don't make a decision over the phone but write all the figures down and have a think about it.

I tend to look at it over a five year period as people tend to have a claim / incident every five or so years. So if you opt for say a further £150 excess and the discount you receive is £50 over five years you will save £250 but might have to pay the excess out once but even so would still have saved money (On your size premium I would expect a saving of upwards of £30 a year for a £150 excess.

Also if you have cover for Accidental Damage on the Contents, I would ask for a quote without it and then perform the same costing over five years to see if the saving is worth it over a set period.

Take into account that on your size premium it would be not worth claiming for small amounts as your premium would increase and you would pay your excess. (You could also ask the Towergate person to give you a rough indication as to what your renewal premium would be if you had a claim of say £750. This would help you work out roughly what amount it would be worth claiming for).

Personally I would leave Accidental Damage Cover on the Buildings as the cost is probably around £40 a year and the claims for A/D on buildings tend to be relatively high eg £1000 upwards

germatt

Thank you dacouch. Somethings to lokk into.