House Insurance - Desperate help needed! Underpinned house!

ducey

Hi,

Our home insurance is due for renewal on the 24th October and we've just received a renewal quote of £957, (£370 was last years) due to AXA (through a broker) now declaring our postcode apparently within a flood risk area. Other insurance companies (including AXA Online!) and the Environment Agency state we are not within a flood risk area.

We have contested this quote from AXA by proof of screenshots from the Environment Agency website and Google Maps and proof that AXA Direct (http://www.axainsurance.co.uk) will insure our house (if specified without subsidence) to prove that we're not in a flood risk area. They won't budge on this new price.

Our current insurance provider AXA were the insurance company who covered the subsidence claim in 2004.

Can anyone recommend an insurer to cover an underpinned house (guaranteed certificate until 2017) at a reasonable price?

Most of the quotes we have looked at online require a Structural Survey costing around £300 before we get a quote.

I've seen a company called HomeProtect on the internet, which don't seem to require a survey. Does anyone have any comments on that insurer?

Thanks very much,
Nathan

chambta

What about a local broker? Get them to do the running round.

ducey

We used a local broker who got us the latest renewal quote, after using them for the previous 3 years we've been in the house.
I'll take a look to see if there are other brokers in the area.

huckster

Homeprotect are just a broker.

Bureau Insurance services another broker, also specialise in this area.

Why don't you approach AXA Direct. Sometimes there can be a difference between the approach of the department that deals with brokers and the head office of the same company. You really need to try to get to the head office underwriters to see whether they will look into it. Perhaps they have made a mistake with the postcode i.e someone has keyed a flood risk postcode in wrongly, so your postcode has been included by mistake.

ducey

Thanks huckster, I'll contact Bureau Insurance services.

I've phoned our broker that we used and directly asked them for the contact details for AXA that they deal with, but they wouldn't provide them. I called AXA Direct (http://www.axainsurance.co.uk) who said that they are a different company to the AXA that brokers use, and they don't insure underpinned properties, even though they class my house outside of a flood risk area.

If anyone has the contact details for AXA that brokers use, please can you let me know! I think contacting head office might be the only option with them now.