Home Insurance Discussion

mumsthewordhere

That's the best 30 minutes work I've ever done. I've arranged the exact level of cover we need for our home buildings and contents, including valuables etc. Last year I just renewed our Barclays Finer policy because I was busy....this year our renewal notice was £953.91 and that's outrageous! I've replaced it with Marks and Spencer for £270!!

Turns out we'd never 'downsized' our contents cover when we downsized our home & lives 4 years ago. I'm mad at myself for the waste of money, but motivated to get a grip of all our other expenses now. Lesson learnt - I will prioritise money saving from now onwards!

JillR

Please beware if you have suffered from a flood - I got several quotes for buildings and contents insurance and answered all the questions truthfully - have you made a claim in the last 5 years? No.
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I got a much cheaper quote than my present insurers so rang them to cancel my renewal and they said 'Are you sure your new insurers know your house has been flooded?' so I checked and even though the house was flooded 12 years ago and I wasn't living here then apparently it still counts.
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I tried the same thing with two other insurers with the same result including the Halifax who were quite prepared to let me have a mortgage when I moved in but apparently won't consider insuring my house now!!
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If I hadn't checked I would have taken out the insurance blissfully unaware that I wouldn't be covered even though I had answered all the initial questions correctly.
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Miss_Y

It is a bit late to be writing now as I need to renew my building and contents insurance by 12pm tonight and really want it done before 6pm tonight so I can relax this evening BUT...

Can anyone recommend a good home insurer who allows you to have clients at your property to shoot portraits of when you are starting out in Photography and need to work from home?

I am having trouble with the presumptions on the comparison sites as many don't like business use and am also wanting to get cashback if poss on Quidco, so need someone they have who accepts this type of business use. Many insurers I've found also don't even have photographer as a job you can do!

Also a bit of background. My B+C was £340 last year with AXA but they want £740 this year!!!! Rang them and they are not interested in reducing, even though I have 5 yrs no claims and only live in a 2 bed mid terrace.

Found Legal & General offering £271 for B+C for Home insurance Extra, which I quite like but they don't ask about business use, though their extra policy covers 10% of contents as business equipment. Are these guys good?

Thanks

Miss Y

marek_max

Guys,

I am in London and I rent a flat. I wanted to get a home insurance (contents cover). It was a challenge really as every time I tried to get a quote I was able to find a catch. What I mean by that is that most policies are not clear about the security requirements. I am renting a flat so I do not have a choice and most flats do not have a deadlock or a super secure lock etc.

What is strange - in many situation there is NOTHING about it in the policy wording! I was happy I found something good, I spent 1 hour looking through this document and have not found anything (80 pages). I asked them 20 times and they confirmed there were no requirements. I arranged everything over then phone, the next day they sent me a policy and all documents. Again - in the policy wording - no requirements... BUT on the policy itself it was written: 'if you are in a high risk postcode area you have to have a lock specified in our document or no cover for you'. I am in a high risk area I guess... its London Of course I have not received any document saying what kind of lock etc... It was good I had 14 days to cancel it...


Long story short - any insurance company you can recommend that will be clear about it and accept a simple Yale rim lock?

THX

resident

Hi wondered if anyone had any advice, I am wanting to get home insurance for the first time and thought I would use Sainsbury's insurance as they have a 9 months for the price of 12 months deal at the 'mo also I work for Sainsbury's so would be entitled to a staff discount. I only require contents insurance as I rent the property.

So I phone to get a quote and everything was fine until they asked what year the property was built, said I would find out and let them know. These are the ways I tried to get the info Housing Association was told they don't hold this info only when they first had a tenant in the property, Local council told they don't hold this information, Land Registry told they don't hold this information, local archive library who couldn't find any deed information on the property and could only through ordnance survey maps tell me when the road was built. So no luck with finding out the date of when the property was built.

I relayed all this to the guy on the phone who said he would check with the underwriters if he could go ahead without that information and put insurance in place the answer was no. The underwriters said any insurance would be invalid without that info and so he couldn't even give me a quote.

Now I don't know what to do I believe Sainsbury's would have been the best deal for me but there is no chance there and if some companies want to know the date the house was built and some don't this may limit my choices and means I won't necessarily get the best deal. Would I be better off forgetting about insurance and put some money into a saving account instead?, or is there anyway I can find out when the house was built?

Oh forgot to say I did ask a couple of neighbours and they said they didn't know and their insurers never asked them that!

Any help or ideas would be much appreciated.

ronekenn

Home insurance is one of the mandatory insurance a person must have. It is the insurance that recovers a person if any mishap occurs to his home, and its belongings. However most of the people search for a cheap insurance company, however a person must be well concerned regarding the company's policies like that of premium rates and the things which the company will cover.

Joalluja

Guys, you have the privilege of reading my first ever post on this forum. Felt so strongly about what I've just experienced I thought I'd spread the word, but I guess you will probably know already.

Current house insurance policy is with Direct Line--Renewal price this year a whopping £551. Did an online quote as a new customer and guess what, it came to £286! This was with every conceivable add on you could think of.
1. Home insurance plus (covers you for house emergencies leaky pipes, no electric, that sort of thing)
2. Annual travel insurance.
3. Accidental cover for both building and contents
4. Legal cover
5. Bike cover

I'm sure there's more but I think you get my point.

I called Direct Line and spoke with customer retention. The best they could do was £367. After much discussion the poor lady could only tell me that was the best she could do, despite my continued attempts to point out the illogical stance of the company’s unwillingness to simply price match for an existing customer. Absolutely crazy. Now, here was the dilemma. Do I continue with my current policy and pay £367, as she so desperately wanted me to do, or, do I simply apply as a new customer and save £81 or £245 off my original renewal quote. Thought about this for a nano-second as you would expect.

PRICE OF APATHY £245……….. :beer:

VictorM_2

This is very common amongst pretty much any insurer out there - they advertise low prices to attract new business and then rely on consumer apathy when the prices go up.

You certainly seem to have made the right decision.

kerranet

We were recently burgled and have home insurance cover with Sainsbury’s bank. We have a monthly direct debit which comes out of our Barclays account which we have had for five years. When we first set up the policy we had a Lloyds bank account. We are on a debt management plan as we owed money on the Lloyds account along with some credit cards. We pay monthly through the CCCS an agreed amount. Sainsbury’s bank called us last week to tell us we had insurance payout of £6800 coming our way. The lady at Sainsbury’s asked my wife which account it was to be paid into and my wife told her the Barclays as this is where are premiums have been paid into and we haven’t used the Lloyds account in over five years. We found out today that the money has gone to the Lloyds which we no longer use. Are Sainsbury’s responsible for retrieving the money back and putting it into the correct account, namely our Barclays which we have used for the last five years?

veterano

Re. Post Office insurance run by BISL, DONT TRUST THEM. I recently had a quote about 14 days before my insurance was due and I was about to buy with a view to looking at the policy when it arrived to ensure it was the best value. the agent was running through the details when she mentioned a charge of £30 should I cancel. I queried this and she confirmed that even though the policy would not have started I would be charged this fee. I told her this was contrary to the 'distance selling regs' and that they had to give me 7 days after receipt of the policy, ( I have since contacted trading standards and had this confirmed and told them about the company). I also rang back and was told this again, so it seems to me if they are happy to do this they are not to be trusted.