Home Insurance Discussion

CharleneUK

I'm in the process of arranging my very first buildings and contents insurance and it's all very confusing!

Cheapest quote I've had our with More than for £272, but it may be because I'm entering incorrect information! Off to read Martins article.

Mini_John

fegan2401 wrote: »

Hiya all!

Does anybody know if you can take out contents insurance with one company and building insurance with another. Don't think you can but thought i'd better check.

Cheers

Hello MSE's - first post but been readinbg MSE for some time. You can have seporate buildings and contents insurance but be warned, if (god forbid), say you had a fire, or a flood, which damaged both your contents and buildings you would have to make a claim with both insurers and pay 2x excess's. Its usually hard enough to deal with one insurer when claiming let alone two. Plus the two will never talk to eachother, ie if your walls needed doing by your buildings insurer you dont want your lovely new carpets put down before by your contents insurer....you have to project manage. Where as if it was with all one insurer they will arrange evertyone for you....well, they are meant to anyway. Wasnt always the case when I was dealing with insurance complaints.

Mini_John

FlameCloud wrote: »

Then tell the Insurance company about it! Seriously, we do not get enough complaints from customers about builders, and we cannot do anything about them until people tell us. Cunninghams arnt just Norwich Unions LA's either, there a general overflow provider for alot of companies.





I work for and insurance company as part of their technical claims team, and to be honest even without looking at your policy properly, I doubt it.

You would have to argue that the boiler is a content in the first place (its a buildings item, as it is a fixed water installation, in the same way bathroom suites are buildings)

You would then have to prove that the damage was as a result of an operating cause- i.e. it is one of the list of perils. Given that they are normally Storm, Fire, AD, Escape of water/Oil.

A buildings/contents policy generally covers damage from outside sources (in very broad terms) and NOT wear and tear, which is what this is. Nothing sneaky about it at all, as you have not paid for that sort of cover.

as per last post - a boiler is fixed and would come under buildings not contents. Most buildins insurers exclude mechanical preakdown. However, the was a thing on watchdog recently about boilers which have faulty PCB. Loads of them were going wrong and the company who made them refused to agree. However they changed their minds when watchdog became incolved and offered to refund. Mine went but i was covered with B'gas at the time. Its the mini boiler with the little door on the right hand side with the reset switch and a little knob which controls the water temp - if that sounds like yours look on the bbc site, you may be able to get your money back.

Mini_John

melia wrote: »

I would like to make a claim on my accidental damage contents policy for my computer. However I have been informed by the Post Office (my insurers) Pc's are covered however lap tops are not. Has anyone else came up against this problem. As alot of people now have lap tops how can we insure them.

Dont know if i'm too late on this one - Laptops are considered to be personal belongings and not a general household content. there is usually a definitions secion in most policy documents which may state what the insurer classes a personal belonging. Most insurers will offer personal belongings (in and away from home) cover. This will cover your PB's (laptop) if damaged out or in the home. If your insurers dont define a laptop being a personal belonging then you may be able to argue you were not aware of their definition and complain. I used to work for a large insurance company dealing with complaints and you will be surprised at the number of claims which i covered because the wording was clear or the policyholder had been a loyal customer for years and never made a claim. However, be very nice to them, i was more likely to pay out that way :j

riffraff_2

Until this year I had been insured with Legal & General via a local broker. Unfortunately, we had claimed for a break-in in 2003 and damaged to our garden wall by a spanish lorry in 2005. This has pushed up our premiums and despite using screen scrapers etc we always seemed to get the best deal haggling with our broker.
Anyway, when this years renewal arrived at over £400 I decided to make a bit more effort to get a better deal. The L&G policy was all-singing-all-dancing and was frankly overkill in certain areas so I trawled through the screen scrapers yet again asking for a lower level of cover and accepting increased excess amounts. While this resulted in lower premiums the savings were a bit disappointing with best prices around £350. I imagine the claims history was doing the damage?
Anyway to cut a long story short, as a last resort we ended up trying Direct Lines website and couldn't believe it when they quoted £275 inc. Legal cover with reasonable excesses and good levels of cover. It seems provided you have had 2 claims or less in last 5 years they don't penalise you. Their system is also very easy to use and doesn't seem to ask as many questions as others do. It does however tend to have standard levels of cover in certain areas which may not suit everyone but for us it's spot on! Direct Line are a direct insurer who underwrite thier own policies and are not covered by the screen scrapers.
Would be interested to hear from anyone who has had more experience with Direct Line as to how they have found them in the event of a claim?

crumbs_2

hpamella13 wrote: »

Hi I,m new to this so please forgive me if this information in the wrong place.
I have just received my renewal quote from Northern rock for £416.52 for building and content. I,ve had my morgage with them so I,ve just kept renewing each year. I called to cancel the policy and they have told me I have to sign a declartion to cancel and pay £25.00 for administration. Can they do that? Has this happened to anyone else?

You are probably paying through the nose for having your insurance with your mortgage provider. Most insurers will refund this 'admin' fee if you move your policy to them. Years ago you had to take out buildings insurance through your mortgage provider but in the interest of competition it was made illegal many years ago. There's nothing to stop them charging an admin fee though...

Money_Cub

Following Martin's Money Tip on 21 March I got a quote for buildings and contents from Tesco - my renewal came in at £204 and when I went through all the screensaver stuff the cheapest came in at £126.

The lower quotes I had from the screensavers were not eligible for Quidco so with Tesco offering like-for-like cover at £95.55 I very happily took them up on that offer today.

Thank u Martin, I just saved £108.45 on my renewal price :T :j :beer: :rotfl:

taney

Hi,

I want to get an insurnace for my home which I have recently rented but I have no idea where to go...can anyone please suggest anything.

Thanks in advance

NeoSaver

Hey taney,

if you are looking for contents insurance i recently got a quote through https://www.insurewith.com and they came up with the AA and two other companies that i dont remember. I got a quote from each of the companies insurewith showed and they saved me over £74.23 on my renewal which i was very happy with

Learner_Saver

Does anyone know of a reasonably priced jewellery valuation service. I am keen to reduce my contents insurance premium still further but in order to move to a different provider I need to produce up-to-date valuations for my wife's jewellery. The cheapest quotes I can get around town is 1-1.5% of the value which, on about £10,000, is £100-£150. It may very well not be worth moving.