Joint policyholder on home insurance

alanjb50

My wife's name was omitted in the home and contents policy emailed to me although I mentioned her in the preceding phone calls. I immediately flagged this to the insurer. The insurer says a £26 admin fee will be due to add her as joint policyholder. We have no mortgage and jointly own building and contents.
1 Is it necessary to add my wife as jt policyholder? The insurer is willing to add a comment for free, saying they can speak to her over any claim.
2 Do insured parties have any statutory rights to point out any omissions or errors in policies and get amendments without incurring admin fees? I note that adding joint policyholders can reduce premiums, at least in some cases.
Thank you for your time and any advice.

InsideInsurance

1) Its not necessary but without it she has no automatic right to discuss anything to do with the policy or a claim. In some cases adding her may increase or lower the premiums

2) Evidently if it is their mistake they cannot charge you an admin fee for correcting it. Raise a complaint, state that you initially requested joint policyholders and provided her details. They will probably be able to listen to the call to confirm and do it FOC if the recording confirms what you are saying.

*Scarlett

It's not usually essential to add your wife as a joint policy holder. Any spouse of family member permanently residing at the property would be covered on the policy and most insurers will discuss the policy with a spouse ( after verifying certain security questions).

Many insurers allow a certain period of time after you have received the policy documents for you to check that everything is correct - usually up to 14 days but some still charge admin fees even if it's within this period unless it's their mistake.

If you think that you told them that the policy should be in joint names, you could speak to a manager and ask them to listen to the recorded call.

It could be that having your wife as a joint policy holder could have reduced the premium slightly (it could also increase it if she is employed in a job that attracts a higher risk).

You could check how this would have affected the premium by doing a couple of online quotes with and without your wife's details.

You will then be able to see if this is worth pursuing this year.