buildings and contents insurance

kingstreet

Typically, if you own a leasehold flat in a block, you will not be responsible for insuring the building. The freeholder will have a block policy and the leaseholders will pay a proportion of the cost via a service charge.

You can go the route of calculating the sum insured you need for your contents, or you can apply for a blanket policy which offers a flat sum insured of say, £40,000 or £50,000 and the premium is based on the number of bedrooms.

Back to the OP.

Do you own the property? Is it freehold or leasehold? Are you sure there is no buildings insurance included with your mortgage?

It is very unusual that a solicitor would allow an exchange/completion without checking the insurance situation.

JC_Derby

phill99 wrote: »

Strange as it seems, none of us have a magic wand to make it any cheaper.

Really?isnt that a shame;)

disappointed how many spelling typo's i made in my first post:eek:

Quentin

dacouch wrote: »

Why do you expect bank staff to understand insurance

And why does he expect a "regional director" (whatever that means) of a bank to understand it either!

It comes as no surprise that the bad advice given by this regional director was in the banks interests as far as the sale of the contents policy was concerned!

Macca83_2

Quentin wrote: »

And why does he expect a "regional director" (whatever that means) of a bank to understand it either!

It comes as no surprise that the bad advice given by this regional director was in the banks interests as far as the sale of the contents policy was concerned!

For renewal next year then, what is the best way of making sure you have adequate contents cover? Adding up everything seems a bit of a faff and far too easy to miss things. A blanket policy of 40000 may not cover everything.

Quentin

Macca83 wrote: »

For renewal next year then, what is the best way of making sure you have adequate contents cover? Adding up everything seems a bit of a faff and far too easy to miss things. A blanket policy of 40000 may not cover everything.

If £40k may not be enough, then you need to do an inventory, (though don't take any notice of the bank's director about including your neighbours contents in your contents requirement!)

EnglishMohican

I reckon that contents insurance is a major con.

If my house burnt down, I do not want most of the content replacing. We have literally hundreds of books. It is meanness and stupidity that stops me throwing the lot away. I have read most of them several times already and a nice big bonfire would be a good idea.

Similarly the dozens of DVDs, video cassettes and myriad of out of date electronic equipment that clutters the house. I want a nice simple policy that replaces the major items, carpets, curtains, sofa,bed, clothes ( a few at least), washing machine, etc. Just a basic fresh start would do. That is nothing like £40000 worth yet I do have cover for over £40000 contents because the insurance company might void the claim if I do not cover all the stuff I do not really want but do have.

Oh for a sensible insurance policy - but it will never happen because it will reduce the money the insurance company can demand.

thor

Could you not just claim for the stuff that you want to replace in the event of a fire or theft? I think when you come up with the value of your contents, that figure is just the maximum value insurers are prepared to pay up. So you can leave out crappy things you don't want in a claim.

vaio

I think you need to insure all the crap too, if you have say £10k of crap and £10k of good stuff then if you only insure for £10k and subsequently have a £2k claim for say a carpet then they will average it out and only pay half.

*Scarlett

You can use this to work out an approx value of contents

http://www.legalandgeneral.com/home-insurance/contents-calculator/contents-calculator.html