Would welcome basic advice on home insurance

MrsCautious

Hi, I'm dealing with home insurance for the first time ever -- since my husband died.

Can anyone tell me if home insurance is affected -- and to what extent if so -- by the number of occupants in the home? Our household has obviously decreased.

Also, this year's policy, which runs out at the end of December, has cost us £507 through Direct Line, it covers buildings for £1 million and contents for £50,000 (edited) . It also includes family legal protection and mentions a 10 per cent discount representing 12 months claim free.

A cursory trawl through a price comparison site yesterday threw up much cheaper results but I wasn't asked to input such details as above.

We are now a family made up of a mum and two early teenage children, in a three-bedroom semi-detached home in a village (not rural) -- do I really need to be paying £500 a year in home insurance? Are the £50,000 (edited) and £1 million figures standard? We don't have anywhere near that level of assets and I want to save money on my policy.

I'd love any basic advice about what my next steps should be, I have got through the nightmare of the bulk of paperwork connected with all that has happened to our family in recent months and for some reason I am stuck on home insurance and it's causing too much stress, though of course I am currently prone to this anyway.

Thank you for reading and to anyone who can answer my questions.

kingstreet

The number of occupants does not affect the cost of insurance.

You can select a product where you have calculated the sums insured yourself and use these figures for your cover. Alternatively, you can take bedroom-rated cover, such as that offered by DL, where a blanket amount is used for each sum insured. Some insurers offer £300, £500k, £1m or even unlimited cover so you don't have to work out the actual cover needed.

Are you sure the contents cover is £500k? £50k would be more usual.

The excess will have a lot of impact on your premiums. Pick a higher excess, more of the cost of a claim will be met by you, in return for reduced premiums. The standard excess for subsidence is £1k, escape of water, perhaps £200. You pick the excess for other potential issues.

Both buildings and contents cover can feature accidental damage as an add-on and you can also add personal possessions cover for higher value items you want covered at home and away.

I have a 17 year old 4 bed detached in rural Staffordshire. I have £300k buildings, with accidental damage, £40k contents with accidental damage, both with a £100 voluntary excess. The policy has a Defaqto 4* rating and I pay £40 a month.

You can check yours here;-

http://www.defaqto.com/star-ratings/home-insurance

I don't pay extra for monthly premiums and I only have to give a month's notice to cancel, so no fees or credit charges.

I made a contents claim just over 3years ago, so I have more than five years buildings no claims and three years contents no claims. The claim, which was caused by a lightning strike on my neighbour's home running through the phone lines and frying all our electrical equipment, was handled quickly and efficiently.

You can get cover cheaper. So can I. However, when I take all the above into consideration, I'm happy with what I pay, for what I get.

MrsCautious

Thank you King Street, yes I'm sorry one too many noughts there on the contents information. Really appreciate you helping me there - like you I don't necessarily want the cheapest but the best value. I will check out the link you have included. Rural Staffordshire is a beautiful part of the world. Thanks again.

kingstreet

I wish it was more rural, TBH.

Where I live, in Hixon, we do have a certain amount of industry on the routes into and out of the village. It did make it cheaper to buy here though. We'd have paid a lot more in the Heywoods, Brocton etc.

Nice place to live though!

Quentin

kingstreet wrote: »

The number of occupants does not affect the cost of insurance......

Most insurers do price depending on occupants - especially if there are children as occupants.

kingstreet

Sorry - I've got too used to the ten on our panel. None asks for occupancy when quoting/applying.

shelly

Should you be paying £500 a year? It depends on what you want covered and for how much.
We have a bare basics policy with just the buildings and contents insured. No accidental damage (the policy included AD to tv's and mirrors as standard) as we self insure for that, our excesses are quite high and we pay £160 a year for a 4 bed detached with 2 occupants in Cambridgeshire. As I bought it through topcashback I also got £50 back.

MrsCautious

kingstreet wrote: »

I wish it was more rural, TBH.

Where I live, in Hixon, we do have a certain amount of industry on the routes into and out of the village. It did make it cheaper to buy here though. We'd have paid a lot more in the Heywoods, Brocton etc.

Nice place to live though!

I am very close by and love all those places, especially Brocton which was our favourite part of the Chase.

MrsCautious

shelly wrote: »

Should you be paying £500 a year? It depends on what you want covered and for how much.
We have a bare basics policy with just the buildings and contents insured. No accidental damage (the policy included AD to tv's and mirrors as standard) as we self insure for that, our excesses are quite high and we pay £160 a year for a 4 bed detached with 2 occupants in Cambridgeshire. As I bought it through topcashback I also got £50 back.

thank you, I need to check out the money back sites. I think a more basic cover would do for us.

MrsCautious

Quentin wrote: »

Most insurers do price depending on occupants - especially if there are children as occupants.

Thank you, this helps me get clearer.

hcb42

I am with direct line, just moved house, and now just contents only (was buildings and contents until yesterday), but we decided to review the contents cover (only two adults) and we found that we were actually fairly close to our £52K contents policy.

Accidental damage, I dont believe is worth paying extra for, it can be expensive, and the Tv etc is covered on standard policy anyway, that could knock quite a bit off.

I have used the Family legal protection cover twice now, and would highly recommend it for the extra £1 or £2 it is a month. It covered legal fees for me for £4K against a builder a couple of years ago.

If you dont think you have £50K of assets, then work through room by room, and add up what it would cost to replace everything at similar quality, new for old. I expect you might not be too far off, but if you reduce it to say £40K that will shave quite a bit off as well. Remember the automatic valuables limit will reduce also

I must admit, I have been with DL for years, (indeed I worked for them 20 years ago!) they are easy to deal with and while it is possible to get cheaper quotes on comparison sites, often with less well known insurance companies, I prefer to stick with what I know

If you do adjust your cover, they are not charging their £15.90 fee for amendments at the moment. I was rather relieved about that as had to change 2 cars, home insurance and life insurance last week!