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The_Evacuee

My buildings/contents insurance is due next month and I'm looking around for a new insurer. The one I have is quite expensive.
We have an alarm fitted but have always told the insurer that we do not have one. As we have a dog when we leave him alone we are afraid should the alarm go off it would upset him. (woe betide the burgler should he enter!!) However when we leave the house and take the dog with us we set the alarm.
Now I have been told that by not telling the insurer about the alarm they would not pay up should we have a burglary at any time.
Any thoughts on this from any of you? Have you been through this problem?

InsideInsurance

The_Evacuee wrote: »

Any thoughts on this from any of you? Have you been through this problem?

The only way they could avoid the claim is if they could show that they'd have not insured you should you have said that there was an alarm.

I dont think any insurer would try and argue that by having an alarm you are more likely to be robbed than your neighbours.

To be 1000% belt and braces you can always tell them you have an alarm but dont use it and then let them decide what to put it as but ensure the paperwork doesnt state the alarm must be on for a theft claim

Yorkie1

Check what assumptions, or declarations, are made at renewal.

In relation to alarms, the only question I've been asked in recent years was whether I had one which was monitored / linked to the police / annually serviced on a maintenance contract.

As I have one, but which isn't monitored or serviced etc, then I can properly answer the question in the negative.

Sally_A

If you expect discounts for having an alarm fitted, you may get an alarm warranty attached to your policy, ie if you have it, use it, or tought titty.

I appreciate a dog would be set it off if he broke the PIR's: next door has an alarm, but the PIR's are set at approx 5ft high.

I'd say leave as is, advise them that an alarm will be set when you and the pooch are away, but no way do you want the warranty applied to set it every time you leave the house unoccupied - insurers are getting tighter on claims payments, so could squeeze this to mean if you were 100ft up the garden, and out of earshot.

Keep the alarm for your own satisfaction, but do not make it a proviso of your policy.

ChampionBob

Actually this is more complicated than it looks, if you declare the alarm that is.

I agree that an insurer wouldn’t (perhaps that should be shouldn’t) penalise you for having more security than you declared.

However if you do declare it then the insurer will insist that it is always set when you (with or without your dog) leave the home. An insurer will not want to get into individual exceptions or clauses with individual customers about when it is acceptable to set the alarm or not. They would see this as partly underwriting a claim, before one has happened.

They may be happy to pay a claim if the alarm wasn’t set - if the reasons are reasonable and appropriate, but they would want to make that decision at the time the claim was made and not before it.

Depending on the insurer, if you told them you had an alarm fitted but only used it when you felt appropriate, they could write back insisting that you used it all the time you left the property. In a worse case if they felt you were not adequately protecting your property (undoubtedly a policy condition) then they could cancel your policy or not offer you renewal.

The important thing is that you comply with the security conditions of your policy,with or without alarm. If the policy insists that you have a 5 lever or deadbolt system fitted to all external doors and all windows are fitted with key operated locks, if you are burgled and it is discovered that two windows only have a latch type lock, then you run the risk of having your claim not paid irrespective of whether the alarm was set.

On the other hand, if all the security required on the policy is fitted (with no alarm declared) and you were burgled, I fail to see how the insurer could not pay the claim.