Home insurance with non-standard roof

agrinnall

I wonder if anyone has any suggestions for decent insurers who will consider non-standard roof construction - in this case cedar shingles?

I have been insured with Direct Line for the last two years but on reviewing my renewal notice I found that it had the Yes box ticked for standard roof. I don't know whether this is something they've changed or something I got wrong 2 years ago (although I would have expected to be careful about mentioning this as I already knew some companies wouldn't quote), and when I called them they got on to the underwriters and said they couldn't provide cover at renewal.

I've done the comparison sites, who include shingle as a roofing option, but the results are either companies with poor reviews or companies who when I try a quote on their own website in fact don't accept shingle.

Aviva include shingle in their list of options but want me to call them, which I'll do tomorrow. I'll also question my neighbours to see who they use.

Having searched the forum the general consensus for non-standard construction of any sort is to go through a local broker, so I have one lined up to call on Monday. But I thought that before then I'd see whether anyone out there has any good experiences to report or recommendations to make.

huckster

Try Home Protect or Towergate brokers who can arrange cover for most non standard contruction types.

Not sure you will get many Insurers quoting under their standard product lines.

agrinnall

Thanks Huckster, I saw Towergate mentioned in another thread (although it came with a warning about them too). Home Protect did come up with a quote through confused.com but at a completely ridiculous rate.

huckster

agrinnall wrote: »

Thanks Huckster, I saw Towergate mentioned in another thread (although it came with a warning about them too). Home Protect did come up with a quote through confused.com but at a completely ridiculous rate.

Towergate are a pretty good company and have been around for years. They are apparently the largest independent brokers in Europe and they obtain a lot of referral business from other Insurance brokers and intermediaries.

I have dealt with Home Insurance for over 20 years and I have not come across Cedar Shingle roofing.

dacouch

Have a look at NFU

agrinnall

huckster wrote: »

Towergate are a pretty good company and have been around for years. They are apparently the largest independent brokers in Europe and they obtain a lot of referral business from other Insurance brokers and intermediaries.

I have dealt with Home Insurance for over 20 years and I have not come across Cedar Shingle roofing.

Thanks for the view on Towergate, I haven't dealt with them myself so it's useful to hear from people with positive experience as well as the negative comments.

I also hadn't heard of cedar shingles until I moved here. I suspect they are more commonly used in countries where timber is ubiquitous, such as Canada and Sweden. The houses here were originally built by the Forestry Commission so maybe they had a deal on them.

http://www.cedar-shingles.co.uk

agrinnall

dacouch wrote: »

Have a look at NFU

Thanks, that could be a good suggestion, I'll give my local branch a ring on Monday.

agrinnall

Aviva were prepared to quote after speaking to the underwriter, it's about £50 more than the renewal quote I had but at least it's well within the affordable range, and maybe I can get one or two more companies to quote tomorrow.

InsideInsurance

huckster wrote: »

Towergate are a pretty good company and have been around for years.

Towergate are a very fragmented company and run much more like a collection of companies (particularly in the retail side) than a group. As such the experience can be more variable

From an underwriting perspective they are mainly specialist products and certainly DL used to pass all their non-standard construction business to them