Home Insurance renewal

Daniel54

rs65 wrote: »

What was the difference between this AXA wording and any other AXA wording that was relevant to his claim? ps I'm not doubting you just genuinely interested. The only AXA wordings I've seen include architects/debris etc within the buildings sum insured. Curious as to what was in his wording that made it cheap, as far as buildings cover is concerned.

First,I would agree that ,in the case Turnip refers to,the policyholder has every right to feel aggrieved as something has gone badly amiss with the claims handling and adjustment

Secondly,it is not uncommon in this ( and other ) countries for debris removal expenses to be covered by way of a limit additional to the buidings sum insured

I had a look through the Axa policies on here http://www.axaconnect.co.uk/Documents/Personal_Stationery/Download_Personal/

In each debris removal is an additional limit - for the ABC and Extra policies,the limit is 10% of the sum insured.For the First policy it is a monetary limit of £ 80,000 and for the Exclusive policy it is 20% of the Sum Insured.

I have no idea what Turnup might have seen that I have not,and I have failed to make any sense of his latest offering

But certainly he is correct in suggesting ( in the light of the distressing case he refers to ) that it is worth looking at policy coverage for debris removal and in repeating that lowest cost can be at the detriment of coverage given - although in this case debris removal was almost certainly only a marginal component of the overall premium and the issues are much more those surroundng the claim itself

Hope this helps

rs65

TurnUpForTheBooks wrote: »

Well it's been a while since I took apart a rebuilding cost estimate into its component parts, but if you have an artificial inner limit on one component it clearly works against any protection derived from a blanket limit.

I understood the debris limit to be a 10% enhancement to the building sum insured rather than an inner limit.

So what you seem to be saying is that it wasn't a cheap quote from an aggregator that has caused the problem, it was the choice of a sum insured basis rather than an artificially high blanket limit.

rs65

Daniel54 wrote: »

But certainly he is correct in suggesting ( in the light of the distressing case he refers to ) that it is worth looking at policy coverage for debris removal and in repeating that lowest cost can be at the detriment of coverage given - although in this case debris removal was almost certainly only a marginal component of the overall premium and the issues are much more those surroundng the claim itself

Certainly distressing but I don't think the race to the top of the aggregators lists is relevant. Something has gone badly wrong in that case for demolition to take 3 years and there must be more to the story than has been posted.

I chose unlimited buildings cover, which was cheap, but not on any aggregator site. Quite glad I did now.

Only inner limits are alternative accommodation at £50k and trace and access at £10k.

Daniel54

rs65 wrote: »

Certainly distressing but I don't think the race to the top of the aggregators lists is relevant. Something has gone badly wrong in that case for demolition to take 3 years and there must be more to the story than has been posted.

I chose unlimited buildings cover, which was cheap, but not on any aggregator site. Quite glad I did now.

Only inner limits are alternative accommodation at £50k and trace and access at £10k.

I agree absolutely that the cost of the policy and the role of the aggregator is a red herring in this case ( it was not I who suggested it was).For a policy of 127k I think most people would consider that an additional limit of 12.7k for debris removal etc would normally be adequate and something has gone badly wrong for these costs to have so spiralled out of control.

Like you,I am reinforced in my own decision to have unlimited buidings cover from an insurer that does not participate in the aggregators

WaxiesDargle

anyway...I went into the Halifax but they said they could not deal with a renewal of policy and they phoned up the insurance bods and handed me the phone...after the lady telling me the benefits of staying with them and why the comparison sites are so cheap for 15 minutes, they offered me the policy for £588 as opposed to my £745 renewal letter sum...and it's unlimited building cover

kingstreet

If you have Halifax "Home Solutions" you have a DEFAQTO five-star rated plan and it may be worth paying more...

If you have "Home Insurance Choices" (standard or select) you have a four star plan.

Halifax Home Options, only three stars...

Is the premium you are paying getting you better quality cover?

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

Defaqto ratings aren't perfect, but they give you some idea of the cost/cover comparison between products.

My plan is rated five stars. I pay more and I get more...!

Usually, buying insurance from a lender sees you pay at least 40% more than you could get the same cover direct from the insurer, or even through a broker. For example, "Home Insurance Choices" is an L&G product, badged with the Halifax name.