IVA and Home Insurance

Menolly56

My husband and I entered into IVAs for which we have Certificates of Completion dated September 2012.
Two of the creditors (who actually agreed the IVA arrangement) had previously filed CCJs against us - long story short, we had Director's Guarantees on plant & equipment and after a disastrous fire, we were unable to continue to trade.
The CCJs have been registered as satisfied.

We will shortly be moving house and need to take out buildings insurance on the new property on exchange of contracts - so we phoned our insurers (Saga) and went through the usual questionnaire with them.

We have just been told that our home insurance (buildings and contents) will double because IVAs are considered (at least by Saga) as the same as bankruptcy!

Funny thing is that we contacted them when we entered the IVA procedure and told them, so they have had this information for ages - we have never hidden it from them and they have always known!

Are there any insurers out there that DON'T think an IVA is the same as bankruptcy? Our insurance quote has gone from £554 per annum to £905, simply because I noticed on the quote that they had not registered the CCJs in the section that says "are you or have you ever had a CCJ" "are you or have you ever been declared bankrupt" and I telephoned them to correct it, like a good girl because otherwise any insurance would be invalid. *sigh*

UpToMyNeckInIt

I have never had a problem getting any form of insurance whilst in the iva.

Just shop around on the comparison sites.

Tip: do not volunteer information about your previous iva, unless your perspective insurer specifically enquires about insolvency or iva. Most just want to know about BR, in which case don't say anything like 'no we were not bankrupt, but we were in an iva...'. If push came to shove, they could not refuse a claim.

Unfortunately there are too many ignorant people working in the financial/insurance industries who do not know the difference between BR & IVA, and would rather lose custom than be bothered to find out.

Menolly56

Trouble is, they ALL ask it in my experience
I even went to look at one of the insurers highlighted on Martin's site, and THEY want to know about IVAs, CCJs, Bankruptcies for the past 25 years! Yes, you read that right - 25 years!

I was under the impression that the CCJs, IVAs disappear from public record after 6 years.

So basically, people who have had the misfortune to have to file for an IVA, or like us who had two creditors that knew we were applying for IVA and STILL filed CCJs one week before the IVA creditor meeting, are going to be penalised for a whole quarter of a century.
I thought Debtors Prisons were a thing of the past..........the only difference now is that we aren't locked up!

UpToMyNeckInIt

...AXA, Towergate, Click Insurance (or any company using standard BISL Insurance - about 80% of the market). They only ask specifically about BR & CCJ's.

I suspect therefore, it is your CCJ's rather than the IVA which are causing problems.

Worth speaking to an insurance broker.

I used a specialist broker when I needed Landlord's contents cover for my let property. My IVA proved a hindrance when applying online, as there are literally only a handful of specialist brokers offering this cover on the web (even the comparison sites found '0' results).

One of the brokers phoned me back and, after discussing my circumstances, was able to offer cover: £56 per YEAR, vs my existing renewal quote of £130 for the year.

Having never had a CCJ lodged against me, I cannot be sure what effect this will have. But do insurance the good old fashioned way of phoning some specialist brokers, letting them know your exact circumstances, and see how you get on.

Good luck.

Menolly56

Thanks for your help - we have cancelled our policy with Very Expensive Saga (clearly they cater for extremely well-off over 50s!) and have got buildings and contents insurance for a quarter of the price from Tesco - who are only interested in CCJs/bankrupcy if these are still running.

UpToMyNeckInIt

...That's a great result.

Tesco are very cheap for lots of people as well.