Top home insurers keep changing!

ripplyuk

I went with LV for my contents insurance last year as they were one of the top 3 on the Which? recommended list. This year, the top 3 are different. I've looked at John Lewis insurance but it says it doesn't cover lost keys, only stolen keys. Also Marks and Spencer's accidental damage cover says something about not covering damage caused by water entering the home, unless through storm or flood. So I guess it wouldn't cover my ipad if I spilt tea on it, or something similar. I also got a quote from NFU which was double the price of any other quotes.

I'm so confused! Could anyone recommend a good insurer? It's only contents insurance I need as I'm a tenant. I've looked up reviews but they're all bad.

InsideInsurance

Which? recommendations are based heavily on "service" rather than product quality and includes both their own reviews and customers.

Defaqto is a better place to look at product quality but like Hotel star ratings its a set list of criteria that things are measured against and so things that arent on their list dont count towards or against an insurer. Similarly if you know the check list you can design a product to grade.

If you concern is mainly product quality then use Defaqto as a starting point but get ready to roll your sleeves up and spend time reading.

Alternatively, thrown money saving out the window and go with one of the top HNW providers like Hiscox's 505 policy and you'll have great coverage, good service but a price that reflects both of these.

stator

For cheapness Co-op and AA are good for me for contents only, but I don't know what they cover/don't cover I'm afraid.

ripplyuk

I've just looked at the Hiscox policy and then I checked out their reviews on reviewcentre. They actually get a worse rating than LV. I thought they were meant to be better. I'm not sure if it's worth getting a quote from them. I'm beginning to feel like all home insurance is a con as they'll all find any excuse not to pay out.

InsideInsurance

ripplyuk wrote: »

I've just looked at the Hiscox policy and then I checked out their reviews on reviewcentre. They actually get a worse rating than LV. I thought they were meant to be better. I'm not sure if it's worth getting a quote from them. I'm beginning to feel like all home insurance is a con as they'll all find any excuse not to pay out.

I have to say that I dont use Review Centre but all the reviews were old, many are from the USA, many were about other classes of insurance etc and with only 31 reviews in all time I think there is too little to get a true view. Some even admit to being insurance sales people

For example one 1* review is from someone who says they wouldnt sell them Event Insurance because they were too busy. Lets assume that its true and not question why this has been logged against Home cover but whilst frustrating that an insurer declines to quote isnt it better that they do this than keep on selling beyond their operational capability and thus you get terrible service down the line?



Without doubt all insurers have terms and conditions and applying those will be seen by those who have their claim declined as "trying to get out of it". On the flipside, and particularly with high end policies, you also get many who think the services goes above and beyond.

I knew one case of an insurer hiring divers to search a riverbed for a lost Rolex because the watch had sentimental value as well as a substantial material one but all odds were it was simply inflating the cost of the claim. Similarly someone damaged a door of their now discontinued kitchen unit and was given the choice of a cabinet maker creating a replacement or the whole kitchen being replaced as the units were not a standard size and their policy had matching set cover.

ripplyuk

Thanks InsideInsurance, that's really helpful. It's good to hear how they helped those people out, more than they were obliged to. I'll just have to really carefully read all the terms and conditions. I keep getting bored halfway through!

You're right about the high end policies costing much more. I just got a quote from Hiscox. It's three times what my current renewal offer is from LV and with a huge excess, which would mean it wouldn't be worth claiming for anything unless it's a total loss. It actually makes the quote from NFU look cheap! I also noticed that they won't cover burst pipes if you're away from home between Oct and April unless the heating has been left on. This sounds reasonable but it's not that cold sometimes and I rarely leave my heating on in the winter unless it's really sub zero. There's also some rooms in my house that are never heated as they aren't used. I haven't noticed any sort of similar 'condition' applied with my current policy.

InsideInsurance

Our thermostat and thermostatic valves all have a holiday or freeze setting which I believe keeps things at 5c so just above freezing. I'd rather avoid a claim no matter how good the insurer is.

Cant say I've looked for such a clause to say how many, if any, have something similar. Of course all insurers do have clauses about taking reasonable care and so it could always be excluded via that route even if its not explicitly stated. The Hiscox clause however only if the property is unoccupied for more than 5 days that it applies

I guess given the Hiscox target market of MNW/HNW individuals with large properties and a lot of high value contents perhaps they assume they are at a higher risk of water damage and/ or that their customers are more likely to be taking multiple annual holidays and thus higher risk too. Obviously all just speculation.



You have to remember that its a very different proposition to LV, NFU etc. I havent looked at the latest incarnation but Hiscox, Chubb etc who all aim exclusively at the high end all write all risk policies and so with LV for example you have to prove that the damage to your TV was caused by one of your insured perils (flood, earthquake, storm etc). With HNW policies its the other way around, the insurer would have to prove it was caused by one of the explicitly excluded perils (eg mechanical/electrical breakdown) otherwise its covered by default.

Matching set cover is very expensive to administer, in the case of the kitchen above then with normal Home insurance which doesnt have this coverage they would only have to give you the price the cabinet door was when it was last sold. The fact you cannot get a replacement door and are going to have to live with a hole in your kitchen or a single non-matching door etc is your problem.

LV pay £5k to find a leak or £2,500 if outside. Theres no matching sets cover so if they break 5 tiles to find the leak they only have to give you the cash for 5 tiles even if those tiles arent made any more. Hiscox will pay to find it, no limit and includes reinstating the damage afterwards remembering also the matching sets clause that could mean retiling or flooring a full room.

Personally, I dont have enough valuables etc to warrant the Hiscox policy. A former colleague though did have fun speaking to one of the upper end mainstream insurers when he had to declare his claim on the "hole in one" coverage of his Hiscox policy and them (a) struggling to understand what hole in one cover is and (b) then working out how to input it into their system which only had fire, theft, accidental damage etc

ripplyuk

I was laughing when I read the 'hole in one' cover. Some nice perks on that policy! Sadly, I don't play golf.

My house is rented and I certainly don't have anything of real value. I've estimated my total contents to be around £35,000 so maybe the expensive policies are a bit overkill for me. I'd just like piece of mind that the insurer is reliable and I'm willing to pay a bit more for it ( though I don't think I could afford the Hiscox quote).

Also, as its rented, I'm assuming if there is a leak or burst pipe, it's up to my landlord to repair it. I'm wondering what would happen if my contents were destroyed because the landlord hadn't got the water leak sorted quickly enough (which is quite likely to happen). I'm worried the insurer wouldn't cover my stuff because they'll say it was the landlords fault.

InsideInsurance

I see Hiscox have now moved to an unlimited cover model. I think previously the minimum excluding valuables was around £80k of contents and it was a sums insured policy so it isnt a (bed)room rated one where they give you some silly high limit being safe in the knowledge that if you have a 1 bed flat the probability is you are no way near the blanket limit.

Certainly Chubb Masterpiece is £100k minimum contents excluding valuables - if you think Hiscox looks expensive, dont look at Chubb

As long as your actions are reasonable then your insurers couldnt decline cover because your landlord was slow. Now they may try and make a recovery from them if they feel they were liable but Home insurers dont tend to be very good at making recoveries because they do it so rarely. Indeed in my claims days the Motor Recoveries team dealt with the few they got for them but as they were so rare they probably didnt have much caselaw to use to argue.

rogerlbo34

money super market is the best and cheapest one i will recommend you that.

dunstonh

rogerlbo34 wrote: »

money super market is the best and cheapest one i will recommend you that.

They are not an insurer.
What exactly are you recommending and on what basis?