Home insurance without subsidence cover

Bilbo1986

Newbie hoping for a few opinions here.
After doubling our home insurance premium to over £600, I've been looking around for a new policy.
The kicker is that the house has had a subsidence claim which was completed last year.
Now Adrian flux have offered to quote me if I pay out approx £500 for a survey, or have offered to insure the house without subsidence cover.
I don't know how safe it is to insure a building with such a big caveat. The actual rebuild and foundations are covered by the builders guarantee for 25years, so we shouldn't have to make a claim if anything re-occurs.
Anyone have any experience? Apart from the huge premium the current insurers are happy to continue insuring the building with no special conditions. Should I just stay put and take the hit?
Thanks in advance.

Quentin

Bear in mind your builder's guarantee will only work if they are still in business when you want to claim


And one day (maybe after you have gone off the planet) the house may be unsaleable if no insurer covers against subsidence.

InsideInsurance

Is there a mortgage on the property? If there is then the lack of subsidence insurance may not be acceptable to the lenders

Bilbo1986

Thanks, that's a good point about the guarantee.
Yes the property is mortgaged, I'll have to look into the mortgage terms

dacouch

Bilbo1986 wrote: »

Thanks, that's a good point about the guarantee.
Yes the property is mortgaged, I'll have to look into the mortgage terms

They're 99.99% likely to require you to maintain a building policy to protect their asset which includes specific perils, subsidence being one of them.

Why are you not insuring with the insurer who paid out for the claim?

Bilbo1986

dacouch wrote: »

They're 99.99% likely to require you to maintain a building policy to protect their asset which includes specific perils, subsidence being one of them.

Why are you not insuring with the insurer who paid out for the claim?

The renewal quote is from the insurer who paid out. They have doubled it from last year, stating that it has nothing to do with the claim, but a change in underwriting criteria :huh:

dacouch

Bilbo1986 wrote: »

The renewal quote is from the insurer who paid out. They have doubled it from last year, stating that it has nothing to do with the claim, but a change in underwriting criteria :huh:

You will have lost your no claims bonus and the Insurers have probably added your postal code sector to a high risk of subsidence.

Generally someone with a subsidence claim renews with the Insurer who paid out the claim. The Insurer should continue offering renewal for you for ever providing you continue to fit their profile eg not to many claims.

The above means if there is any future subsidence in another part of the property there are no arguments over which insurer is responsible. In addition the buyers of your house in the future will need subsidence cover to get a mortgage. If you stay with your current Insurers they will normally transfer your cover over to the buyers. It's a simple process and is the recognised way of handling this in a house sale.

Bilbo1986

So the safe bet is to stick with the current insurer. That makes sense.
Thanks everyone for your input.

dacouch

It's best ideally.

Try adding contents insurance as this generally gives you quite a big discount off the buildings.

Also ask for quotes for increasing the normal building excess, ask for different excesses and then work out which option gives the best value

hubr

I've been in a similar position. After staying with old insurer for some time, and watching premiums escalate for no real reason, I went to MoreThan, who asked for a costly, inch-thick report from the repairer's surveyor. Apparently after 15 years this need reduces, but I found a specialist insurer via a broker, albeit still with a larger than usual subsidence excess.

magpiecottage

This is a common problem - although RICS says that a property with corrective work properly done is actually at lower risk.