Special Condition Imposed

BingoUK

I have been a homeowner for 15 + years. In that time I have successfully shopped around for best buildings and contents insurance deals using comparison sites.

About 10 years ago we had to make a claim for some flood damage and the only other time was last November when an opportunist thief came into our house through an unlocked back door (while we were at home!), took a set of keys and stole our car. We claimed for new locks on our household insurer, Aviva, and the cost was £255. The car was a write off and insured with a different insurer.

Aviva have written to me today to say that my policy is up for renewal but that they have added a Theft Restriction clause to our policy. I rang them about this and they said that this means any future claim would require signs of forced entry to be successful. They quoted me a renewal price which didn't seem particularly competitive so I am shopping around.

However, because I now have to tick the box which asks whether I have ever had a 'special condition imposed' on my policy, the number of insurers willing to quote is down to 3 (from 40+ last time) and the prices are astronomical. I took out this tick box (for the sake of comparison) but left in details of the last claim for £255 and I immediately get a great field of quotes to pick from.

Having to tick that box seems almost to have semi-criminalised me in the eyes of potential insurers. Do I have any recourse to dispute this or is that it? The fact that the key question asks if I have ever had a special condition imposed suggests that the rest of my life will be blighted by a claim for £255 (a good chunk of which we paid through our excess!)

martinsurrey

Have they added a special condition to your current policy or are they suggesting that they want to add on upon renewal?

If its the latter, you have not had a special condition added.

BingoUK

No - just to the renewal but the adviser I spoke to at Aviva said I would have to add this to any quote request from other insurers. I have rung them back to query this but they said that we have to tick it.


The question on 'Compare the Market' is:

Have you or anyone living in the property had home insurance refused, cancelled, declined or void or had any conditions imposed?


The adviser said that I could just telephone insurers instead of using comparison sites but I am just gutted.