Content Insurance - How old is my house?

moneytracker

I have heard that insurance companies will do anything to get out of paying out on a claim so I want to make sure that this is right as I have no idea how old my house is. Does anyone one know how I can find out when my home was built? I live in a rented house, would my landlord know? Or should I ask the council?

Thank you for any help you can offer.

Ian_W

Insurers can only get out of paying a claim if you declare something incorrectly that materially affects the risk they're taking and usually the age of the property has more relevance in buildings, rather than contents insurance. Being a few years out in the age of the property isn't likely to affect a contents claim for theft, whereas mis-stating the level of security would.
If an insurer declines a claim for spurious reasons you can take them to the Financial Ombudsman if you're unhappy and that in itself costs them several hundred pounds whether you win or lose.
The landlord should know the approximate age of the property or failing that you could use the land registry site HERE to search and download the entry for the property. There is a fee of about £2 I think.

FlameCloud

Ian_W wrote: »

Insurers can only get out of paying a claim if you declare something incorrectly that materially affects the risk they're taking and usually the age of the property has more relevance in buildings, rather than contents insurance. Being a few years out in the age of the property isn't likely to affect a contents claim for theft, whereas mis-stating the level of security would.

The insurer can get out of paying for a claim for several reasons-

Breach of utmost good faith at any point (i.e. lieing)
Policy reasons (i.e. specific exclusions)
Supplier reports (Damage not consistent with COD stated)

I shouldnt have thought the age of a property would make any difference from the claims side of things- underwriting would be different but all we see is an age range of when the house was built.