House Insurance 25 Years After Subsidence Claim

Delmar

My relative had a large claim on their home insurance following subsidence caused by trees in the road outside (insurance company covered the majority cost while one third paid by the local authority whose trees they were). Ever since my relative has been paying a high annual premium – latest one £800+.
However, she has recently been offered a far cheaper quote by Lloyds bank while making some incidental adjustments to her finances. The offer provided by Castle Insurance was £320 with a subsidence excess of £1,000. This premium takes account of an initial 25% discount. Even removing the discount for the subsequent year and allowing for usual insurance increases the rate is very competitive compared with the rates she’s currently paying. She was told by Lloyds that Castle can offer this rate as the subsidence claim was over 25 years ago, and presumably presents a lower risk to the insurer of future potential claims. When my relative asked her current provider (UIA insurance) if they could consider a reduction to her premium, considering the 25 years that had elapsed with no further problems, they were unwilling to budge.
So, my question is, has anyone out there any experience of changing the insurer they had for a subsidence claim 25 years ago to a new provider? For example, after the initial much cheaper year of new insurance provision did it then rocket beyond the level of the original premium or have they been able to maintain consistently lower levels over subsequent years? I’d be grateful for any advice. Many thanks.

huckster

If you search this very forum you will find numerous examples of where people have switched.

Legal & General and Axa will also quote.

Have a look through the forum and you will see what others have achieved.

huckster

See post #53 from this thread

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/740903

Delmar

Thanks for your replies Huxster. Some useful info there. I did actually do a bit more digging and found, as others have indicated, that Halifax, Axa and Admiral would be willing to insure at non-exhorbitant prices. L & G refused on the request I did for an online quote. When I spoke to the Halifax, the rep there told me that up until 2 years ago they would have refused to cover subsidence no matter how long ago it occurred despite no further problems, then they changed their policies to pick up on all the lost custom on perfectly safe bet repaired homes. You just have to meet the eligibiilty criteria which includes the line that you agree that the home to be insured " does not have any damage which you know is caused by subsidence, or have been advised could be caused by subsidence." He confirmed that it didn't matter that it had had subsidence damage in the past just that it does not currently suffer from subsidence damage. This is a great relief to my elderly relative who has been paying huge premia for years. She is going with Castle insurance (through Lloyds) at least being reassured that there is more than one insurer out there that she could go to in the event that Castle subsequently hugely jack up their prices in the future. When I last researched this (2 or 3 years ago) I didn't get anywhere. Maybe the sector has realised there's a gap in the market to be exploited from all those fed-up people paying over-inflated rates.