What Is A Special Condition

molley

Having saved myself a large sum of money by comparing my car insurance I am trying to do the same with my Buildings and Contents .Presently I am with Direct Line and 4 years ago they upped the excess for claims due to water damage following a couple of claims which I made after there was a water leak from the flat above from a washing machine and then a toilet feed. In neither case would the other parties insurers pay me as they didn't regard the owners as having been negligent .

What I need to know is about this increase in my excess....there have been no claims since it was imposed and nor are there likely to be any . Filling in the details on comparison sites it asks if I have ever had any special conditions imposed and I said NO and got my results which are almost £400 a year less than I am paying now .I then changed that to YES and the quotes increased considerably despite it not asking what these conditions were . Personally I have never regarded this excess increase as a "special condition"
I have tried searching in Google to establish exactly what a "special condition" is but failed so far .
Anyone any idea if insurers regard an excess increase in these circs as a "special condition" or suggest how I deal with it .

Pagey1964

If the excess was increased because of the claims, that would be regarded as imposed terms or a special condition, however, a number of insurers have increased their excess on escape of water in recent years so it may be that it would have been increased anyway - was your increase specific to you and was it in addition to their standard compulsory excess? If not then, providing you declare the 2 claims in the comparison sites, this is OK. If it was imposed, you would still need to declare it, but usually only for 5 years.

molley

Pagey1964 wrote: »

If the excess was increased because of the claims, that would be regarded as imposed terms or a special condition, however, a number of insurers have increased their excess on escape of water in recent years so it may be that it would have been increased anyway - was your increase specific to you and was it in addition to their standard compulsory excess? If not then, providing you declare the 2 claims in the comparison sites, this is OK. If it was imposed, you would still need to declare it, but usually only for 5 years.

Thanks for your reply .All I remeber was getting a letter from DL telling me that the excess was increasing to £350 and I'm sure ( until I find the letter) that it said it was because of these two claims . I should have disputed it at the time but I didn't.

It's not clear whether this excess is a total of £350 for water damage or in addition to the normal excess of £100. I think it's a total .
Im wondering if I should contact them and ask them to reconsider the higher excess and ask the underwriters to remove it .
EDIT I have found this since writing the above so looks like its the norm for Direct Line

https://boughtbymany.com/news/article/does-home-insurance-cover-water-leaks/



"Direct Line has an excess of £350 for escape of water and we could not find any information in its policy documents about whether it would pay to repair damage caused by accessing the leak. and if your home is uninhabitable, Direct Line can arrange accommodation for you."

Zorillo

£350 would be a standard excess I think, given that the difference (in terms of the insurer's claims cost) between that and a lower one would be negligible in the event of a large loss.

Increased excesses are generally substaintially higher in order to make a difference to the insurers claims cost or to wipe out 'nuisance' low value claims.

molley

Zorillo wrote: »

£350 would be a standard excess I think, given that the difference (in terms of the insurer's claims cost) between that and a lower one would be negligible in the event of a large loss.

Increased excesses are generally substaintially higher in order to make a difference to the insurers claims cost or to wipe out 'nuisance' low value claims.

Thanks for those replies all...I'll continue on the basis that my excess for water is DL's default .