Landlord insurance: quote higher than expected, looking at alternatives

yamax87

My insurance broker quoted me £375 for insuring a small family red brick city-dwelling, tenanted to a family, both parents employed. 
The proposed insurer is Property Protector, underwritten by Geo. 
This quote has shot up from last year by £50 (same property); after some probing, I found that this was due to an admin fee that the broker started to add this year. 
The quote excludes flooding; apparently this is due to the property being in a higher risk flooding area than Geo is comfortable with.  

Online, similar quotes (same cover for buildings, contents etc-I've been careful to keep them comparable) include flood cover and come in at around £320 (Chiswell insurance). Maltings insurance and Finsbury insurance group also came out at £320. I raised this with the broker, but they said the details I provided 'did not include a statement of fact'. I am not sure what this refers to, but I presume it covers the statements about the insured property (construction, purpose, etc) and the full policy wording, which I gave them? They insist that without this 'statement of fact', it is not clear what I would be signing up to, and that this is inconsistent with UK financial practice.  

The broker went on to state that they could not lower the quote below £375 and that the online offer by Chiswell was underwritten by a company based outside the UK. (Chiswell is underwritten by HDI Global Speciality SE and Great Lakes Insurance SE.). 

I called Simply Business (comparethemarket's partner for landlord insurance quotes, I think) to see if I could obtain this 'statement of fact', which they stated that they could not provide as 'this would constitute an agreement to insure your property before you have paid a premium'. So, I'm confused!

I'm no insurance expert...can anyone advise? I could take the 'comfortable route' and just stay with my existing broker and accept their higher premium, but is there any reason why I shouldn't take the cheaper online deal with its (apparent) better coverage? 

Thanks

emilyjane92

If you are happy with the alternative quote then I can't see any harm in taking it. Ultimately your decision so just check you have read all the documents and are happy before going ahead. No harm in obtaining an extra quote from another landlord insurance broker just to give you something else to compare the premium/cover with.