Home insurance first house advice please

Iwanttobefree

My son is due to exchange contracts on his first house probably today.
He's been looking at house/contents insurance and the first two he's looked at have been £440 a year.
As it's his first house, I presume the reason it's so  high is that as soon as he clicks on 0 years no claims, the software takes it as him having made a claim?
It's a standard 2 bed mid terraced house

thanks

dunstonh

As it's his first house, I presume the reason it's so  high is that as soon as he clicks on 0 years no claims, the software takes it as him having made a claim?

No. That is an incorrect assumption.   Most providers do not have a no-claims discount system with home insurance.  Although their gross premium will have some internal pricing adjustments based on timescale.  It isn't as pronounced as car insurance though.  Some do but its as much marketing as it is price setting.  So, there is an influence on the price but not one that would be a significant difference.

Post code,  type of cover, occupation, type of policy (i.e. bedroom rated or chosen sum insured method) will have a greater influence on price than the fact he is a FTB with no history.

Iwanttobefree

Thanks, I've got a few quotes, much more reasonable, for example Swinton £180

Weighty1

Firstly, do you know what you should be looking for on his  home insurance?  Does the Swinton cover include Trace and Access cover, personal possessions away from the home cover, home emergency cover, is there a compulsory AND voluntary excess, what's the excess on things like escape of water (a major cause of claims)?
This is were the aggregator website have it all wrong.  They put price over everything, which is fine UNTIL a claim needs to be made.

eddddy

It might be worth comparing details of your son's quotes and yours, to see if you're answering questions differently and/or specifying different levels of cover.

For example, is your son describing his occupation differently; stating that he works from home; specifying a low excess; specifying a different rebuild cost - and/or  including accidental damage cover, home emergency cover, legal expenses cover?

(To avoid the risk that he goes with the £180 quote you got, but assumes that he has all the cover he specified in his £440 quote.)

Annemos

Also when you look at the documents before you accept, check if the actual Insurance Company providing the cover, is a member of the Association of British Insurers. That may give more protection if a claim is made. 

https://www.abi.org.uk/about-the-abi/abi-members/

Iwanttobefree

Swinton quote has the following
He doesn't want cover away from home (only has cheap mobile)
zero voluntary contents excess  £100 compulsory
£150 voluntary building excess plus £100 compulsory
£1000 subsidence
£250 escape of water excess
£500k building insurance, £50k contents 
Fire and smoke damage, theft, flood or storm damage, escape of water or fuel, vandalism or malicious damage, subsidence , heave or lanslip.
Includes legal cover,  it's another £49 for home emergency cover, still looking at alternative home emergency cover with gas service included before he decides.

Insured via Geo Personal Lines (legal cover through Allianz Insurance) which I cant find on abi.org, but neither is the company that gave him his much higher quote

His original insurance quote was via Prestige, that also included £49 for home emergency cover, but if I take that off and just leave legal cover on, it works out at £411.60 compared to £182.13 with Swinton
Prestige includes the following
£250 building excess  (same as Swinton with Swintons voluntary and compulsory)
£500 Escape of water/oil excess  (Swinton states £250 plus voluntary building and contents excess which totals £400)
£1000 subsidence
£500k building insurance
£50k contents insured, with an excess of £250 (compared to £100 excess with Swinton) 
Max single unlisted  item 2,5k   (swinton 2k)  
Also includes bike theft, he doesn't have a bike
So I can't find any extra benefit for the one costing over double the cost of Swinton except they give you an individual item limit of 2.5k instead of 2k

Annemos

https://www.swinton.co.uk/globalassets/4.-new-page-blocks/terms-and-conditions/home_tob_online.pdf
Please see above document: bottom in their list of insurers. Is the insurer of yours Zurich Insurance PLC? If so they are a member I think: 

https://www.abi.org.uk/about-the-abi/abi-members/?sw=z
(I am a just a consumer, but this is the way I try to find these things out. I have been badly caught out on this issue of ABI membership.)