LV Building Insurance Increase

AircraftEng

My renewal quote has increased by 74% this year, the rational being given is the new insurance rules which I always assumed would help loyal customers but it seems not. There have been no chances in my circumstances but LV won’t budge. Anyone else in this position?

dunstonh

My renewal quote has increased by 74% this year, the rational being given is the new insurance rules which I always assumed would help loyal customers but it seems not. 

If your policy was sold previously with early year discounting and you were still within the period of early year discounts (which isn't always year one but stepped reduction in discount over the years) then you have typically seen larger increases in your insurance premium at renewal.

If your policy was outside of any early year discounting then typically you have seen little difference in the premium other than inflation increases.

Some insurers have priced on estimates that they are going to lose a larger number of customers and need to increase their premiums to cover it.    Until consumer activity becomes clearer, pricing will be a little unstable.

Another reason for such a large increase is that you have fallen outside of their current target market or have become higher risk due to the results of claims by people similar to you.  Rather than you explicitly.

There have been no chances in my circumstances but LV won’t budge. 

Offering you a discount but not others creates a whole load of reporting to the FCA and many have taken the view that they don't want to get involved with the administration of doing that or the consequences of doing that.

AircraftEng

Thank you for your response, however, I was not on a discount and been with LV for over 10 years. I questioned if there were any other reasons but nothing was stated, they had previously put up my building insurance by 48% but I had a £950 claim for a water leak under my drive so that at least made some sense.

dunstonh

AircraftEng said:

Thank you for your response, however, I was not on a discount and been with LV for over 10 years. I questioned if there were any other reasons but nothing was stated, they had previously put up my building insurance by 48% but I had a £950 claim for a water leak under my drive so that at least made some sense.

We are into guesswork really but it could be that the version of the plan you have for the distribution channel you placed it through is no longer price effective.

LV sold its general insurance business to Allianz a couple of years ago.  So, maybe they are pricing certain old plan versions with very low numbers of policyholders higher to encourage them to get off that plan so they can reduce their admin costs.

ProtectYourself_1

My Dad just had his renewal with LV for home insurance and it has gone up 50% from last year.  I told him to get on compare the market and he has just insured with Hastings Premier for 62% cheaper for exactly the same level of cover (in fact their excess is less).  Definitely shop around.

ukmike

I've just renewed my building & contents insurance with LV.It was £120 last year,now £90.

Enigmatic_Me

Same here. Last year for both Buildings and Contents, £177, renewal £287. No change in circumstances. Noticed no major providers on Quidco now as well. Got a quote from Direct Line and £430.

chrisw

Mine also went down with LV= this year. Regardless, i have no loyalty to them so I still go on the comparison sites to see if I can get it any cheaper. This year I couldn't.

MovingForwards

Mine went up £20 with DL, I used a comparison site, opted for the third quote and saved £70. Rung DL to not renew and they offered to see if they could reprice it, which I declined as they should have offered me their best price in the renewal quote.

Cardew

My LV buildings and contents insurance increased by 45% this year - no changes in cover or any claim made.

That said the quotes from GoCompare showed similar large rises from that of last year. 

molerat

I am with DirectLine and my increase is 8.5%, I was quite shocked and expecting much more   Shopping around would save around £5.