Any Recommendations of Home Insurance Based on Actual Claims Experience?

BucketFull

Hi all.

The subject line says it all, really.

I am looking to take out home insurance (first time) on a 'normal' cheap, small, one bedroom house with not a lot of contents apart from the basics, but will have one or two more expensive items such as computer and monitor, nothing extravagant.

Like most others, I read reviews on the Internet, however, most of the reviews are based on the joining process, price, things that are promised as part of the policy, etc., however, can anyone recommend an insurance company after having experienced actual claims?

Thanks for any suggestions.

JGB1955

Only claimed once in 45+ years (and then wished we hadn't).  Claim for red wine on the living room carpet - had to pay the excess (fair enough) but were then restricted to buying a carpet that was FAR more expensive that we would be willing to pay... and the excess made the whole process ridiculously expensive ( we buy new carpets each time we decorate a room - never more than £300) so.. would go for the cheapest deal and assume you will never claim.

Sandtree

The problem is that insurance companies change hands often, even if they dont they may periodically move between insourcing and outsourcing claims and many people mistake the brand at the top of the page for their insurance company when often its a broker or white label etc and the underlying insurer is the one that deals with the claim so again varies by actual insurer not brand at the top left.

Never personally claimed on Home so cannot comment but few will touch our requirements thanks to camera equipment, laptops, handbags, watches etc that make the PP cover difficult. Mother was always with Direct Line and on her two claims the loss adjuster was generally telling her she could claim more (eg cleaning "smoke damage" from the lounge after a kitchen fire) but she was unhappy that on the second claim she was massively under insured on declared value for one section so wasnt happy that they only paid out the limit and not what she lost (personally can't blame them for that but she did) but even on that claim (theft), they bumped the lost cash etc from what it was (a stein of 1,2,5ps the loss adjustor said to say was £250)

mgfvvc

I haven't made many claims. One water damage claim with CU (now part of Aviva) and 2 bike claims. Halifax insurance weren't great to deal with on a small claim and I wouldn't want to have to deal with them for a significant claim.

BucketFull

Thanks for the replies.

Sounds like I shouldn't delve too much into investigating which company is the best but just pick any and hope for the best!

Have taken a look at DirectLine, but didn't like the price according to the following website!

https://householdquotes.co.uk/best-home-insurance/

Seems to be the most expensive one available!

Also visited the Legal & General site, however, the simple task of looking at what home insurance they offer seems to be such an extremely complicated task, that in the end, I just couldn't find the relevant page/info and had to leave the site! Everything I clicked pointed to information for 'existing' customers!

Thought I'd found a cheap one, which seems to have a good overall review score on various review sites, however, the most recent 16 reviews all gave it one star!

https://smartmoneypeople.com/policy-expert-reviews/product/Home-Insurance

This sort of validates my concerns of reviews by customers who have experienced a claim and those who have not.

Also noticed that companies seem to list 'mechanical or electrical' issues as exclusions. What exactly is this? Would a boiler breakdown or a fire caused by an electrical fault not be covered then?

Thanks.

Sandtree

BucketFull said:

Have taken a look at DirectLine, but didn't like the price according to the following website!

https://householdquotes.co.uk/best-home-insurance/

Seems to be the most expensive one available!

Who is expensive for one can be very cheap for the next person... insurance pricing is based on a blend of their claims experience (each company is unique), their target market and any broader strategy. I'd avoid anything written on any site that implies one insurer is universally more expensive and one is universally cheap with the only exception being if they say policies for High Net Worth individuals (eg Hiscox) are expensive and even that is debatable. They have a fundamental lack of understanding of how insurance works and so cannot be trusted on anything else stated.

DL will be expensive for many, they will be cheap for many too. For me they wont touch us because of the limits we require but that is the personal nature of insurance.

BucketFull said:

Also noticed that companies seem to list 'mechanical or electrical' issues as exclusions. What exactly is this? Would a boiler breakdown or a fire caused by an electrical fault not be covered then?

Home insurance isn't a home maintenance policy. You are still paying for things to be serviced, maintained etc and replace things when they are just old and wear out. They cover events like fire, flood, theft etc which are one off unexpected events that happen "suddenly".

A boiler breakdown wouldn't be covered by Home insurance, it may be covered by a Home Emergency policy or a Boiler Warranty etc some of which can be tagged onto a Home Insurance policy.

If you had an electrical fault that then caused a fire then the damage caused by the fire would be covered, fire is an insured peril, but the fixing the fault that started the fire wouldn't be... and most insurers would want to have confirmation that you've fixed the faulty electric heater (or removed it) before dealing with the fire damage. Depending on what exactly it is and the scale of the fire/leak etc the root cause may be de minimus to the settlement and so not bothered about.

TELLIT01

I've had to make claims with Lloyds Bank and with Direct Line in the past.  I've had no problems with either.

BucketFull

Thanks for the replies.

I have just completed the quote process at Confused.com, but got the message "We're sorry, we have been unable to find any quotes for you online". Why would that be? I didn't specify anything out of the ordinary. Now I'm confused.com!

SaverRate

BucketFull said:

Thanks for the replies.

I have just completed the quote process at Confused.com, but got the message "We're sorry, we have been unable to find any quotes for you online". Why would that be? I didn't specify anything out of the ordinary. Now I'm confused.com!

Try moneysupermarket as I had issues with  confused.com previously for home insurance. 

If you get the same thing can you tell us what you have entered and we may be able to help. 

BucketFull

Thanks, that is exactly what I'm going to do.

I did go back and change one or two things that I thought could have a remote possibility of being the culprit, but got the same message. For example, I left the default of 1900 for the age of the property and then changed it to 1920. Had selected stone for the walls, which I'm not 100% sure about, but changed it to brick. Can't remember what else, but it wasn't anything of note, but nothing made any difference. Anyway, onto Plan B!

BucketFull

No such problem at MoneySupermarket!

Coincidentally, the top four cheapest quotes in the list (from £102.57 to £142.23) was from the same company I mentioned above that had a one star rating for their last 16 reviews! Think I might have to go over several of their positive reviews to see if I can find any that have been reviewed after an actual claim. I would gladly pay double the cheapest quote to a company that handled claims well.