Cancelled home insurance

worsfold321

2 years ago I renewed my current building and contents insurance, I telephoned the company to inform them of the change which was that I had had my kitchen extended. Unfortunately I failed to read that I should have notified them 60 days before it started. They cancelled my insurance and now every time I declare this the premium is 4 times as much. It was a mistake on my part, however A Plan provided insurance last Yr at a high premium which I took, this year yet again its really high but it seems it is so difficult to get insurance once you declare that an insurance has been cancelled.
Any advice welcome please

huckster

Anyone who has an Insurance cancelled must  contact the Insurers that cancelled the Insurance to seek clarification in writing confirming the reasons for cancellation and how this has been reported I.e. Insurance central databases.

The cancellation of the policy should have been challenged at the time, because not informing of a kitchen extension does not appear to be a serious enough breach of the Insurance contract to justify cancellation and the consequences that this would cause. Yes you should have told them, but is cancelling a fair action to take?

Once you have the written information from the previous Insurers, then approach brokers such as Home Protect or Towergate.

Insurance costs have increased anyway, because claims costs have increased.

DullGreyGuy

huckster said:

The cancellation of the policy should have been challenged at the time, because not informing of a kitchen extension does not appear to be a serious enough breach of the Insurance contract to justify cancellation and the consequences that this would cause. Yes you should have told them, but is cancelling a fair action to take?

Once you have the written information from the previous Insurers, then approach brokers such as Home Protect or Towergate.

Most insurers will not cover a home whilst structural work is going on, some will effectively pause the policy others will require it to be cancelled. Certainly the OP should check with their insurer if this has been recorded as a declarable cancellation or not. If it had been declared before works started then it wouldnt be as the OP would effectively have the choice of not doing the building works and keeping the policy or choosing to cancel the policy and progress with the works.

The issue here is that they failed to make the declaration which puts us into CIDRE territory and if the insurer doesn't cover properties during structural work then they would be entitled to cancel the policy even if they accept the failure to declare was only a careless mistake rather than an intentional or reckless one. 

Home Protect aren't brokers, they only sell a policy underwritten by Axa and operate as an MGA - they've switched capacity provider a few times 

Towergate is a collection of companies which do include some brokers (and some MGAs) but have to say wouldnt be at the top of my recommendation list.