A change in underwriting rules?

BardellRJ

Recently. my home contents insurer, LV, cited " a change in underwriting rules" for not renewing my policy this year and their phone desk was unable to provide any further explanation; all he could say was that it probably wasn't because I was leasehold or in the wrong postcode [London NW9] and that lots of other people are similarly affected. I don't have any flood risk, have been with them 23 years and have never made a claim. Can anyone enlighten me as to what is happening here?

Albermarle

Can not enlighten you but if you have stayed with the same insurer for 23 years, you are likely to be paying over the odds for the insurance. So having to find another one may be a blessing in disguise.

sheramber

Only LV's underwriters will know why they have changed the rules.

it may be your location  has become a higher risk than before as there have been more claims from that location. , or they have decided not to cover your type of property because they have had more claims from people living in the same type of property.

Insurance is based on perceived risk , which does not just apply to you but to everybody in the same category.

it is not personal.

DullGreyGuy

Since Allianz bought LV General Insurance its adopted their highly infrequent publishing of results but in 2022 LV had a combined ratio of 110% overall (ie for every £1 premium after tax they received they spent £1.10 in claims, marketing etc). Many insurers had a worse 2023 than 2022 despite premium increases so it could be they've reduced their risk appetite as underwriting losses can only be allowed to continue for so long. 


The agent you spoke to will have no idea what the reason is, insurers don't expose their pricing logic to the front line staff... those that tried found it just ends up in arguments when the agent says that red cars are more expensive to insure than green cars and the person then wants to know why, or disputes that red car drivers are show offs or whatever.

Out of curiosity, have you gone to their website and looked to see if you can get a new business quote from them?

BardellRJ

I haven't had tried to get a new quote, I'm not really that curious; they are passing my business onto an associate insurer who will provide their own quote and if that's no good I'll look around. I'm not a passive buyer as I routinely haggle annually over car and breakdown insurance but LV's contents premium has always been reasonable.
I realise it's not personal, the LV man said they had had lots of phone calls about this without any clear pattern emerging that he could see but, even if the actuaries are right, they are risking alienating an awful lot of customers by the sound of it; higher risk home insurance doesn't necessarily equate to higher risk car insurance - and I certainly won't seeking a motor quote from them now, as I'd previously intended to.
Thanks to all for taking the time to reply.