Money for old rope, bandits and M&S Home Insurance

Jogon_2

Have been with M&S who use Aviva for their insurance or at least thats who insurers via the M&S insurance …

In any case and since Covid the policy has continually risen each renewal with last years renewal being the single largest increase (almost 25%) I ended up dropping the House contents and plumped for just the Buildings insurance (so as to keep the mortgage company onboard) but even that came at a cost, they reduced the insurance but because I no longer had buildings and contents with them the reduction was not as much as I thought it might have been, yuk!  

So that was last year and last week the renewal dropped through the letter box and again another rise but this time to the point where I simply cannot afford the increase. 

It has risen from £307 (buildings only) to £480 (Buildings only). which is over 50%. 

Of course you speak to them and it’s the same canned answer as it is every single year

'We don’t set the rates, the (faceless) underwriters do’ and ‘we’ve already given you our best price’ and ‘we don’t know why the huge increase’ ..refer to underwriters comment .

I have never made a claim in 40 years of home insurance ( I realise loyalty counts for little if anything these days where insurance is concerned)  my property has not changed,  the crime rate in my local area is still below the national average, there has been no flooding (I don’t live in a flood range anyway) and my property like most properties has probably devalued a little this year due to a bit of a depressed market.

Property is a 4 bed, nothing special, nothing that would cause an insurer to load it (they use the flimsiest of reasons)…and I’ve not had reason to speak to M&S over this last year and neither have they been on contact with me…so in short nothing has changed

Has anyone else experienced such a huge increase in their home insurance for this last year?   

Frankly I am going to have to drop cover, I have no choice as I simply cannot meet the 50% increase (given that it was 25% last year and about 15% the year before and around the same the year before that.

Devongardener

This is exactly why you should get comparison quotes from other companies every year, never accept huge increases with your existing provider. 

 If you tell them you want to cancel they will almost reduce the price.   Loyalty counts for nothing in home insurance.  You certainly don’t have to reduce your level of cover, just look elsewhere.

Hoenir

Jogon_2 said:

I have never made a claim in 40 years of home insurance ( I realise loyalty counts for little if anything these days where insurance is concerned)

If your property was to be severely damaged by fire. What would the total rebuild cost be?   That would give some context to the premium you are paying. Material costs alone have risen sharply. 

Somebody's house catches fire everday.  If everybody received a loyally discount for no claims. Then the price would remain the same for everybody. 

DullGreyGuy

Jogon_2 said:

my property like most properties has probably devalued a little this year due to a bit of a depressed market.

You don't insure its market value you insure its rebuild cost. You may not have noticed but we have been in a period of high inflation and so salaries are up, building materials are up etc. We've had the combination of dry summers and wet/cold winters which have caused spikes in claims in both seasons. Home insurers as a whole made an underwriting loss last year, for every £100 premium they received they paid out £115 in claims and operational expenses. 

At the end of the day shop around, depending on if you are on M&S or M&S Premier then the policy is either above average or very full coverage but there are plenty of lower quality covers which will inevitably cheaper.

Having made a claim off our own M&S Home policy this year I'm really not looking forward to the renewal but there aren't many other insurers thatt come close to their price for us. 

chrisw

Get on the comparison sites, you are probably massively overpaying. I have a similar 4 bed house, buildings and contents is £112 with Aviva.

TELLIT01

The cost of most types of insurance seems to have increased hugely over the past couple of years, not just house insurance.  Our home insurance increased but remained competitive when I checked other insurers.  Car insurance was ridiculously high and I found another insurer for about 1/3rd of the original renewal quote.  Shop around is the ony way to make sure you get the best price.  Don't simply rely on price comparison sites as many major insurers don't use them.

Jogon_2

Hoenir said:

Jogon_2 said:

I have never made a claim in 40 years of home insurance ( I realise loyalty counts for little if anything these days where insurance is concerned)

If your property was to be severely damaged by fire. What would the total rebuild cost be?   That would give some context to the premium you are paying. Material costs alone have risen sharply. 

Somebody's house catches fire everday.  If everybody received a loyally discount for no claims. Then the price would remain the same for everybody. 

The relative cost has always been the same in respect of home insurance, the same goes for vehicle, insurance is a small percentage of value, however, the stats are not as evenly applied and don’t seem to stack up.

Generally house fires result in very few total loss situations, there are 35 million home dwellings in the UK and rising half a million more than a few years before.

Furthermore the the extent of damage to a property from fires continues to decrease year on year, same as damage to properties close by and in the case of flats on fire most are contained within one room with a stated 6% of fires going further than one room, a further decrease.  all these decreases along with the increased safety of electrical appliances etc, in short there is no increase in house fires but there is a decrease in the damage caused, thus a reduction in materials used. 

Approx  0.1% of UK Domestic property suffer some sort of fire damage with an even lesser percentage of the 0.1% resulting in total loss and with less damage to property being observed.

So in the sense of a total loss, the stats for an increase on that basis simply do not stack up.

https://www.thefpa.co.uk/news/home-office-releases-detailed-analysis-of-fires-attended-by-fire-and-rescue-services-in-england

Hoenir

Jogon_2 said:

Hoenir said:

Jogon_2 said:

I have never made a claim in 40 years of home insurance ( I realise loyalty counts for little if anything these days where insurance is concerned)

If your property was to be severely damaged by fire. What would the total rebuild cost be?   That would give some context to the premium you are paying. Material costs alone have risen sharply. 

Somebody's house catches fire everday.  If everybody received a loyally discount for no claims. Then the price would remain the same for everybody. 

The relative cost has always been the same in respect of home insurance, the same goes for vehicle, insurance is a small percentage of value, however, the stats are not as evenly applied and don’t seem to stack up.

Generally house fires result in very few total loss situations, there are 35 million home dwellings in the UK and rising half a million more than a few years before.

Furthermore the the extent of damage to a property from fires continues to decrease year on year, same as damage to properties close by and in the case of flats on fire most are contained within one room with a stated 6% of fires going further than one room, a further decrease.  all these decreases along with the increased safety of electrical appliances etc, in short there is no increase in house fires but there is a decrease in the damage caused, thus a reduction in materials used. 

Approx  0.1% of UK Domestic property suffer some sort of fire damage with an even lesser percentage of the 0.1% resulting in total loss and with less damage to property being observed.

So in the sense of a total loss, the stats for an increase on that basis simply do not stack up.

https://www.thefpa.co.uk/news/home-office-releases-detailed-analysis-of-fires-attended-by-fire-and-rescue-services-in-england

I was simply generalising the basic principles of insurance.  

propertyrental

Shop around. For the avoidance of doubt:

SHOP AROUND!

And never refer to the market value - you need to know the re-build cost and insure for that amount (or more).

see

https://calculator.bcis.co.uk/

sheramber

And rebuild costs include clearing the site and the cost of disposal of the waste.

It could also include the cost of temporary accommodation if your house was uninhabitable. 

My friend has been in temporary accommodation since Boxing Day, when part of her roof was blown off and part of her house was flooded as a result. 

The weather since New Year has interfered with drying out the property and starting to repair.