Home insurance quotes for this year seem to have gone crazy!

anotherquestion

Did quite a bit of website comparison today and have managed to get a quote of £413 that's with a more specific house rebuild cost and £15k home contents cover. Last years cover on looking it up was around £239 (that was for rebuild up to one million and 75K contents cover)

The quotes for this year very so much, from different companies from the above figure of £413 up to £9,988 per year.

I can understand that insurance companies and underwrites need to be in a healthy financial state, with cost of living and climate change with a lot more people claiming.

Yet I do feel if they carry on the way they do, sooner or later someone is going to investigate them preferably a government body.

DullGreyGuy

anotherquestion said:

Did quite a bit of website comparison today and have managed to get a quote of £413 that's with a more specific house rebuild cost and £15k home contents cover. Last years cover on looking it up was around £239 (that was for rebuild up to one million and 75K contents cover)

The quotes for this year very so much, from different companies from the above figure of £413 up to £9,988 per year.

I can understand that insurance companies and underwrites need to be in a healthy financial state, with cost of living and climate change with a lot more people claiming.

Yet I do feel if they carry on the way they do, sooner or later someone is going to investigate them preferably a government body.

Is £15k the total cost to replace everything you own on a new for old basis realistic? It is exceptionally low! The UK average is £35,000 and that includes the 1 bed studio flats etc. Admirals research years back showed that the average person also estimates their content to be £18k so almost 50%. 

In principle the insurer could avoid any claims saying you were reckless in your estimation of the value, if they were kinder they'd apply the averaging clause meaning you only get circa 50% of any claim if you are 50% under insured. 


Insurance is a heavily regulated industry, the PRA, part of the Bank of England, ensures insurers have sufficient monies to pay the claims that may happen on the policies they've sold. The FCA ensures they are treating customers fairly. It was the later that increased prices by saying new customers can no longer receive discounts for Home and Car insurance (but reduced prices for those that had stayed with the same company for 20 years)

anotherquestion

Good points, but we don't live any life of luxury or have any expensive contents, flat pack furniture, three beds, a few chest of drawers, kitchen table and chairs and a few 3+2 sofa sets, all no where new, + about £1000  of music instruments, a few tablets + computer and a number of oldish tv.

1 Can I ask if you have to be with the same company for at least 20 years to get any reduction, or a lesser time will do.

2 Anyone know once a person has been with a particular insurer for a number of years, when it comes around to renewal for another year, where there has been no claims, and nothing has changed around the insured area, do they just apply a fixed percentage across the board for all across the country who would fall into the above demographic, or is there simply no consistency in what increase criteria they apply.

3 Are the comparison sites a reasonable indication of what a person might pay for insurance with their current provider as regards renewal, if that insurer has a quote on the comparison site.

DullGreyGuy

1. You are unlikely to get a discount for loyalty, the new laws simply say that a renewal quote can be no higher than what a new business quote would be. Historically insurers increased the prices each year you stayed because you were statistically less likely to be price sensitive and more likely to renew. 

2. Pricing is relatively straight forward, there is often a base premium and then for each question asked there is a multiplier so a 40 year old may be a 100% whereas a 20 year old is 150%. For some things the questions are compounded so if you are a flood risk or not may be compounded with what floor your flat is on. If you are ground floor flat in a flood zone it may be 200% whereas a 3rd floor flat in a flood zone is 130%.

Premiums are recalculated from the ground up each year based on those items that stay constant (Eg home construction) and those things that naturally change (eg your age)

3. How did you buy your last policy? Over the phone? Off their website? Via an aggregator? The pricing rules allows differential pricing by channel. So if you bought via confused.com last time then getting a new quote from there in principle would give you the maximum price you'd be looking at because in principle if can be no higher than new business HOWEVER... how close you are to your renewal date is also a pricing factor, those that shop around on the day of renewal pay the highest price as clearly its a distress purchase at that point. As such your renewal being generated on a different day to you doing the quote online can result in pricing differences.

anotherquestion

Thanks very much for the detailed reply, I have been with Tesco for a good few years now, probably ten, got the renewal last year, but rang them up as I always do, as occasionally they may have a bit of leeway to reduce it a bit further. So it was over the phone.

Renewal date is 30 April, but as most won't let you get a quote more than 30 days beforehand I have just been putting in renewal dates sooner.

aylesby

SAGA have increased my building and contents policy by 55% with no claims of 10+ years and retired people always in the house. There is £30 arrangement fee added that I have not seen before.

dunstonh

aylesby said:

SAGA have increased my building and contents policy by 55% with no claims of 10+ years and retired people always in the house. There is £30 arrangement fee added that I have not seen before.

SAGA has had an explicit charge in place of commission for some years.    However, they have always been paid an amount.  The figure is just explicit nowadays.  Explicit charging is considered fairer.

db3745

My buildings and contents insurance with LV has doubled. I want to sort it out ASAP obviously. We have allowance for insuring 2 cars with them too, due in September. We last switched - from Avia - back in 2011, and even at the new £500 figure it's much less than Aviva wanted back then, but I did want to ask one thing before deciding whether to get alternative quotes or try to get a better deal from LV. We hadn't had a claim for 20 years before 6 months ago, when a leaking pipe called water damage to a ceiling, which needed re-plastering. I probably should have thought more carefully before calling them but as it looked like a hefty bill I made the call. Although there's a tick beside water leaking from a pipe because there's a cross beside damage to the pipe itself, they said we weren't covered for plumbing repair, so we could only claim for re-plastering with an excess of £350 (increased to £500 this year!) I didn't go ahead, so I see in our renewal quote they've itemised this one "claim in last 5 years" as "escape of oil/water - Information only".

I started looking at a Direct Line quote form which has made me ask - does my Info only call with LV count as a quote? so do I have to answer yes to that question - Have you made a claim in the last 5 years? Or is it only if I've proceeded and made an actual claim. Importantly I guess, will my aborted claim count against me for the next 5 years in terms of increasing the price, even though I didn't actully pursue a claim?

dunstonh

I started looking at a Direct Line quote form which has made me ask - does my Info only call with LV count as a quote? so do I have to answer yes to that question - Have you made a claim in the last 5 years? Or is it only if I've proceeded and made an actual claim. Importantly I guess, will my aborted claim count against me for the next 5 years in terms of increasing the price, even though I didn't actully pursue a claim?

When getting quotes and applying elsewhere you have made one claim with a value of zero.

DullGreyGuy

db3745 said:

I started looking at a Direct Line quote form which has made me ask - does my Info only call with LV count as a quote? so do I have to answer yes to that question - Have you made a claim in the last 5 years? Or is it only if I've proceeded and made an actual claim. Importantly I guess, will my aborted claim count against me for the next 5 years in terms of increasing the price, even though I didn't actully pursue a claim?

You made a claim and subsequently withdrew it, in most cases declined, abandoned, withdrawn etc claims all count as a claim for the purposes of making a declaration. If you want to double check then ask the insurer (eg DL) BEFORE buying but that would be the industry norm (anyone can choose to deviate from the norm though)