home insurance advice

johannis

Hi, we are about to renew our home insurance. We haven't had to make a claim since we've been in our current property since we've been here, 13 plus years. We are in the process of having a new kitchen in and  (disappointingly after it had all been plastered)  we discovered a leak from the bathroom above. It involved ancient lead fittings and got complicated and it meant water was getting on to new kitchen cupbards for another week or so. There were various solutions suggested to us which ranged from hundreds to thousands of pounds in cost. At this point i started an insurance claim, i didn't know what we couldn't or couldn't claim for but thought it best to get in touch. 
Our insurance provider operates online, i filled out the form. during the process it revealed that no matter what excess figure had been offered when we went with them, they would make up a new one based on what the claim was?
My question would be is this standard practice, it must be 20 years since we made a claim and i don't remember this being the case?
I don't intend to stay with this provider, if this isn't standard practise what am i looking out for in the small print?
I appreciate any advice anyone can offer.
thanks
 

DullGreyGuy

The excess you set when you buy the policy is the voluntary excess.

Some sections of the policy have a compulsory excess (eg Subsidence often has a £1,000 excess) and Escape of Water is one of those sections that increasingly often has a compulsory excess.

In some cases you have to pay both voluntary and compulsory and in others it is one or the other. In Motor it's always both... so you set a voluntary of £250 but young or inexperienced drivers have an additional excess to pay on top of that if they are driving at the time. Home its a bit more variable between providers.

They dont "make it up", its defined in your policy book but yes they will need to know if you are claiming on Fire, Escape of Water, Subsidence etc to be able to confirm the total excess

VickyLeigh1983

It's been a while since I've worked in the industry but I don't believe that this standard practice.

Do you have both compulsory and voluntary excess on the policy do you know?

If you have voluntary it may be changeable depending on what you claim for. E.G. on car insurance it might be £50 for a new windscreen and £250 for replacement vehicle claim (not accurate, but hopefully gives you an idea). That could be what they are referring to?

XRS200

VickyLeigh1983 said:

It's been a while since I've worked in the industry but I don't believe that this standard practice.

Making up an excess isn't standard practice but, as said above, a specific excess for escape of water is.

Annemos

Is it worth mentioning, that if the Poster has registered an Incident with his Insurer, then he/she must be careful to answer questions correctly when taking out a new policy? 

The Insurer at the time of the Incident, may have registered the Incident on the Claims and Underwriting Exchange, once that on-line claim form was completed.

So if the Poster is asked questions about previous claims/incidents, depending on the wording, the Poster should declare it, to avoid potential future problems of non-disclosure.