A couple of contents insurance queries for quotes

NervyBuyer

Trying (like everyone) to reduce a contents insurance premium that's gone up by over 100% with no changes and no claims.

1. Legal protection - previously included 'as standard' so didn't query it. What might this be used for and does it actually offer anything when bundled with insurance (or is it one of those 'not worth the paper it's written on' gimmicks)?
2. Working from home question - I never work from home, my office is less than half a mile away, open 24 hours, I leave my laptop there and I don't even have broadband at home. How could you prove this though? Do insurers just expect everyone to use their home for some clerical business use these days and get suspicious if you claim not to? Is it easiest just to say 'clerical use only' in case?

Many thanks!

Emmia

NervyBuyer said:

Trying (like everyone) to reduce a contents insurance premium that's gone up by over 100% with no changes and no claims.

1. Legal protection - previously included 'as standard' so didn't query it. What might this be used for and does it actually offer anything when bundled with insurance (or is it one of those 'not worth the paper it's written on' gimmicks)?
2. Working from home question - I never work from home, my office is less than half a mile away, open 24 hours, I leave my laptop there and I don't even have broadband at home. How could you prove this though? Do insurers just expect everyone to use their home for some clerical business use these days and get suspicious if you claim not to? Is it easiest just to say 'clerical use only' in case?

Many thanks!

Legal protection is handy if you want advice in relation to an issue associated with your property,  e.g. neighbours, maintenance etc. when people raise issues on these boards, the first question is often "do you have legal protection on your home insurance?"

Aretnap

NervyBuyer said:

2. Working from home question - I never work from home, my office is less than half a mile away, open 24 hours, I leave my laptop there and I don't even have broadband at home. How could you prove this though? Do insurers just expect everyone to use their home for some clerical business use these days and get suspicious if you claim not to? Is it easiest just to say 'clerical use only' in case?

Many thanks!

I don't think I've ever been asked to declare occasional working from home by an insurer - IME the question is usually asking the lines of "is the property used for business (other than occasional clerical work)?" or similar. You must be dealing with an insurer that's in a minority, or a comparison sure that has to ask the question like that because one of the many insurers on its panel cares about the answer. 

In any event you wouldn't have to prove anything - if the insurer wanted to deny a claim the onus would be on them to prove that you hadn't answered accurately. Depending on the circumstances that could be easy (if you tried to claim for damage to your work laptop) or bordering on impossible unless you told them (if you claimed for subsidence). Either way you have nothing to worry about if you don't actually work from home. 

That said if there's any possibility that you might start working from home in future it might make sense to declare that you do now rather than have to make a mid term adjustment and pay an admin fee for doing so in future - I don't imagine it will make much difference to the premium.

DullGreyGuy

1. LE cover on home is divided into two sections...

1a. Legal Advice line - you can call up and speak to an advice line typically about almost any personal legal situation... the advice given will be generic (ie you can't send them letters to read etc) but generally point you in the right direction

1b. Claims - for a much tighter set of circumstances (eg employment, property, consumer and injury) they will provide legal resources to support your claim against someone else subject to a reasonable prospect of success (ie 51% or more) and that costs will be proportionate (they won't spend £5,000 in legal fees to help you get £10 back from your neighbour)

Personally, 1a is useful, 1b is a bit more hit or miss. Some will get similar coverages via being a member of a union etc


2. It rarely makes much difference and could be worthwhile adding it "just in case". Ultimately its going to be judged on the balance of probability so it would be up to them to give evidence to substantiate you were dishonest when you said you never WHF and you would be free to submit a statement or evidence to "prove you didnt". 

In most cases these things come to light at claims stage either through the questions asked by the telephone teams and/or loss adjustors coming around to inspect damage etc. Many people simply drop themselves in it when the insurer asks what they use their smartphone for, the customer says checking emails etc, the insurer asks if its personal, business or both and when they answer its for both it starts smelling like its likely that at least occasionally they are checking work email from home (aka working from home) and so a few more questions and the customer admits they work from home occasionally. 

user1977

Aretnap said:

NervyBuyer said:

2. Working from home question - I never work from home, my office is less than half a mile away, open 24 hours, I leave my laptop there and I don't even have broadband at home. How could you prove this though? Do insurers just expect everyone to use their home for some clerical business use these days and get suspicious if you claim not to? Is it easiest just to say 'clerical use only' in case?

Many thanks!

That said if there's any possibility that you might start working from home in future it might make sense to declare that you do now rather than have to make a mid term adjustment and pay an admin fee for doing so in future - I don't imagine it will make much difference to the premium.

If anything you might think it would reduce the risk (for burglary / fire etc), if it means the property is regularly occupied during the working day

DullGreyGuy

user1977 said:

Aretnap said:

NervyBuyer said:

2. Working from home question - I never work from home, my office is less than half a mile away, open 24 hours, I leave my laptop there and I don't even have broadband at home. How could you prove this though? Do insurers just expect everyone to use their home for some clerical business use these days and get suspicious if you claim not to? Is it easiest just to say 'clerical use only' in case?

Many thanks!

That said if there's any possibility that you might start working from home in future it might make sense to declare that you do now rather than have to make a mid term adjustment and pay an admin fee for doing so in future - I don't imagine it will make much difference to the premium.

If anything you might think it would reduce the risk (for burglary / fire etc), if it means the property is regularly occupied during the working day

Normally there is a separate question on if the house is occupied during the day... could be person WFH in the night.

It tends overall to be a bit of a mixed bag... Escape of Water tends to be the one most reduced by people being in the property; doesn't reduce the frequency but does reduce the severity. 

Burglary is more often not in daytime, not sure on fire given most dont have the tools to tackle fires so not like EoW where someone can just turn off the mains and fires caused by cooking or smoking etc will increase with increased occupation. Accidental Damage also tends to increase when people are actually in their homes. 

Lots of consideration was given to these things with Covid and Lockdown... Motor was notably helped with far fewer driving but Home was less obvious

TELLIT01

My wife currently has a claim active following a fall and the experience has been less than great, to put it mildly.  She finally raised a complaint with the solicitors and the claim was moved to another handler.  We are more than 12 months down the line and the original handler hadn't even requested witness statements.  The complaints manager said it appeared that the claim handler had simply been 'kicking the can down the road' and actually done nothing with it.  This was despite my wife twice contacting their client liaison team to chase things.  The only time we got any response was following contact with that team.

Things do seem to be moving a bit faster now.

NervyBuyer

Thanks - I have only used comparison sites so far which had options for 'no business use' and varying categories of use up from there. Sounds as if it's wise to go for 'clerical only' to be safe.

I'll probably keep the legal if it's not adding much cost.