Two Sets of House Insurance?

thundyuk

Hi there,

is it possible, and legal, for two people to have insurance on a house? And if the worst happened, can both claim?

For example, I'm married and my wife plus myself jointly own our house - it's fully paid off, worth £300k. We both have house and contents insurance on it, there's a gas explosion and the house is wiped out. Can we both claim on the insurance for the full amount at all?

Thanks

cw8825

thundyuk said:

Hi there,

is it possible, and legal, for two people to have insurance on a house? And if the worst happened, can both claim?

For example, I'm married and my wife plus myself jointly own our house - it's fully paid off, worth £300k. We both have house and contents insurance on it, there's a gas explosion and the house is wiped out. Can we both claim on the insurance for the full amount at all?

Thanks

You can both have a policy. Yeall that means is in the scenario you have given both policies would end up contributing for what us covered twice
They will work out between them what % each oats fur things that are covered twice

theres no real benefit - you not going to be paid out twice 

Alderbank

You say you both own the house jointly. Do you mean you are joint tenants?

If you are and you own say £200k and your wife owns £100k then the insurers will work together as above and pay out in the proportions of the policy, 2:1.

FlorayG

I don't know if it's possible and legal but for sure the total payout between both insurers will be the total value of the house, not twice it's value

XRS200

thundyuk said:

Can we both claim on the insurance for the full amount at all?

No          .

DullGreyGuy

thundyuk said:

Hi there,

is it possible, and legal, for two people to have insurance on a house? And if the worst happened, can both claim?

For example, I'm married and my wife plus myself jointly own our house - it's fully paid off, worth £300k. We both have house and contents insurance on it, there's a gas explosion and the house is wiped out. Can we both claim on the insurance for the full amount at all?

Thanks

You would be paying double the premium for no reason, Home insurance covers the whole house and the contents of those that live in the home. 

Attempting to claim the full amount of both policies would be fraud/ undue enrichment. The insurers instead would work together to compare the policies, their coverages and co-insurance terms and in most cases would simply divide the claim 50/50 between them. You only get indemnity but then both have damaged your claims history and paid double the premium for the same payout you'd have gotten with just 1 policy. 

thundyuk

Cheers all. So it's not like a life insurance policy. Interesting.

DullGreyGuy

thundyuk said:

Cheers all. So it's not like a life insurance policy. Interesting.

There are masses of difference between the two. 

Life - requires an insurable interest at the point of purchase but not at the point of claim. Sum insured must be proportionate to the interest. 

Non-Life - requires an insurable interest at the point of claim. Sum insured doesn't have to be proportionate to the interest but the claim will typically be paid on an indemnity bases up to the limit of the policy so you dont benefit from overinsurance other than peace of mind.

So if you lent you friend £50,000 you could buy life insurance on them to protect that interest but it would need to be circa £50k or less... you couldn't insure his life for £500,000 because of the loan. Obviously between close family £500,000 could easily be appropriate when you consider outstanding mortgage + loss of future earnings + remaining partner having to take time off work for childcare etc.