Home insurance renewal

pearsoda

Hi,

I am currently pursuing a claim on my home insurance for subsidence to my property. The claim was raised in September 2022 and is still in progress.

In 2023 my home insurance premium jumped to £490 from a previous price of £266. I have now received a new renewal quote for £548.

I would like to shop around and try and get a cheaper quote but would that effect my ongoing claim? If not, how would I ensure that my existing claim is completed effectively?

Many thanks,

Dave

XRS200

I would be very surprised if any new insurer offered subsidence cover. In fact you might not be able to find an alternative with an open claim.  Your current insurers should continue to offer it so best not to change.

Browntoa

It's an increase in premium partially due to the current claim, partially due to increased material and labour costs the last few years

That's not an excessive premium in the current market and nobody is likely to touch you whilst a claim is open 

Annemos

Life is no longer normal, once a home has had a Subsidence Claim. 

So, please Dave, do NOT change from your Current Insurer and also do everything you can to stay with the same Insurer, even after the Claim is finished.  That Insurance Company is the only Insurance Company that has any obligation to continue cover for you.

If you voluntarily move away from that Insurer, just to try the market for a lower price (if you are even able to find one), you will have broken the link. And they will not be obliged to cover you in the future. And the FOS is likely to also support the Insurer when they take that position. 

If you do a search on recent posts on here that I have responded to, you will find cases where people are now in a real bind, two or three years down the road, because they did not stay with the Insurer who did the Subsidence Claim. And now they are finding it very hard to find cover.  

It is also best to stay with the Insurer, in case the Claim ever has to be re-opened, if their remedy does not work, for some reason. 

Note that this is the TOP MAIN INSURER on your Policy Document. (Not any intermediate Managing-General-Agent Companies or Brokers or Sellers.)  Please ask me, if you are not sure, which your actual Insurance Company is. 


Mine was a small bungalow. Before the claim mine was about 350 pounds a year. It went up a bit for the 2018 Claim itself, and was about 500 pounds. When the Claim finished and they knew the Claim Cost, it was 650 pounds for a couple of years. Now that the claim opening date has gone past the 5 year stage and the Claim itself has also been closed for 2 years, I am back down to 500 pounds a year. 


Here is a Case Study for you to read from the Ombudsman that describes several of the concepts of staying with the Same Insurer who did your Subsidence Claim. (There are many more, in the replies I gave to others.)  

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN-4190935.pdf

Annemos

Re your other point about making sure, they "do the needful". (I worked in India for 5 years and I loved that expression they used in India.)

First of all, depending what the problem is, extended monitoring is likely to take place, perhaps with those crack-monitoring studs. If it's trees, there may also be extended discussions with Council or Neighbours and Tree Specialists. If Tree Protection Orders, that's another issue. 

So the Cause of the cracking has to be carefully worked out. Then a remedy has to be devised to deal with it. Then another period of monitoring may be necessary to see that the home is stable before repairs start. 

So Subsidence Claims can be extended. And sometimes people are busy with other Claims. So one has to be a bit reasonable about time scales, sometimes.

If there are any problems, ask the Claim Handling Company to help explain things to you. 

If you sense something is going wrong, you can also start researching the question by doing a search on this Ombudsman's Database of decisions: 

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decisions-case-studies/ombudsman-decisions

You can search on such things as    "Subsidence-Tree Roots".    "Subsidence Drains".   "Subsidence Inadequate Foundation"   "Subsidence Lasting and Effective Repairs"    (The one you originally asked is.... "Subsidence Continuation of Cover") 

......  etc etc. To get a feel for what is expected to be done and when. 

I was always on that Database!  And I saved any useful cases I came across on anything else, in case I needed them later on!

One VERY important concept I found in these cases... is that when they come to devising a remedy and repairs:   "The Repairs must be Lasting and Effective." 

Getting used to how these cases work, is also useful if you ever do, unfortunately, have to issue a Formal Complaint. And they help you use the correct terminology. 

I wish you the best with your claim. 

Annemos

One last thing. If you start to get worried about conclusions being reached by the Claims Handling Company. You may wish to bring in your own Structural Engineer for advice. The problem is of course, they charge fees. 

But if you do get into a dispute with the CHC.  If the people reviewing your Complaint, (or the Ombudsman Service if it gets that far).... find that the opinion of your own Structural Engineer is more plausible than that of the CHC (with evidence) and if it is substantially different to the conclusions of the CHC as regards cause and/or remedy, then you can request the Cost of your own Structural Engineer's fees to be refunded to you. 

I discovered this in the Ombudsman's cases when I was researching. 

DullGreyGuy

pearsoda said:

I would like to shop around and try and get a cheaper quote but would that effect my ongoing claim? If not, how would I ensure that my existing claim is completed effectively?

Legally? No, your terms continue to apply as they were at the point of claim irrespective of if you renew or not. In principle if something is borderline etc a company could be more likely to go one way for an existing customer than a former one but in practical terms, certainly when I did claims we didnt go into the policy admin system to see if you'd stayed a customer or not. 

You are however unlikely to find people offering you terms with an ongoing subsidence claim, any that did almost certainly will exclude subsidence from your cover