Bonkers house insurance

EkkoEkko

Just checked through my John Lewis insurance which is coming up for renewal at an extra £110 a year and there are loads of cover items that don't apply to me and that I cannot opt out of -- for example, £10,000,000 employer cover, £1000 cover for domestic staff personal effects, and £6.71 a year to cover bicycle theft. Not being an employer, a member of the landed gentry, or a cyclist, this doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Anyone know of a reputable company that can offer me a policy that can be adjusted to my personal needs?

born_again

Use the comparison sites.

Aretnap

Home insurance is not generally sold as a pick and mix option. Many insurers will have two or three levels of cover, branded as something along the lines of "essential" "standard" and "premier", and there are some types of cover like legal cover and personal possessions which are traditionally offered as optional extras. But I didn't think your going to find an insurer who let's you go through their policy sectionsbline by line and opt in and out of each one individually.

If John Lewis include cover for domestic staff as standard, that might reflect the fact that as a brand John Lewis is aimed at the sort of people who... if not exactly living Downtown Abbey-like lifestyles, are quite likely to have a cleaner or gardener who comes a day or two a week.

You might will find that you wouldn't save much money by putting out of that sure of cover, even if you could. I imagine the cost to the insurer of liability claims relating to customer's cleaners are dwarfed by the cost of claims for more "standard" things like fires, floods and burglaries. It might well be the case that the extra admin costs of allowing you to opt out of that section would outweigh any savings.

If you move up to genuinely posh insurers like Hiscox and Chubb you'll find that your cover includes things like hole in one insurance - so if you hit a hole in one and have to buy drinks for the whole clubhouse, your home insurance will cover the cost. Not great value for money if you don't play golf, or play it badly, but then they're assumed at people for whom price is not going to be the deciding factor.

user1977

Aretnap said:

If John Lewis include cover for domestic staff as standard, that might reflect the fact that as a brand John Lewis is aimed at the sort of people who... if not exactly living Downtown Abbey-like lifestyles, are quite likely to have a cleaner or gardener who comes a day or two a week.

I think that's relatively standard cover e.g. it's in the "basic" policy for Admiral too.

Aretnap

user1977 said:

Aretnap said:

If John Lewis include cover for domestic staff as standard, that might reflect the fact that as a brand John Lewis is aimed at the sort of people who... if not exactly living Downtown Abbey-like lifestyles, are quite likely to have a cleaner or gardener who comes a day or two a week.

I think that's relatively standard cover e.g. it's in the "basic" policy for Admiral too.

Fair enough. In which case it's probably the alternative explanation - it's cheap enough to provide that there's no real benefit to not including it as standard.

MyRealNameToo

Probably the most common is people having cleaners or carers who may be "self employed" but could potentially be considered employees even if they arent live in staff.

EL will add virtually nothing to the cost of premiums, its a cheap cover to buy generally and even more so when every home gets it and only a proportion actually use it (similar to why annual travel insurance seems so cheap compared to single trip). 

Cycle cover is an odd one, our policy bicycles in the home are not treated differently to other goods so only need to be declared if over the single article limit (£15k in our case) and so cycle cover is only required if you want cover away from the home. Other insurers want to know about cycles in the home if they are over a vastly lower limit (seen £250 or £500). 

Aretnap said:

Home insurance is not generally sold as a pick and mix option. Many insurers will have two or three levels of cover, branded as something along the lines of "essential" "standard" and "premier", and there are some types of cover like legal cover and personal possessions which are traditionally offered as optional extras.

I somewhat disagree, there are some elements that are included or not but many allow you to take a lower tier product and optional add in coverages like accidental damage, personal possessions, gadgets etc or you can buy higher tier products where the optional extras are now standard parts of the policy. 

Aretnap

MyRealNameToo said:

Aretnap said:

Home insurance is not generally sold as a pick and mix option. Many insurers will have two or three levels of cover, branded as something along the lines of "essential" "standard" and "premier", and there are some types of cover like legal cover and personal possessions which are traditionally offered as optional extras.

I somewhat disagree, there are some elements that are included or not but many allow you to take a lower tier product and optional add in coverages like accidental damage, personal possessions, gadgets etc or you can buy higher tier products where the optional extras are now standard parts of the policy. 

I think we basically agree, yes there are certain well defined areas of cover which might be optional extras on a basic policy or included as standard on the premium version (like personal possessions, accidental damage, legal cover etc as you say). But that list of optional coverages is usually quite specific, and broadly similar from insurer to insurer.

What I don't think the OP is going to be able to do is find an insurer who will let him go through the policy line by line and say "I don't need employers liability, leave that out... I don't have a shed, forget the outbuildings cover... Yes keep the garden ornaments cover but can it be for £500 rather than £1000 please...", which is what he seems to want to do.