Home Insurance- How do you choose ?

SootySweep1

Hi
It's that time of year again where my home insurance is due & so I'm looking at comparisons.

Yes, I can see that I could probably get cheaper home insurance cover but it would probably be from a company I've never heard from.
In reality I'm not looking for the cheapest quote I can find rather I'm looking for a policy that is good value in that if I need to claim they are responsive, supportive and reasonable to deal with. A company that will pay out rather than try to wiggle out of their obligations.
I tend to try to use a company that is defacto 5 rated but not sure that's a good way to choose ?

How do you choose ? Any advice?

maman

I use the comparison tools on here and then choose. I don't necessarily go for a cheapest but a company I've heard of. 

If the renewal price on my current policy is only a small increase then I stick with them as IMO it's not worth the effort for a few pounds.

I haven't needed to make a claim for years so can't help on that count. 

Archergirl

I claimed from Sheilas Wheels once, don't know how they compare price was but it was trouble free.

vacheron

I've never claimed anything on home insurance in 25 the 25+ years I've had it. My insurance is there for if the house was to burn to the ground or some other truly massive event. 

I go for the cheapest option that fully covers my home and contents. I do generally go with the lowest quote that is from someone I have actually heard of though, but so far, the lowest quote has always met this criteria anyway. 

I don't want bells or whistles or low excesses. I prefer to self insure for small claims using the money I have saved over the years by keeping my voluntary excesses at quite high levels. And as I also believe that you will never truly know if a company will be great to deal with until you are in a situation where you actually have to, so I don't give that part much consideration either. 

luci

I also look for the best value policy, not the cheapest. I have considered ones such as Policy Expert. However, I check reviews and filter them by the word "claim". Almost all reviews that give a company 5* are regarding how easy it was to buy the policy.

I don't give much credence to Defaqto either. They award 5* based on how many bells and whistles the policy has, not on their claims history.

MyRealNameToo

SootySweep1 said:

Hi
It's that time of year again where my home insurance is due & so I'm looking at comparisons.

Yes, I can see that I could probably get cheaper home insurance cover but it would probably be from a company I've never heard from.
In reality I'm not looking for the cheapest quote I can find rather I'm looking for a policy that is good value in that if I need to claim they are responsive, supportive and reasonable to deal with. A company that will pay out rather than try to wiggle out of their obligations.
I tend to try to use a company that is defacto 5 rated but not sure that's a good way to choose ?

How do you choose ? Any advice?

Defacto is a rating of product features not service standards... like hotel rating they can be gamed if someone is so inclined. Not everyone needs every bell and whistle and others may be better off with a lower rated product with better features that they need rather than the minimum level on all features inc those not needed. 

Ultimately I have my own criteria... I want full matching set coverage, I need a high level of "valuables" cover which ideally is the traditional definition (I need very high level if it's the more modern definition that includes electronics). I want a reasonable single article limit both in and outside of the home not the £1k of basic policies.

Its also good to have a temporary increase in cover for anything recently purchased, in a recent claim someone was robbed on the way home from buying a very expensive watch; obviously they hadn't had the chance to call their insurers to add it to their policy but their policy gave them 30 days to register any new purchase so it was covered anyway. 


My needs leave me with very few options, I can just about fit into the M&S Premier policy else I need to look at the fairly uncommon mid net worth type which turns it into a 4 figure premium.

Reviews are hard... most are written by people having a negative experience but many negative experiences are self inflicted. If an insurer has a £1k single article limit and you claim for your £2k engagement ring that you didnt declare can you really hold the insurer responsible for only paying you £1k?

Also remember that large firms have a wide range of products ranging from the cheap and cheerful to high net worth. The quality of service is likely to be linked to your entry point in their product range but when people write their reviews they fail to mention that their engagement ring wasnt covered by the budget no frills policy but people dont factor that in when they are looking at say the M&S Premier policy which has a £15k single article limit. 

Jaybee_16

For the past few years I've been with LV. Before that Direct Line, AXA and others. Are they any good? I've no idea as I've been fortunate enough to have never claimed on the policies. (Hopefully not tempting fate)

A couple of years ago during a big cold spell my next door neighbour had three ceilings down due to burst pipes. They are insured with Aviva who were prompt and excellent. Problem is when I looked at renewal their quote was over twice the price of others.

luci

Jaybee_16 said:

For the past few years I've been with LV. Before that Direct Line, AXA and others. Are they any good? I've no idea as I've been fortunate enough to have never claimed on the policies. (Hopefully not tempting fate)

A couple of years ago during a big cold spell my next door neighbour had three ceilings down due to burst pipes. They are insured with Aviva who were prompt and excellent. Problem is when I looked at renewal their quote was over twice the price of others.

I was with LV= for 3 years until this year when their renewal premium jumped by a massive percentage. I did have a major travel insurance claim with LV this year for about £50,000 and couldn't fault them. They did take a few days to take over the claim after they'd made routine checks to ensure my condition was covered.

dosh37

In my view, home insurance is bit of a 'con'. The insurers seem to find ways to avoid paying.

I discovered this after I had a gas leak in an iron pipe buried in the cement screed floor of my kitchen.

It transpired that gas pipe leak was caused by rust resulting from a water leak from the bathroom above.

I had to have a new gas pipe installed, running from the meter at the front around the outside wall. The water leak also needed to be repaired.

The insurers wrote:-

Your policy covers any damage caused by an escape of water, the repair to the cause of the leak is not covered under your policy wording. Your policy is a primary buildings policy, there is no cover in place for the accessing of the water leak.

I ended up having to pay for all the repairs myself.

Since then I only pay the basic minimum for home insurance and hope it's only needed if the house burns down.

MyRealNameToo

dosh37 said:

In my view, home insurance is bit of a 'con'. The insurers seem to find ways to avoid paying.

Given for every £1 of premium motor insurers received last year they paid out £1.05 in claims and operational expenses it hardly seems like they are finding ways to avoid paying. 

Policies have terms and conditions, some policies have more favourable terms than others but with sites like this we are told to buy on price alone and the consequences are terms get worse because that reduces claims costs which means policies can be sold cheaper. 

By the sounds of it you chose a policy that didnt include trace and access cover, a common feature on higher quality policies but absent from those selling on price. You could have chosen to pay more for this coverage or at least read what you were buying to understand what is and isnt covered. 

In the old days you'd have a broker to explain the policy to you and advise on limitations etc but advised sales are expensive operationally and the cost has to be passed on in premiums. So few people are willing to pay for advice that you'll struggle to find an advisory broker for mass market consumer products these days but people are still quick to blame the insurer for their choice to buy a budget policy and not read the terms. 

Personally buy on the policy features I need/want, I've never had a claim declined or paid out less than what I was due. Some have been slower than I like or longer queues to get through but then I've known what I was getting when I bought a policy from a budget provider as I had a simple need and their offering covered what I needed at a good price. 

davidbrooks55

Great question! When my home insurance was up for renewal, I focused less on finding the absolute cheapest quote and more on ensuring the policy offered good value—especially in terms of responsiveness and support during claims. I agree that a 5-star rating is helpful, but it's also important to dig deeper. I found that comparing coverage limits, deductibles, and reading customer reviews gave me a clearer picture of each insurer's reliability. It's reassuring to know that many companies offer discounts for bundling policies or installing security systems. Ultimately, it's about balancing cost with peace of mind.