Buildings/contents Insurance

stevetiler

stevetiler

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Hi all,
Got our Home insurance renewal through, gone up £37 to £247 .This is buildings and contents with Sainsburys Bank - we have a 3 bed detached with over 50% flat roof.
Does this sound about right ? How much are people paying and who with?
 
Insurance has so many variables your question can't be answered accurately to be honest. My best advice though is to use a comparison site and haggle, there's nearly always money to be saved.
 
As @Donnie says it's too complicated for anybody to say "yeah £247 is about right" but a 15% year on year rise seems a little on the high side unless something has changed. The 50% flat roof may be making insurers nervous - the roof is a year older than last year (and typically last 10 - 20 years) and we've had a lot of rain.

Home insurance UK price index - MoneySuperMarket

As always, shop around. Loyalty doesn't pay.
 
Not wishing to hi-jack this thread.

We have just received our buildings and contents Insurance renewal through from Saga. £265.98 pa (locked for 3 years)

Our contents are insured for £75,000.00 which seems low to me as we have been married for almost 50 years and have collected a large amount of "stuff".

To me £75,000.00 just about covers the content of the wife's wardrobes.

Thinking about the cost of replacement televisions, iPads, iPhones, hi-fi, camera kit etc etc What do others value their home contents at ?
 
Paul W. H said:
To me £75,000.00 just about covers the content of the wife's wardrobes.
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That's the same as we have with Sainsburys- we used to use Saga but found they became expensive so changed to Saisburys
 
I’ve never found Saga cheap for anything!

Shop around for a better quote every year, as already said there’s absolutely no benefit in loyalty anymore. I go on Martin Lewis’ Money Saving Expert site and use the links from there. We got a decent quote from Privilege last year.
 
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Just got quoted £220 from Direct Line for much better cover than Sainsburys
 
3 bed semi with extention, 35% flat roof, outer London, only £50 000 contents - I paid £145 last year with LV=. It was £115 the year before.
I probably need to up my content insurance a bit, I have a spredsheet that I downloaded some time ago which has the rooms as columns and the various item categories as rows. There are quite a lot of online calculators these days.
Just to add that I do a search each year for the best deal and, as happened last year, my existing insurer's online quote is cheaper than the renewal I just call them and asked them to price match.
 
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Just remember the "under insured clause" when choosing levels of contents cover.
What this means is that say you select £50k cover and want to make a claim for £10k in the future, the insurance company sends out a loss adjuster.
He calculates that you should have say £100k cover, so you're 50% under insured, so instead of paying out £10k they pay £5k.
I've used these figures for simplicity but you'll get the idea.

The Consequences Of Being Underinsured | MoneySuperMarket

If you're making a home insurance claim, the last thing you need is to be underinsured. Here’s how to avoid the ‘average clause’.
www.moneysupermarket.com
 
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Paul W. H said:
Not wishing to hi-jack this thread.

We have just received our buildings and contents Insurance renewal through from Saga. £265.98 pa (locked for 3 years)

Our contents are insured for £75,000.00 which seems low to me as we have been married for almost 50 years and have collected a large amount of "stuff".

To me £75,000.00 just about covers the content of the wife's wardrobes.

Thinking about the cost of replacement televisions, iPads, iPhones, hi-fi, camera kit etc etc What do others value their home contents at ?
Click to expand...

Saga are known for their generous contents levels. Basically, old people are expected to have more stuff :) Many companies have a lower limit and charge upgrades to get to 75k.

I'd imagine you want your camera kit as specified items.

Suvv said:
3 bed semi with extention, 35% flat roof, outer London, only £50 000 contents - I paid £145 last year with LV=. It was £115 the year before.
Click to expand...

I'm going to hazard a wild guess that you are in a low flood risk area :)
 
JonathanRyan said:
I'd imagine you want your camera kit as specified items.
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With our policy only individual items valued £2,500.00 or more need to be specified, we have no single item more than this although some get very close.
 
boogie man said:
I’ve never found Saga cheap for anything!

Shop around for a better quote every year, as already said there’s absolutely no benefit in loyalty anymore. I go on Martin Lewis’ Money Saving Expert site and use the links from there. We got a decent quote from Privilege this time around.
Click to expand...
Funnily enough my car insurance is through Saga, selected last year via a comparison website. I had the renewal through the other day and it was £6 less than last year!

I can’t remember when the renewal sum wasn’t 20% or so more than the previous year, subsequently I’ll be staying with Saga for another year at least.
 
Cheapest is often far from best. When it comes time to make a claim, you find that out. MoreThan are not good on claims yet often among the cheapest. Churchill are expensive but excellent when claiming, ditto (I believe) Direct Line.
 
Lindsay56 said:
Cheapest is often far from best. When it comes time to make a claim, you find that out. MoreThan are not good on claims yet often among the cheapest. Churchill are expensive but excellent when claiming, ditto (I believe) Direct Line.
Click to expand...

We went with Churchill a couple of years ago. They were certainly one of the cheapest at £201 for a 3 bed detached but year 2, it went up to £273 and year 3 is £278. We've stuck with them though because of that reputation as far as claims are concerned.
 
Our buildings insurance went up dramatically when the EA included us in a flood prone area.
Contents insurance also has a clause that nothing is covered less than 3m above floor level.

Christmas Eve we had a phone call saying take immediate action, but nothing came of it despite the river level being at a record high.
Apparently the area did flood once about eighty years ago, but lots of flood defences have been installed since then.
 
I thought I'd mention this as it's an insurance thread. On Radi4 today..Money Box..a caller was telling the host, Paul Lewis, that he'd contacted Admiral asking if he could claim for damage to his garden gate..storm damage. Must have deen an expensive gate.He was told that the policy didn't cover that . On his next renewal the premium had increased by £350.He contacted them and they said he'd made a claim.He hadn't..well, he couldn't he wasn't covered. He'd also have to declare this incident if he applied to a different company because it would be listed on the Claims and Underwriting Exchange system set up to share claim information to help stop fraud eg..people making claims against two or more companies for the same incident or knowing if someone has made a claim,usuually within 5 years but were stating no on an application form.It's not just a claim they ask for on a proposal form or a renewal but any 'incident'.

You can hear it here at 18.45. https://www.radio-uk.co.uk/podcasts/money-box

I've known for a while never to call an insurance company to ask if you're covered for an incident if it's not clear in the policy. Just pay the premium and if you have a valid claim or need to amend the policy fine, otherwise stear clear. In February 2014 a very powerful storm hit the south west..infact there were several winter storms in 2013/14..it destroyed part of the railway at Dawlish. The high winds came inland and a ridge tile was lifted and blown across the full length of our roof and down onto my wife's car which,at that time was a company lease car., It was a week old. As with all companies I had to inform them of any incidents and that included any claims or traffic convictions of my wife as we're named drivers on each other's policies. I had to contact my company for something and told them what had happened just to comply with the rules.What did they do ? Told me to pay £50 there and then adding that unless I did so my insurance would be invalid. I spoke an unsympathetic customer service women explainig that it had nothing to do with driving risk nor theft risk in the locality or type of vehicle and furthermore it wasn't even my car so no claim against the company. Her reply was "A claim's, a claim" I told her not to bother sending me renewal which she said would come anyway as it's automatically sent out.. I didn't renew. That was Churchill who I'd been quite happy with. I actually got a call when I didn't respond to the renewal and told the customer service chap and said I'd have been better not telling them and he said that most people wouldn't have done so. This example is another good reason not to have auto-renewal lest you forget the date of renewal.

I can see premiums increasing for another reason. Insurance companies have refused to pay out to those business people who have paid high premiums to insure against loss of business for various reasons.It's called a Business Interruption policy. Covid didn't fall into a category that required settlement said the insurance industry. It went to the Supreme Court (the plaintiff being the Financial Conduct Authority) which took a different view and the insurance industry lost . Hugh Evans Director General of the Association of British Insurers said they would press ahead with payments for valid claims and "we recognise this has been a particularly difficult time for many small businesses and naturally regret the Covid-19 restrictions have led to disputes with some customers."

Yeah.. recognise it as being a particularly difficult time but not enough to do the right thing until directed to do so by the highest court in the land.

www.bbc.co.uk

Insurers must pay many small firms for Covid lockdown losses

A Supreme Court ruling provides a lifeline for many firms that had business interruption insurance.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk
 
Lindsay56 said:
Cheapest is often far from best. When it comes time to make a claim, you find that out. MoreThan are not good on claims yet often among the cheapest. Churchill are expensive but excellent when claiming, ditto (I believe) Direct Line.
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And yet we changed to Churchill just before Xmas and they were one of the cheapest quotes we got ! :D Paid £180 for building cover and £100k cover on contents for a four bed detached house. I know it’s all based on algorithms on how many claims in the area etc etc but I can’t really explain how the prices vary so wildly.

I just go on the MSE site, look at the De Facto customer ratings on claims and then from there chose a reputable one that offers a decent price. I can virtually guarantee it’ll be a different one every year, don’t think I’ve renewed with the same company for donkeys years.
 
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It's after you make a claim that it gets harder. I had two claims in one year (smoke damage from a fire in the house next door, and rain damage that destroyed my wife's iPhone) and I found it difficult to get a quote from some companies, and the fire wasn't even in our house! Never claimed before either, in 35 years or so.
 
Lindsay56 said:
It's after you make a claim that it gets harder. I had two claims in one year (smoke damage from a fire in the house next door, and rain damage that destroyed my wife's iPhone) and I found it difficult to get a quote from some companies, and the fire wasn't even in our house! Never claimed before either, in 35 years or so.
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Smoke damage from a fire next door shouldn't count against you....
 
Lindsay56 said:
It's after you make a claim that it gets harder. I had two claims in one year (smoke damage from a fire in the house next door, and rain damage that destroyed my wife's iPhone) and I found it difficult to get a quote from some companies, and the fire wasn't even in our house! Never claimed before either, in 35 years or so.
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I thought you would’ve claimed against your neighbour (and their insurers) if the smoke damage was their fault?
 
boogie man said:
I thought you would’ve claimed against your neighbour (and their insurers) if the smoke damage was their fault?
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If only insurance really worked like that.

I mean it should but "claiming against somebody else's insurance" isn't really a thing.
 
Exactly (@JonathanRyan ), possibly aggravated by the fact in this case that the workman who caused the fire with his hot air gun (removing old paint) almost immediately went bankrupt, so my insurance probably did the equivalent of a knock for knock agreement with Churchill who covered the house that had the fire (who must have shelled out tens of thousands fixing the roof, interior and furnishings next door and rehousing them for 6 months in a nearby rented house)
 
Lindsay56 said:
Cheapest is often far from best. When it comes time to make a claim, you find that out. MoreThan are not good on claims yet often among the cheapest. Churchill are expensive but excellent when claiming, ditto (I believe) Direct Line.
Click to expand...

100% - a few years back Direct Line paid out within a week, next year went with a cheaper provider and when claiming took 2 months with chasing up. Cheapest is not always best!
 
stevetiler said:
So anyway I went with Direct line in the end !
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Bit late now but did you use a comparison site?

I don't know if the amount you quoted is high or low as it depends on things... but we pay much less. Comparison sites usually work for me.
 
woof woof said:
Bit late now but did you use a comparison site?
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Direct line are not on the comparison sites- I could have got insured for £155 with DL but this was for much reduced cover ie lower figures for re-build and contents,no legal cover and no cover for items away from home , and a few other bits
 
woof woof said:
Bit late now but did you use a comparison site?

I don't know if the amount you quoted is high or low as it depends on things... but we pay much less. Comparison sites usually work for me.
Click to expand...
A number of insurance companies are no longer on comparison sites inc Direct Line and Aviva amongst others. By all means look on comparison sites but check what else is out there.
 
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