Home Insurance, after subsidence?

[cjs]

Just got my renewal through from the Pru and as usual it has gone up by a stupid amount, every year I have to call them to get a discount however this year they will not budge and the price they are quoting is still over 30% up on last year.

So I'm looking elsewhere but, I had a subsidence claim around 8 years ago and when I enter this in search engines, or direct on company sites, they either refuse to insure or come back with crazy quotes.

So does anyone have any advise on any insurance companies that will be more forgiving?

[944fan]

The companies you find on the comparison sites tend to be "plie 'em high sell 'em cheap" type mentally and wont touch subsidence at all.

We had an issue with subsidence at our last place. We insured with Zurich, they were only slight more expensive than the others but were happy with the subsidence. You may have to phone them and explain. A little tip here, some of Zurich's call centres are in England, some are in India. We had really trouble with the Indian call centre, they kept wanting to put my wife's occupation as a fireman, even though she is a civil servant However, it is pure chance whether you get an indian call centre of english so we kept phoning and hanging up until we got the right one.

[lewes]

I have the same problem and with the same company.

I asked this question only last week

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=998...

[cjs]

lewes said:

I have the same problem and with the same company.

I asked this question only last week

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=998...

Did you find an alternative company?

TBH the Pru have been fine, I've been with them for years, they did all the work when I had the subsidence issues, which were down to a tree in the street which was removed. I have had no problems since but there does not appear to be any time-scale on subsidence issues, all the insurance companies ask is "has there ever been", rather than "has there been any problems in the past 5 years".

I may hang out until nearer the renewal date and see if they come back to me, at the moment I have cancelled my renewel.

[m3jappa]

Not that it helps at all but i find it amazing that insurers won't touch houses which had subsidence. One which has and thats been paid out on will never ever ever move again so i really don't see why, Infact when you look at it like that its actually more of a risk for one which never had subsidence.

[Simpo Two]

m3jappa said:

Not that it helps at all but i find it amazing that insurers won't touch houses which had subsidence. One which has and thats been paid out on will never ever ever move again so i really don't see why, Infact when you look at it like that its actually more of a risk for one which never had subsidence.

I thought that too - one could say that as it's already subsided once it is less likely to subside again (unlike those houses which have never subsided...)

Same logic that says once you have 3 points for being a naughty boy, you will probably go a bit slower for a while and therefore de facto are a Safer Driver.

[m3jappa]

Simpo Two said:

I thought that too - one could say that as it's already subsided once it is less likely to subside again (unlike those houses which have never subsided...)

Same logic that says once you have 3 points for being a naughty boy, you will probably go a bit slower for a while and therefore de facto are a Safer Driver.

Thats it, having seen the work that goes into repairing a house which had subsidence they will probably take a bomb blast so a little ground movement won't cause any problems.

[Tuscanless Ali]

Our previous house (Lived there for 14 years.) had been underpinned before we moved in, I always thought it was really weird that we always had buildings insurance but could NEVER get contents insurance because of the previous subsidence.