House and Contents insurance
House and Contents insurance
Author
Discussion

33q

Original Poster:

1,628 posts

152 months

Friday 3rd July
quotequote all
I’ve been with LV for many years and the prices have been reasonable. Last year it jumped up to £650 and I was busy and missed challenging it. This year it’s jumped to over £850.

Price seems way over the top.

4 bed house in the East Midlands.

Any thoughts etc

Nicetobenice

1,500 posts

7 months

Friday 3rd July
quotequote all
I'd try one of the major comparison sites and see if they come up with anything cheaper.

If the rate is cheap enough to bother changing then it's worth looking into it properly

Road2Ruin

6,468 posts

245 months

Friday 3rd July
quotequote all
With house insurance coverage can vary greatly. Keep an eye out for the maximum value of any item, cover away from home, and again maximum value, cover in gardens or outbuildings, ditto for max value, etc.

craigjm

21,452 posts

229 months

Friday 3rd July
quotequote all
Road2Ruin said:
With house insurance coverage can vary greatly. Keep an eye out for the maximum value of any item, cover away from home, and again maximum value, cover in gardens or outbuildings, ditto for max value, etc.
100% this

I do also often wonder how much we need contents insurance at all. Buildings is of course essential if you have a mortgage but I was just thinking the other day I dont know anyone that has had to make a major claim on contents.

Cue a procession of people saying they have been brutally burgled and ransacked and lost millions of pounds of contents.

Road2Ruin

6,468 posts

245 months

Friday 3rd July
quotequote all
craigjm said:
100% this

I do also often wonder how much we need contents insurance at all. Buildings is of course essential if you have a mortgage but I was just thinking the other day I dont know anyone that has had to make a major claim on contents.

Cue a procession of people saying they have been brutally burgled and ransacked and lost millions of pounds of contents.
Yep. It's easy to be under insured in this area and then the insurance will only pay out pro rata.

heisthegaffer

4,288 posts

227 months

Friday 3rd July
quotequote all
craigjm said:
Road2Ruin said:
With house insurance coverage can vary greatly. Keep an eye out for the maximum value of any item, cover away from home, and again maximum value, cover in gardens or outbuildings, ditto for max value, etc.
100% this

I do also often wonder how much we need contents insurance at all. Buildings is of course essential if you have a mortgage but I was just thinking the other day I dont know anyone that has had to make a major claim on contents.

Cue a procession of people saying they have been brutally burgled and ransacked and lost millions of pounds of contents.
I recently claimed for a lost diamond from my wifes engagement ring. I was worried when the ring was discovered to be vastly underinsured vs insurer value but they still fixed the white gold and replaced the diamond to the tune of c. £2,800.



rlg43p

1,611 posts

278 months

Friday 3rd July
quotequote all
craigjm said:
100% this

I do also often wonder how much we need contents insurance at all. Buildings is of course essential if you have a mortgage but I was just thinking the other day I dont know anyone that has had to make a major claim on contents.

Cue a procession of people saying they have been brutally burgled and ransacked and lost millions of pounds of contents.
Recently had golf clubs stolen from garage. Insurance paid out £3900 to replace everything new for old. (after £400 excess)

Had a water leak from a shower. Insurance had a man with a dehydration unit on site within hours. All repairs paid for including redecorating downstairs and new carpets. Claim was about £5k

Wife dropped a mug on new induction hob. Insurance paid out £375 over the phone same day once replacement cost confirmed by Neff.

richhead

3,384 posts

40 months

Friday 3rd July
quotequote all
Alot of people over value a house on insurance, its not the purchas price you need, just the rebuild price, this can be vastly different, dont forget you still own the land, and thats a good % of the value.
I fell foul of this and had insured a house on the value to buy, until my broker told me the rebuild would be a 1/4, we had alot of land and smallish house.

33q

Original Poster:

1,628 posts

152 months

Wednesday 8th July
quotequote all
Well .... I phoned LV to try for a better deal.

Basically they asked questions as you would a new customer. I asked for clarification on claims as we had to make a claim on our insurance for one of our rentals 3 years ago and it seems LV use claims on other related properties to determine your risk.

My quote for this year shot up from about £650 to £950 requiring me to make an immediate payment of £20 to continue to be insured to my renewal date at the end of the month.

My next year price shot up from about £850 to £1250 but they would knock about £100 off.!!

The claim for the rental property was for about £13000 which was fully recovered from the other party....driver had a heart attack at the wheel and hit the front of our building. LV said these facts were not relevant.

Needless to say I went elsewhere for £550 to the broker who handles our rentals and they don't take into account claims on other properties.

Sheepshanks

40,990 posts

148 months

Wednesday 8th July
quotequote all
richhead said:
Alot of people over value a house on insurance, its not the purchas price you need, just the rebuild price, this can be vastly different, dont forget you still own the land, and thats a good % of the value.
I fell foul of this and had insured a house on the value to buy, until my broker told me the rebuild would be a 1/4, we had alot of land and smallish house.
I don't know how common it is, but ours is with LV and they just have a fixed £1M.

We're in semi-rural West Cheshire and ours went up a bit when we extended and house became 4 bed. For building and contents inc accidental damage it was £316 this year - that with some level of Boundless and another LV policy discount, but I don't think they're much.

Stuck with £50K contents - IIRC you could select a higher figure and it wasn't dearer but the policy then imposed terms like windows must be locked when out etc. We don't even lock the door half the time.

Specific valuable (over £2500, I think, but not sure) adds a lot - we probably have a few things around that value (rings etc) but nothing wildly over so haven't added anything.

Neil-nvaua

350 posts

10 months

Wednesday 8th July
quotequote all
craigjm said:
100% this

I do also often wonder how much we need contents insurance at all. Buildings is of course essential if you have a mortgage but I was just thinking the other day I dont know anyone that has had to make a major claim on contents.

Cue a procession of people saying they have been brutally burgled and ransacked and lost millions of pounds of contents.
My renewal came in today and was discussing with the wife as we have £100k of contents and wondered if that was too high/low. We thought worst case scenario a fire where it's a total loss (I do know someone that this has happened to), and starting adding up buying EVERYTHING from scratch - not just furniture and white goods and electronics but clothes, bed linen, knives and forks, lamps, suitcases, xmas tree - bloody everything. Decided not to reduce it, it's amazing how you can quickly get to a high £ number if you add up all the things you accumulate over many years.

And ultimately, without insurance we couldn't afford to rebuild our life from scratch. I know most PH-ers would just sell one of their GT3s or remortgage the villa in France.

FWIW I quoted with LV and they were treble my existing insurer - Halifax. I just go to Compare the Market and make sure I choose one of the big names, do a few checks on what it covers.

alscar

9,770 posts

242 months

Wednesday 8th July
quotequote all
Neil-nvaua said:
My renewal came in today and was discussing with the wife as we have £100k of contents and wondered if that was too high/low. We thought worst case scenario a fire where it's a total loss (I do know someone that this has happened to), and starting adding up buying EVERYTHING from scratch - not just furniture and white goods and electronics but clothes, bed linen, knives and forks, lamps, suitcases, xmas tree - bloody everything. Decided not to reduce it, it's amazing how you can quickly get to a high £ number if you add up all the things you accumulate over many years.

And ultimately, without insurance we couldn't afford to rebuild our life from scratch. I know most PH-ers would just sell one of their GT3s or remortgage the villa in France.
It’s not just when a total loss scenario occurs that under insurance can raise its head.
Insure to say 50% of true value and then you have a £10k loss.
You might only get £5k back.

Little Lofty

3,876 posts

180 months

Wednesday 8th July
quotequote all
I’m with Aviva, pretty reasonable, they don’t come up on the comparison sites.