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Re: Insurance (general moaning thread)
Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2026 7:58 am
by Jobbo
GG. wrote: Mon Mar 09, 2026 10:09 pm
Incidentally I had to call half a dozen brokers in connection with the new house so drop me a PM if you need some names.
I'd be interested
@GG. - I spoke to about half a dozen when we bought our house and I'm still not entirely sure we have the best deal
Re: Insurance (general moaning thread)
Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2026 9:47 am
by Gavster
GG. wrote: Mon Mar 09, 2026 10:09 pm
I think the other way they seem to deal with it is to say they insure other than the areas subject to works provided that the builders have indemnity insurance in excess of £x. Obviously trickier here if it is not yet within scope of "improvement" works and no contractor appointed.
Let us know how you got on Gav. Incidentally I had to call half a dozen brokers in connection with the new house so drop me a PM if you need some names.
Also part of the issue is the fact the tenants are still living in the downstairs flat, which increases the risk of retaliation or reprisals against the eviction.
I ended up speaking to a bunch of insurers at the end of the week and have been advised not to contact any more. Most of the regulars like Adrian Flux, who'd been really good for my landlord's building insurance, don't specialise enough to take on this one.
I've got two companies who are actively arranging quotes. I also spoke to another broker and he said there's only 2 or 3 underwriters who will touch this liability, so once you have a couple of brokers getting quotes, you won't achieve anything by asking any more for quotes, because they'll all be going to precisely the same underwriters. In fact, he said getting too many brokers to quote will possibly make it more expensive.
They've both come back with similar questions, which relate to the tenants and whether they are living in the property, so that does seem to be the main concern.
Anyone fancy a bet on how much this is? My usual policy was around £700 a year to cover two units in a victorain conversion building. I'd be surprised if there's change from £5k for this. In fact, that might even be wishful thinking.
Re: Insurance (general moaning thread)
Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2026 1:25 pm
by GG.
Gavster wrote: Tue Mar 10, 2026 9:47 am
GG. wrote: Mon Mar 09, 2026 10:09 pm
I think the other way they seem to deal with it is to say they insure other than the areas subject to works provided that the builders have indemnity insurance in excess of £x. Obviously trickier here if it is not yet within scope of "improvement" works and no contractor appointed.
Let us know how you got on Gav. Incidentally I had to call half a dozen brokers in connection with the new house so drop me a PM if you need some names.
Also part of the issue is the fact the tenants are still living in the downstairs flat, which increases the risk of retaliation or reprisals against the eviction.
I ended up speaking to a bunch of insurers at the end of the week and have been advised not to contact any more. Most of the regulars like Adrian Flux, who'd been really good for my landlord's building insurance, don't specialise enough to take on this one.
I've got two companies who are actively arranging quotes. I also spoke to another broker and he said there's only 2 or 3 underwriters who will touch this liability, so once you have a couple of brokers getting quotes, you won't achieve anything by asking any more for quotes, because they'll all be going to precisely the same underwriters. In fact, he said getting too many brokers to quote will possibly make it more expensive.
They've both come back with similar questions, which relate to the tenants and whether they are living in the property, so that does seem to be the main concern.
Anyone fancy a bet on how much this is? My usual policy was around £700 a year to cover two units in a victorain conversion building. I'd be surprised if there's change from £5k for this. In fact, that might even be wishful thinking.
Very hard to say once it becomes a non-standard risk and some of it is driven by the rebuild cost (if you need to estimate that without an official survey to determine it, then I was advised to take the BCIS figure then add 20% for period and 20% for fees and you should be close). I do expect it will probably be several fold what it was before but hopefully not for more than a year or so whilst you rectify things.
@Jobbo I expect you will already have called most of them. Adrian Flux Gav has mentioned - I also called AJ Gallagher didn't come up with much and then referred it on to Paragon (which didn't go anywhere in the end as oddly they wanted a "target" premium and I'd noted one that I had received and they couldn't match it). Orwell Insurance Services were another. I also went direct to Homeprotect (who are underwritten by AXA).
Re: Insurance (general moaning thread)
Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2026 1:41 pm
by Mito Man
10% of the reinstatement cost
Re: Insurance (general moaning thread)
Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2026 1:42 pm
by Jobbo
I didn't call those brokers actually - Adrian Flux I assumed was a car insurance specialist so didn't even think of them. I was thoroughly disappointed with the brokers I did call - one of them even said they wouldn't be able to deal with it so at least didn't waste much of my time
Our house is not that unusual for Worcestershire and there's no history of claims.
Homeprotect I did actually insure with for the first year. Now into our second year with NFU though, who are barely any more expensive but I think have better cover.
Re: Insurance (general moaning thread)
Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2026 1:45 pm
by Gavster
That's useful about the BCIS calc @GG. I think I'm going to push the insured value up to be safe. BCIS was £450k - £700k range with their estimate around £540k, which was almost precisely what the insured value already was.
Re: Insurance (general moaning thread)
Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2026 1:52 pm
by Gavster
Mito Man wrote: Tue Mar 10, 2026 1:41 pm
10% of the reinstatement cost
Do you mean as a premium?
Re: Insurance (general moaning thread)
Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2026 2:23 pm
by GG.
Gavster wrote: Tue Mar 10, 2026 1:45 pm
That's useful about the BCIS calc @GG. I think I'm going to push the insured value up to be safe. BCIS was £450k - £700k range with their estimate around £540k, which was almost precisely what the insured value already was.
Yes so I think if the middle of the range was £540k you'd bump it up to £750k ish. If that's something around perhaps 70% of market value for a house in that area then sounds like you're in the ballpark (depressing as 10 years ago it would have been 30% of market value I would guess). Strictly its not correlative in any way with market price as I saw people complaining that in some areas of the country (i.e. Scotland / North / SW) the rebuild could be a
multiple of market value
I think Mito has a decimal wrong on his estimate...