Home insurance for extended trips.
Comments
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we currently use Saga and get 90 days as std, longer periods are available by arrangement....we tell them and they charge a small service fee (about £30) to cover the full period.
last year i tried C&CC so as to get the 180 days std, but the price was just off the scale....
i may have another go at them next time.....
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There does seem to be a huge variation in premiums between different companies for different areas and properties, and also for the same property berween the companies, even for the same Risk.
Without knowing sums insured, comparisons are very difficult.
What premium would you consider to be "off the scale" BB?
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Premiums are based on various things but the most important is likely to be location. Some areas of Dumbartonshire are likely to be very low rated which means they are likely to have lower premiums than most city addresses.
I would not try comparing premiums even from the same insurer as none are best for everyone. Different people will get better cover from different firms in many cases.
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Kjell, we've been with the C&CC fo a while now, because of the extended period of cover. Fortunately we not had to make a claim but their price is as competitive any we've come across.
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Premiums are based on various things but the most important is likely to be location. Some areas of Dumbartonshire are likely to be very low rated which means they are likely to have lower premiums than most city addresses.
I would not try comparing premiums even from the same insurer as none are best for everyone. Different people will get better cover from different firms in many cases.
Yes, the variation in our quotes was from £240 to £860, does not seem sensible!
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Just to clarify,The Caravan Club's home insurance policy gives 90 days unoccupancy cover as standard. If this needs to be extended, there are certain requirements from insurers which need to be fulfilled in order for the cover to continue.
Can you clarify further please? Does the 90 days refer to per year of cover, or per trip?
The policy states 90 consecutive days per trip.
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Just to clarify,The Caravan Club's home insurance policy gives 90 days unoccupancy cover as standard. If this needs to be extended, there are certain requirements from insurers which need to be fulfilled in order for the cover to continue.
Can you clarify further please? Does the 90 days refer to per year of cover, or per trip?
The policy states 90 consecutive days per trip.
Jean, the CC policy is good as was our on-line quote, but the huge hike in premium when OH rang regarding our property being timber frame with brick outer skin, made it very expensive.
Timber frame is a very common construction method in Scotland for properties built in the last 50 years, so you are cutting out quite a fair number of potential customers.
We have never had this problem before.
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Thanks for the info Kj could you repost please when you have firmed up the details, as this might be something we would be interested in, we currently have CC so 90 day cover but might go away for longer in the future.
TG.....we have now gone with the C&CC policy, it is very comprehensive without the unoccupancy conditions being too onerous for us.
However, if you are away between 1st October and 31st March for over 14 days, you may find it is not for you as there is a requirement to ....
turn off the water
and
either drain all water and heating systems or leave heating on to maintain a minimum temperature of 15 degrees C
and
a visit every 7 days by a responsible adult
15 degrees seems unreasonably high to me, we have automatic frost stats on our systems and they trigger at 5 degrees. But as we do not usually go away for long trips in the "winter", it is OK for us.
Not actually sure how we would ensure 15 degrees as we have no central thermostat! Would need to experiment with boiler stats and TRVs.
Premium is £386 incl Legal, cover is £400k rebuild and £89k contents, including full accidental damage and £5k all risks on things we take on holiday.
Insurer is Canopius. From research it seems to be undewritten by Lloyds syndicates.
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Just to clarify,The Caravan Club's home insurance policy gives 90 days unoccupancy cover as standard. If this needs to be extended, there are certain requirements from insurers which need to be fulfilled in order for the cover to continue.
Can you clarify further please? Does the 90 days refer to per year of cover, or per trip?
The policy states 90 consecutive days per trip.
Jean, the CC policy is good as was our on-line quote, but the huge hike in premium when OH rang regarding our property being timber frame with brick outer skin, made it very expensive.
Timber frame is a very common construction method in Scotland for properties built in the last 50 years, so you are cutting out quite a fair number of potential customers.
We have never had this problem before.
I will speak to our insurers about this and come back to you,
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KjellNN
Surely most homes currently being built are timber framed with brick cladding?
David
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Kj, thanks for the re-post. The setting thermostat to 15c wouldn't be a problem for us as we have a radio controlled one so could move it to the warmest room in the house which would reduce the overall temp. we normally leave it at 10c when going away and
my sister checks the house for us. I would check with them after reading WTG's post hopefully we may not be required to have restrictions like yourself, as you say there are so many variations even with the same underwriters, good to know though that they
will cover for 180 days.
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Yes, I was going to suggest that you should check anyway, but my laptop went crazy mid-post!
We do have high sums insured as we are still in the home we had built 28 years back, which has an integral "granny flat", so quite large and 2 sets of everything.
Still.......we decided the extra cost of staying in the house we designed and had built was minimal compared to the cost of moving!!
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Just to clarify,The Caravan Club's home insurance policy gives 90 days unoccupancy cover as standard. If this needs to be extended, there are certain requirements from insurers which need to be fulfilled in order for the cover to continue.
Can you clarify further please? Does the 90 days refer to per year of cover, or per trip?
The policy states 90 consecutive days per trip.
Jean, the CC policy is good as was our on-line quote, but the huge hike in premium when OH rang regarding our property being timber frame with brick outer skin, made it very expensive.
Timber frame is a very common construction method in Scotland for properties built in the last 50 years, so you are cutting out quite a fair number of potential customers.
We have never had this problem before.
I will speak to our insurers about this and come back to you,
Jean has now spoken to the insurers and explained to me that timber frame construction is regarded as being more of a fire risk than "traditional" construction.
For anyone not familiar with modern timber frame, the house has an inner timber structural frame which takes the weight of the floors and roof, the outer walls are consrtucted of facing brick or brick/block with a cement render.
From outside, and indeed inside, these houses look just like a so called "traditional" house, and comply with all the Building Regulations (which are actually stricter in Scotland than in England) including fire protection.
Inside walls are of fire resistant plasterboard. Floors and roof are of the same construction as other moden houses.
When a house burns, it is the contents, the timber floors and the roof that goes first due to the "chimney effect", so little difference in that respect between different construction methods.
I suspect that for "timber frame" some insurers are reading "timber house".
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