Home insurance for extended trips.
Our home insurance is due for renewal soon so OH has been trawling the comparison sites.
We have been happy with our current policy through a company called "Home Protect", but the premium is creeping upward.
OH's research has brought up a newish company called "Intelligent Insurance" who cater for, amongst other things, property left unoccupied for longer periods. Their conditions are similar to our present insurer, but there is an increased excess on claims
after 60 days unoccupancy, which could be a drawback.
Their premium was however very competitive.
Anyway.......worth checking out both of these companies if you need cover for extended periods away.
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For anything out of the ordinary I would give the task to a firm of insurance brokers who are experts in the field and ask them to source an insurance policy to meet the particular situation. I have heard people suggest Adrian Flux as an example of that sort of insurance broker, dealing they say with about 30 insurance companies, but I have no personal experience of them, and I only mention them as an example of a firm of brokers.
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The club insurance are able to quote for this with reliable companies. I have not heard of the firm you quote and would do some research to try and establish their claims service as that is the thing you need when things go wrong. It is no use saving a few pounds on the premium if they fail you when you need them.
In simple terms I assume you did not buy tbe cheapest house so why do you feel the cheapest insurance is best without further research. In life you tend to get what you pay for.
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PS. Kjell. Your Intelligent Insurance company gets far better on line reviews than the firm of brokers I had heard of, and I imagine they too are brokers, placing business with bigger companies.
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The club insurance are able to quote for this with reliable companies. I have not heard of the firm you quote and would do some research to try and establish their claims service as that is the thing you need when things go wrong. It is no use saving a few
pounds on the premium if they fail you when you need them.In simple terms I assume you did not buy tbe cheapest house so why do you feel the cheapest insurance is best without further research. In life you tend to get what you pay for.
We have not made any decision as yet, and they were not actually the cheapest.
Research is still in progress.
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PS. Kjell. Your Intelligent Insurance company gets far better on line reviews than the firm of brokers I had heard of, and I imagine they too are brokers, placing business with bigger companies.
Yes, they are brokers rather than insurers, as is the other company.
Policies available through these 2 companies appear to be underwritten by AXA and Lloyds Syndicates.
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Kjell. It sounds to me that you have made a good find. Bravo.
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Possibly, but the hike in the excess after 60 days unoccupancy could be a deal-breaker as they push it up to £1000 on each of buildings and contents.
OH has got an on-line quote through the Club, which was also competitive, but she will need to ring them to query a couple of things.
The main one being that according to the policy wording our house may not be of "standard construction" as it is timber frame, which is very common up here.
If this results in a much higher premium, that could be a deal-breaker. I find it odd that there was no option to specify the exact construction type, instead they have made a series of assumptions.
The standard maximum unoccupancy offered was 90 days, so will also need to check how this works and whether a longer period is available.
In this case the policy offered was with ABC Insurance, a division of LV.
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If you are spending in the region of £1000 for household insurance it is likely to be worthwhile using a broker to place the insurance for you. Make sure though that you source a reliable broker who has specialisation in domestic cover and will actually
have proper market knowledge.0 -
If you are spending in the region of £1000 for household insurance ....
£1000! What are you insuring, Blenheim Palace?
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Do they do 90 days unoccupancy?
And timber frame?
Saffron Insurance Services - another firm of brokers - will cover both those. Have a look.
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Do they do 90 days unoccupancy?
And timber frame?
Saffron Insurance Services - another firm of brokers - will cover both those. Have a look.
They only offered 60 days when we tried a quote.......and anyway............the premium was over £850!!
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We have the CC home/buildings cover. I was surprised they only cover for 60 unoccupied at standard cover. It suggests a lack of joined up cover when they offer Red Pennant for much longer periods but clearly don't expect members to insure their house with them.You seem to be covered for some things in excess of 60 days but all the exclusions are the very thing you want!!! At least with the Club they allow more than one 60 day period away in one year ulkike a lot where 60 days is the maximum total for the year.
I have used the C&CC in the past but currently they were more expensive but I think they allow longer periods unoccupied. Some of the figures quoted by the OP would suggest the need to be a member might be a cheaper option in the end. Worth checking out.
David
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KjellNN, I did get a quote from C&CC. They will cover timber frame homes as well as cover up to 180 days. For me, I found them expensive, £450.00. They also want some one to visit your property every so often. They have a free
phone number so worth giving them a call.0 -
We have the CC home/buildings cover. I was surprised they only cover for 60 unoccupied at standard cover. It suggests a lack of joined up cover when they offer Red Pennant for much longer periods but clearly don't expect members to insure their house with
them.You seem to be covered for some things in excess of 60 days but all the exclusions are the very thing you want!!! At least with the Club they allow more than one 60 day period away in one year ulkike a lot where 60 days is the maximum total for the year.I have used the C&CC in the past but currently they were more expensive but I think they allow longer periods unoccupied. Some of the figures quoted by the OP would suggest the need to be a member might be a cheaper option in the end. Worth checking out.
David
According to the information given with our quote, they have now extended the unoccupancy period to 90 days continuous.
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Legal and General work for me
Do they do 90 days unoccupancy?
And timber frame?
They have not come up in our searches.
Timber frame = yes. I've got 60 days as standard.
We need 90 days as a minimum.
Have now got a quote, which was £386, but a lot of the cover is void after 60 days away, so no use.
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KjellNN, Ouch. I never got as far as the finer detail because of the price. They dont want much, do they.
Not sure if you're aware, but with some 60 day unoccupied policies they will count a visit by a familly member as occupancy, therefore resetting the 60 day clock. LV find that acceptable, its written into the policy. If you have someone that could do that for you, would that be a good solution?0 -
KjellNN, I did get a quote from C&CC. They will cover timber frame homes as well as cover up to 180 days. For me, I found them expensive, £450.00. They also want some one to visit your property every so often. They have a
free phone number so worth giving them a call.You will find almost all companies will require regular visits by someone to the property. This is standard although the frequency may vary between companies.
The longer the period allowed does mean an increased risk to the insurer so the longer period might increase the premium and needs to be taken into accpunt when assessing the premium.
Not heard of a visit by a family member as setting back the clock. If they stay overnight it might be regarded as that but be very careful. A visit is not occupancy and I would get it in writing exactly
what would reset the clock or if things go wrong you could be the loser.
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I had understood that it needs to be a minimum of 5 days spent back in the property to reset the clock, this is what I was told by those we spoke to while in Spain earlier this yea,r who spend up to 8 months away, they seem to fly home for a week or get
a family member to stay at the house for 5 or so days (most ask their children to do this).0 -
The reason we left our previous insurer 2 yeara back was they no longer accepted an overnight stay once a month by our daughter as "resetting the clock". Instead they now require the stay to be 5 nights.
So....have now had a quote from C&CC (thanks peedee), a good quote @ £366 + C&CC membership of course, so we may well join up and go with that, just a couple of points to clarify.
Will ring them again tomorrow.
Cover is for 180 days unoccupancy without a huge excess. Visits by a responsible adult required every 7 days, which is what we have anyway.
Our locks etc have been deemed sufficient, no alarm required.
Hopefully it will work out well, will update in a few days.
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The reason we left our previous insurer 2 yeara back was they no longer accepted an overnight stay once a month by our daughter as "resetting the clock". Instead they now require the stay to be 5 nights.
So....have now had a quote from C&CC (thanks peedee), a good quote @ £366 + C&CC membership of course, so we may well join up and go with that, just a couple of points to clarify.
Will ring them again tomorrow.
Cover is for 180 days unoccupancy without a huge excess. Visits by a responsible adult required every 7 days, which is what we have anyway.
Our locks etc have been deemed sufficient, no alarm required.
Hopefully it will work out well, will update in a few days.
Sounds a decent quote given the size of the house. Difficult for me to be too sure as I get a 20% staff discount but with three bedrooms we are not that far behind you
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Not heard of a visit by a family member as setting back the clock. If they stay overnight it might be regarded as that but be very careful. A visit is not occupancy and I would get it in writing exactly
what would reset the clock or if things go wrong you could be the loser.
I did. It was in the policy document. The company: Liverpool Victoria
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