Home insurance

[lisbapalea]

Hello - not sure if this should be in this section or in property but I may post in both places!

Am trying to sort out home insurance (buildings & contents) on the house we're moving into on Friday. It's a 300yr old house which is evidently bumping up our costs a lot from our current place which was built around 1900.

I'm therefore trying to keep costs down, and wondered if it's silly to not go for emergency cover when applying for home insurance.

Any thoughts?

I have been on comparison websites and have now got a few cheapish quotes (not cheap at all but vaguely more affordable than some others!) but they don't include emergency cover. I also don't want to go for any of the companies I've never heard of - e.g. "insure wiser" (logo of an owl - anyone know them?!) and am preferring to go with a name I at least know!

Am currently veering towards Endsleigh and will go for that if the consensus is that emergency cover isn't an essesntial.

Would love to get feedback from people who know more about this than me!

Thanks in advance,
Lisa

[queensusan]

Have you tried any other specialists that deal with older/listed/thatched houses? The price comparison sites may not be the best place to start as they are tailored to offer a standard product.

We use Lark Insurance - they are a specialist broker but may not be cheap. They were also very good when we had to make a claim.

[nocake]

Insurance companies put low cost policies on the comparison websites, to make sure they appear at the top of the listing. For your house you need a decent policy so can I suggest you call some of the companies. The call centre staff should be able to offer you a better policy than the comparison sites.

[scaryteacher]

Have you tried NFU; there's not much they won't insure? My house is coming up 200 years old and we insured through M&S without any problems.

[PigletJohn]

What does your "emergency cover" cover? The standard policy will cover fire, theft, escape of water folllowing burst pipe, etc.

Remember they are going to take average cost of claims, add on their costs, add on a profit.

[PigletJohn]

"Which" had a review of home insurers recently, the top three from their recommended list were:

NFU Mutual, Hiscox, John Lewis Insurance

There was a big drop in ratings to the other four recommended providers.

[SazZandASparkler]

Our house is with the co-op and is 250+ yrs old with no foundations. Worth a shot? I don't think they 'do' comparison websites.

[lisbapalea]

Thanks for all of your recommendations! Going to give Co-op, NFU and John Lewis a try now!

[CMOTdibbler]

Def try NFU and Hiscox - their service is great. Hiscox won't be the cheapest out there, but with an old house if anything goes wrong you'll need someone who understands the special requirements of older houses and will go with builders with the right skills etc

Emergency cover isn't worth it btw