Buildings insurance for listed properties - which provider?

[DivineInspiration]

Our current combined buildings and contents policy is with Lark, who we found through the Listed Property Owners' Club, but they've recently informed us that they intend to put our premium up by 16% when we renew this year: they've said this is due to inflation and anticipated increase in the value of our contents. Our current premium is £920. We were considering switching before they told us this was going to go up anyway, as we tried to claim on the contents insurance last year and they made it so difficult to do so that in the end we didn't bother. I'm no longer confident that they'd pay out for any buildings claims without a hassle.

We have a rebuild value of £1,000,000 largely because of some non-standard architectural features which could be very costly to repair or replace, and I suspect this is what a lot of the premium is based on.

Listed building dwellers, who is your insurance with, is it as expensive as ours, have you ever made a claim?

Thanks

[middleagedspread]

I've just been through this, but for an empty property. We ended up going with a specialist company & paying ££, but when the building work is finished I'm going to use NFU. I was impressed with them when I phoned.

[ClareMarriott]

Divine

I would try either National Farmers Union or Hiscox who insure high net worth properties

[CMOTDibbler]

I'd recommend Hiscox - their claims service is impeccable.

[kirstytate]

Divine - we're with Lark so I will be interested to see what happens to our premium this year. We made a successful and hassle free claim on the contents insurance last year and to be honest I was quite impressed.

However, our rebuild value is much less than yours, so I am watching this thread with interest.

On a separate but related issue, do you find the LPOC any use? It seemed to be mainly a marketing vehicle to me but possibly useful for sourcing specialist builders etc.

[Sunnyshores]

We're with Lark too, renewal in August, so interested in who you decide to go with. When we first moved here and chose Lark (through LPOC), they were about 25% cheaper than Hiscox, last yr the same as well.