Home insurance, I’m Queen of dull questions

[Tiptoptum]

Home insurance.

Mine has been quoted as £90 higher than last year, with me not having claimed a thing.

Sky seems to offer a good insurance (Smart home) which seems to cover everything but I am useless with insurances and often get more than I need, so, do I need

Legal cover
Accidental Buildings Insurance
Accidental Contents

I probably get accidental buildings in case my roof gets damaged etc, but most of these things are an expensive add on and pushing it right up.

So, what do you all have? I do have a range of neighbours who are Plumbers/builders etc who will (and do) help out, so I do have close people who can help me in an emergency so I don’t really know what I need.

Sorry for the dullness, divorced and single so not going anyone to discuss these deep questions with…..

This is Sky, but the extras push it up horrendously!

I’ve got mine with Nationwide and it’s really reasonable. No buildings as we rent, but it’s a really low price for the rest.

I used to work in insurance, many, many years ago, so I think that you never need any of it, until the day that you really, really do. If you can afford it, that peace of mind is worth the stress you’ll be under if you get into a boundary dispute with your neighbour, or you’ve accidentally banged a nail into a pipe (please don’t quote me, it’s been so long, I can’t remember if you’d be covered on accidental damage or not!) and you’ve got a new water feature in your hallway.

And is that Smart Tech actually worth it? Have you got so much tech that it wouldn’t be covered under your normal contents policy? And that £250 they mention, is that the value of the only tech they’ll cover?

Try Sheila's wheels, I have contents only as I'm renting. Its got good cover too x you aren't boring to be talking about insurance x

OP thank you for starting this thread. Mine has also gone up nearly £100 and I haven't claimed. It's contents only with M&S.

I haven't swapped provider for years but this prompted me to look for something more reasonable. The sites are asking to go room by room and calculate how much it would be to replace all the contents- beds, bedding, furniture (does this include the cost of my fitted wardrobe for example).

I don't have carpets but have wooden floors do I include them?

It seems like such a gargantuan task.

What do others do?

Ours has gone up by £300! No claims made.

Mine went up by £700! No claims had been made. Managed to get it down a bit by dropping Accidental Damage cover on both contents and buildings but feel a bit vulnerable now! Couldn't believe they wanted that much more. Was nearly double!!

I did exactly that. Took a small while but we've know two people have small fires and they've been horrendously under insured.

In the last one they took the amount that they were insured for and divided by how many rooms they had. The kitchen diner had been destroyed by fire and the insurance company would only pay out £1.5k. Not a lot to rewire your kitchen and put in a fresh new kitchen with appliances.

I am sick of Insurance. My car insurance went up £300, this has gone up nearly £100 and my pet insurance is due in August and I’m expecting that to go up.
Ive not claimed on anything either!!

I really think I need accidental damage on both, but I don’t really care about the smart tech, I’ve already got a cctv and I don’t need to add indoor cameras etc to it.

Ots just all so bloody expensive it’s depressing isn’t it??

Mine is due in a few weeks. I own my house so I always get buildings and content, with legal cover. I don't cover for tech as I don't have any computers or PlayStations etc. I just have a cheap ipad and phone. I always struggle to think how much it would cost to replace everything and how much to rebuild my house. I worry if I needed it it would not be adequate enough.

Yes, I own mine. On my previous insurance I had the silver cover, but I didn’t have the extra accidental damage or legal aid. I think I’m going to need both, which is going to push it up even more, I don’t even like to think by how much!!

I'm with Lloyds bank Premier insurance and every year they put it up and I ring them and they put it down again, have you tried ringing them.

If you need a lot of add ons it's sometimes cheaper to go with a premier insurance with lots included as it can work out cheaper, rather than the cheapest.

Yes, definitely include the cost of your fitted wardrobes and wood flooring. You don’t have to have exact figures or start getting quotes or anything. Just sit in each room with a notepad and Google open. Your insurers might have some guidance on what level of coverage they recommend for an average 3 bed house. And then things like wooden floors and fitted wardrobes would be an upgrade to that.

I rent, so a lot easier for me. I started with a base figure of 50k for each room. Would that be enough to replace everything if, God forbid, it was decimated by fire? 1k for a carpet, 2k for a sofa, a couple of hundred for curtains, a couple of hundred to replace all the framed photos on the wall etc. In your kitchen, 10k for the cupboard units, a few hundred for an oven, a few more for a fridge freezer. Have you got posh cutlery? What about oven trays, glasses, mugs, Tupperware etc? Could you replace all of those with 2k? And then add it all up. It’s all a guesstimate really, as well as a balancing act between how quickly you’d want your home to be back to normal and how much you’re able to pay for that each month.

I’d say that 95% of people are frighteningly under insured but, fortunately for them, they never discover this.