To ask you how we can reduce home insurance premium?

[Mollyov]

Sorry it's so boring!

Can't find home insurance for less than £1100 (includes £40k cover for contents, plus accidental damage cover).

We have a 3 bed, 2 bath, 2 living room house. Zero crime area. Good security.
We are probably low risk - DH has a professional job and I'm a sahm at home a lot. Early 40s. Haven't ever made a claim.

We have valued the house at £500k rebuild, as it's non standard construction and includes two big outbuildings. This is the same as OMV for a 4 bed house in this area (similar to ours as we have a second living room). We can't get an accurate desk-based rebuild valuation so would need a surveyor to visit and this could be up to £1500 apparently.

Last year it cost £800 - we only had 2 beds and 1 living room then (have extended). So is it reasonable that an extra bedroom and a living room adds £300 to the premium?

Google says that the average for a 4 bed is around £300 plus £130 for contents. So £430. Why is ours £1100? The comparison gave us 8 results and this was the cheapest.

Any advice would be fab!

Mine is under half off that!

Have you got lots of add- ons - legal insurance Etc which you can take off?

I have a 3 bed, 2 living room nsc (timber frame), integral garage and laundry room with flat roof.
I’m with quote me happy. unlimited buildings and contents, legal & home emergency cover for £370 (£125 more than the year before, due for renewal in Nov)

No add-ons except what I stated.
Buildings cover - value £500k
Contents cover - value £40k
Accidental damage cover
Nothing else at all.

I just wonder why it is so expensive. What is the rebuild value you have on your houses?

I guess I'm wondering if there's some other factor we've overlooked that's bumping up our premium. For example we have no burglar alarm and no neighbourhood watch, but that's because burglary is completely unheard of here. Burglary is presumably also only a risk in regard to contents insurance, not buildings insurance.
But would the "smaller" factors like this make an enormous difference to the premium, or is the single main factor the rebuild value?

What was your rebuild cost last year?

You may have over calculated your rebuild cost, Have a look on
calculator.bcis.co.uk/calculator/calculator.aspx

@Time4changeagain oh that's a great idea, why didn't I think of that 🙈 I will compare later. Maybe there is a huge difference.

I wonder if we could ask a builder for a very very rough guess at rebuild cost, off the record. Just to check we're in the right ballpark...

I did look at these, but they don't account for several factors. We have non-standard construction, significant outbuildings, difficult access to the house, and live in an area where materials cost more than the UK average due to distance. For a proper valuation we'd have to pay a surveyor.

Maybe ask the builder who did your extension, He would probably have a good idea

Why would it be re-built to non standard construction? Or is it a listed building or something. I would have thought the re-build would be to modern standard construction maybe tittivated a bit if it has to look externally more or less like properties nearby. Should the outbuildings be insured separately, are they living accommodation? Have you tried ringing up any insurance companies to discuss a quote if it's rather an unusual property, the online forms may not really cope with it.

If it's a rural property have you tried the NFU insurance, not sure whether they would help, but got accosted by them at a county show recently and their insurance sounded interesting but I never followed it up. You don't need to be a farmer.

Most policies don't require you to value your own rebuild though. You just have standard up to 500k rebuild, 30k contents. Many companies then have plus policies where you get more, buit it isn't an exact science.

I've never paid more than £550 and we have a five bedroomed bog standard house, enhanced cover policy, with LV. I swap out every year between them, and Aviva and Direct Line.

Have you added lots of extras, do you have many valuable items you have listed out?? Is your house thatched or unusual in any other way?

Is your property unusual, or in a flood area? Or do you have previous claims? My three bed detached in the north of England is insured for £750k rebuild and £100k content and the premium is less than £400 with Halifax.

It sounds like there’s something significantly increasing your premium.

Can you put your car and home insurance with the same company? We did this with Admiral and it saved us loads.

We would want it rebuilt to the non-standard construction yes, as it adds value to the house. We wanted a house made of these materials.
Our existing insurer is the £1100 quote, and we have gone through everything with them on the phone before so they definitely have the right info. The online comparison quotes are in the same ballpark.

Interesting, so your house is valued at £500k rebuild too? And yet you only pay £550?
There are no extras except accidental damage cover.

It's not in a flood area. It's not unusual compared to other local houses but is definitely not typical at a UK level. But other households locally do not pay excessive premiums so it can't be the construction.

So yours is valued at more than ours but your premium is about 35% of ours. Hmm. What on earth is it?!

If it's not the £500k rebuild value (which it doesn't seem to be based on other people's figures) I think we might have to phone the insurance company again and ask to speak to someone more senior or something. We've asked before but they can never tell us which factors are raising the premium 🙄

Interesting, so your house is valued at £500k rebuild too? And yet you only pay £550?

This.

The rebuild cost will be less than the market value of you were to sell it.

Also, you can reduce premium by increasing the excess

Just about to renew mine - 4 bed semi in the south
£485k rebuild cost, £45k contents insurance - £275 for the year 😁