to wonder how many people actually claim back on house insurance?

[betterwhenthesunshines]

I mean we seem to pay the premiums year after year, never claim (eg I my camera was damaged recently and it never occurred to me to claim for it - it was 5 yrs old and I figured the children must have dropped it)..

My dad has a claim going through for a leaky roof which I suspect is just repairs that we would do under regular maintenance.

I just wondered if anyone thought it was actually good value...

I've wondered this loads.

There have been loads of times when we've replaced things and after the fact realised we could probably have claimed.

I always just think of insurance as being for floods, fires and break-ins really.

Good point. These companies don't exactly give you a list of things to claim for do they?

A lot of the time though for these minor things like breaking a camera or whatever its not worth claiming because of the excess.

We've claimed for a leaking pipe in the bathroom to replace the flooring but thats about it.

We do have the accidental cover too but so far never used it.

I've always thought of you claimed for small things then you'd just end up paying for it anyway through increased premiums. I have lost a piece of jewellery or damaged things before and just let it go rather than claim.

I've claimed for a broken hob - one of those glass ones, which cost over £400 to replace after the glass shattered.

I've also claimed for the contents of a car (£5000 +) on my house insurance, after the car burst into flames on our way to our holiday destination. I had to argue quite forcefully to get the claim through for that!

Also claimed when I got burgled, again a hefty claim for over £5000.

I think I've made my money back on the insurance premiums over the years.

Other than that, no other claims in 20 years. Some friends of mine claim for every little thing though, all the time.

We claimed for our tv recently which was damaged when we moved house. But otherwise have never claimed before.

The reasons premiums are so high are because of the lovely people who often claim for all those lovely digital goods that they never had that somehow are broken and they good genuine people never think about claiming as most of us consider house insurance for when the place gets burned down or a severe freeze destroys all the pipes in the house and everything in it.

Folk girl - I agree about the big things but I have another thread going about putting in a sprinkler system that the building regs officer has advised while we're doing building work. Now you'd think that would reduce the premium? After all the whole point is that ther's no risk from fire anymore. Apparently not!

I'd just like to have a big thing to claim for to make me think it's been worthwhile ( thinks of thousands of pounds over the years...)

better that does seem odd!

My friend dropped a tin of paint down the stairs once and covered the hall carpet in paint. As far as I know, she claimed for that on the insurance. I'm not even sure even that would have occurred to me!

for example - can I claim the £300 it cost me recently to repair my washing machine? £300 for the new camera? I wonder how much my premiums would go up by?

Who has done this and how much do you pay? Ours is currently £1000 ish a year for 5 bed London house.

better when the water tank from the upstairs tank flooded out our living room and when the cold wate pipe embedded in the wall developed a leak that rotted the floorboards to the next room, I didn't feel particularly grateful that I was getting my money's worth on the insurance. It was all just a little bit inconvenient.

Better - what is your excess? believe me, they would reap it back somehow!

I made a claim for a burst pipe which resulted in damage to the one half of the house and us living in temporary accomodation for 6 months. The claim was so large that it worked out at over 200years insurance premiums!

It is the only claim I have made.

Folk Girl - the dog walked through our whole house with oil paint - I just cleaned it and hired a carpet cleaner and spent a day cleaning them myself. I agree - it disn't even occur to me to claim... maybe I should encourage her to do it again... we need new carpets.

Our accidental damage cover came in handy. During the strong winds of 2010 (sounds like the beginning of a disaster movie) a few tile fell off the roof, crashed onto the flat roof of the extension damaging the roof, water everywhere. Insurance paid for the roof to be fixed and the bedroom redecorated :)

Accidental damage is an extra cover so a lot of people dont have it - we make sure with our premium that we cover for it as well but dont think its always in standard cover.

We recently claimed for a roof problem after high winds and had to prove that the roof had been recently inspected/maintained.

OK, horror stories are making me feel that it might be worth it. Not good for you guys at the time I fully appreciate. I suppose I should be careful what I wish for:)

MrsSpoon that's what I fear - I suspect that if ever there is a claim to be made they would find a way to wriggle out of it. Eg, if there was a burst pipe that they would try and say it was our fault for not keeping the house warm enough to avoid freezing. ( i know there can be other reasons for water damage but you get my point)

One laptop that met my cup of coffee. I didn't think about claiming until pc world told me how much they'd charge to look at it! It was them that suggested claiming.

I claimed for the diamond when it fell out of my engagement ring. Legitimate claim that was paid out. We also claimed when our TV was accidentally damaged. Again legitimate claim and paid out.

There will be plenty of claims around here at the moment as we were one of the areas affected by floods last week. Personally I wouldn't over claim but I bet plenty are.

Thing is, you don't want to have a claim that 'makes you your money back'. DH was out sorting people who got flooded last week - 2" of flood water, and they'll be out of the house for 6 months, lost all their downstairs furniture, all te plaster needs to come off the walls up to at least 1m high, new kitchen etc etc. Massively disruptive and distressing.

I dont overclaim either. Touch wood, everythig is ok, but every 10 years or so we seem to have a spate of claims.One was storm damage, another was a burst pipe. Dont claim for any accidental stuff tho.

The insurers work out risks and employ actuaries and mathmatical models - some some years they can make big 'losses' as they have to pay out - big storms hit etc but then will adjust the premiums in future years.

Supposedly premiums for car and house have gone up as more people are making claims, some may now be claiming the 'smaller stuff' than before maybe and fraudulent claims are going up.

Only claimed once for house - but I suppose insurance is an odd 'product' as in many ways it's something you pay for but don't get!!

I don't claim on our house insurance here in the US. Our premium has dropped from $2500 to $950 in the 4 years we have lived here because of this. If we continue to not claim for small stuff we should be down to about $500 in 6 years. We claimed for DH's golf clubs that were stolen from his car before we moved here (we had renters insurance). The golf clubs were worth around $4,000 and as we (I) had itemized them on our insurance document they were replaced with exactly the same clubs, bag and shoes. Our premium didn't increase because we agreed that golf clubs in the car would not be covered in the future (and that lazy DH would have to bring them inside).

UK house insurance is expensive because of people claiming for small stuff. I was shocked when my friend told me she claimed for her whole kitchen floor to be replaced because she dropped a hammer and two tiles broke. I would have replaced the broken tiles myself.