Homeowners. Have any of you not renewed buildings insurance cover?

[girlfriend44]

Thinking of giving it a miss this year. No choice really.

Have paid building insurance for years. Nothings ever happened.

I simply can't afford it.
Insurance is such a rip off.
Not going to be too outing but it's gone up one thousand three hundred pounds in a year. No claims in the last five years. In fact never claimed.
Simply cannot afford this, along with everything else.

An increase like that is pure greed.😡
One thousand, three hundred.in a year.
Anyone else not have it?

My friend’s next door neighbour’s house when on fire during lockdown. They hadnt renewed their insurance as they were losing money from their business during Covid. They lost absolutely everything. It was awful. I honestly wouldn’t even consider it. Can you have a really high excess to try and bring it down?

Have you used a price comparison site?

You need to use a price comparison website. You'd be insane not to have house insurance. You risk losing everything if it caught fire, got flooded, etc. You'd probably not even be able to afford the demolition and site clearance let alone rebuilding it.

I would never go without insurance. You never know what can happen.
I would think you either have a very expensive house or it is at severe risk of flooding/ wild fires or something. In either case you don't want to be on your own if something happens.

Exactly this. Never would I risk being in a position where I couldn't claim for something major.
Have you phoned your insurance and asked for them to review the price, have you phoned other insurers? Ours goes up every year too and we always phone around and get it back to ver nearly the cost of the year before.

Are you on a flood plain or something ?! Lots of prior claims or a high excess? Not shopped around? You need to find out what it is. Bonkers not to insure. What about catastrophic loss? Almost nothing is more important than this.

Nope. Wouldn’t even cross my mind to not take it out. Also every mortgage I’ve had has been given on the basis you will take out buildings insurance.

That’s a renewal price which will go up (mine doubled this year at renewal) but I ditched my last company, shopped around and got a better deal

I agree with everyone else, I would skip every other monthly bill before I didn’t renew my buildings insurance. If you have no mortgage and are struggling for money, what would you do if the house was unliveable?

I'd rather move house and live in something I could afford to insure.

Our house flooded in November. We've paid out over 18k in temporary accommodation costs. Or rather our insurance has. So no, I wouldn't go without cover. I dread to think what the building works are coming in at.

It’s crazy money and I can see why you’d be tempted. In all likelihood you won’t need to claim. Our neighbour’s house burnt to the ground a few years ago. Complete rebuild. If they hadn’t had buildings insurance they would have been paying off a mortgage for a house they no longer had and they’d also be homeless. So as awful as it is please don’t take the risk.

A friend of mine did for 3 years or so she said. Nothing happened thankfully but I don't think I'd dare risk it personally.

I wouldn't consider it for buildings insurance. Contents insurance I guess as you could live in a shell of a house and refurbish it from a charity shop for that bit if a fire happens with no buildings insurance you are screwed. I am shocked at the price of it though. I pay between 400 and 500 pou ds a year for joint buildings and contents through my bank. No stupid excesses or anything. That is just standard cover.

No. Never

We’re in a flood plain and ours hasn’t gone up by much .
Assume you’ve shopped around?

Absolutely not. If something happened you'd be completely ruined - not being able to afford 1.3k would pale into complete insignificance.

My house insurance is about £350 and we've got buildings cover for 750k, what cover do you have? Is your house worth a fortune, or are you wildly overinsured?

I am sure people have gone without, or forgotten to renew or live somewhere impossible to insure.
But really the risk is too high.
What is it that makes it so expensive?
How much is your contents insurance? I would risk skipping that rather than buildings insurance.

How on earth has it gone up by £1300?? Something seems wrong, unless they’ve discovered your house is about to be sucked into a sink hole!!

I work for the emergency services. So many people don’t have insurance, and they sure regret it when their kitchen catches fire, or the water tank leaks. But it’s up to you if you can afford to replace anything should the worst happen. That’s what insurance is.

I've known two people whose houses have burned down (no, it wasn't anything to do with me!). Neither of them were at fault, but both had to claim from their house insurance company. At that point they realised that house insurance was worth every penny.

I think it's one of those nasty, but inevitable, expenses, like car insurance. But do shop around, I think if you change companies you will probably be able to get it cheaper.

My bil doesn't have insurance because he is stingy and stupid. It's crazy not to have any.

Shop around, do comparisons and I'll bet you'll get something much more reasonable. We never insure with the same companies for two years on the trot for anything.

That sounds like a PFO quote - stands for please fuck off. They must not want your custom for some reason, sometimes it can be as simple as they're overexposed on your road or something. Just use another insurer.

You could get away with contents if you’re not bothered. But buildings, absolutely not. It’s so important.

If your house suddenly develops subsidence, how are you going to pay if you can’t afford insurance?

My insurance is less than £50 a month and I have a 5 bed property.

Shop around, don’t be stupid.

How on earth is it so expensive? How big is your house??

Why on earth are you paying that much?! Ours is only £250ish for the year and that covers buildings and contents!

You're being v. Evasive OP and not saying what other quotes you've had or whether there's a reason it's so high.
I think there's something you aren't saying - for eg that you haven't claimed, but there's been flooding or something all around and that's why it's high.

There is always a reason for a premium going up crazy high like that and that you seem so sure you can't get it cheaper makes me think you have an inkling of why it's so high.