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?

Our was up £2.5 this year we shopped around and got a much lower cost

Have a shop around. I had a house fire 20 years ago, I could continue to pay home insurance for the next 20 years and still not have repaid what it cost to rebuild my house. It’s an unnecessary cost until you need it.

OK, so the entire value of your property is how much?

Can you can afford to replace it burnt down or was destroyed in a gas explosion or completely flooded? Have you got that much in savings?

If not then you need insurance or you'd be homeless. I bet these people in the links below all thought it would never happen to them. (The fire was caused by a mobile phone charger). So what if you've never claimed. Insurance is for peace of mind. Be glad you've never had reason to claim! Also, it may not be your bad luck it may be the neighbours house that explodes or goes up in flames and yours is just in the wrong place.

Go for the highest possible excess to bring the premium down and shop around.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/ilford-fire-house-explosion-ley-street-b1199244.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9djg62ye25o
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/fire-destroys-familys-uninsured-home-28589450

Is it for buildings & contents or just buildings? Sounds insanely expensive.

Wouso you beable to sleep at night? I wouldn’t sleep so no, I wouldn't cancel it.

I’d rather move to a cheaper home so I could afford the insurance.

I know someone who went without contents insurance (rented so no need for buildings). They were flooded out, never happened before. It was 4 years ago and they are still paying the loan they had to take out to replace their furniture and other possessions.

My mum just advised us to check and challenge an excess high quote this year, as their house had been incorrectly assigned as high risk for flooding.

Is it something like that which could have affected it? My premium stayed low this year.

If you think it's a rip off you might find this interesting from chat GPT

"UK home insurers, as a whole, did not return to profitability in 2024. The sector faced another challenging year, with an estimated net combined ratio (NCR) of 108%, indicating that insurers paid out more in claims and expenses than they earned in premiums.

Several factors contributed to these losses:

Severe Weather Events:

Rising Costs:

Delayed Premium Adjustments"

They have lost money for a few years now. Hence the price rises

We have just had a catastrophic disaster and without insurance we’d be absolutely stuffed. It’s costing tens of thousands to fix. Please don’t ever let yours lapse.

No way would I not have insurance - shop around.

Over the last 15 years our insurance costs have increased overall, but by no more than a few pounds a year - generally I renew it with a different insurer, for the same price or fractionally higher, but I always shop around.

Insurance = Peace of mind. If you've got enough in the bank to cover rebuild costs and to replace your belongings then by all means don't insure. But it is financially sensible to get your home insured.

I think that considering you are in the fortunate position not to have monthly mortgage payments, you should be able to cover your insurance,

I think even contemplating that is madness. Where would you go if something happened to it?

Have you tried a different insurer? I pay £180 a year for a three bed new build, so your house is either incredibly expensive or your insurer is taking advantage of your loyalty

You could try a really high excess to get the cover cost down, Martin Lewis talks about that for car insurance.

As an ex claims manager I once the the "pleasure" ( it definitely wasn't) of telling someone who didn't notice his insurance had lapsed that he wasn't covered. He was ringing from outside of his house which had completely burnt down

with no mortgage you have every right to self insure...personally I'd have a very good look round using several comparison sites plus direct line (who aren't on them) plus trying the aa as a broker and nfu.

Absolutely not, never, ever. What if the house burns down or someone drives into the front? You will be liable for not only the full mortgage but also all of the repairs. Mortgage council tax, buildings insurance all essential. All the rest can wait.
It only needs a small electrical fault or mice chewing through something in the loft to set a fire. It happened to people I know.

Try Policy Expert theyre brilliant

Do you change provider every year? Like dad insurance it’s usually the most cost effective thing to do. Never a loyalty discount with these companies.

I have heard a look about peoples home insurance increasing this year, one friend over £2000, no claims, no changes. I wonder why the sudden increase.

Do you live in a castle/on a cliff/on a flood plain?

You’re literally nuts to even consider it. If you’re that skint with no mortgage perhaps you should downsize.

It might be some new criteria like likelihood of flooding, even if you have never flooded but OP probably hasn't shopped around properly

Give your head a wobble.
Shop around.
Your most valuable possession could catch fire, have a gas explosion or have something drive into it, suffer subsidence or flood.
If you think it's a struggle to find £100 odd quid a month, contemplate how you would rebuild your feckin house.

I would never go without it, no.

That said, unless you have a small ish house or a new build, I’d say that sounds right.

When we bought our house 3 years ago, £350 a year. It’s a 5 bedroom farmhouse, so admittedly parts of it are cob, but it’s otherwise been modernised, slate roof, nothing particularly weird about it other than we live in a slightly higher than average risk of surface water flooding. But we’ve never made a claim and previous owners of 40 years also never made a flooding related claim.

When we renewed this year, £1600 was the cheapest. Some were £2500+. That’s just buildings.

Still if my house burned down, I’d be totally f-ed. So we pay it.

Just shop around for a cheaper deal like everyone else. If you lower your cover on 1 or 2 features you can decrease the price. It’s not worth the risk of not insuring anything. A friend of mine’s house has literally just burned to the ground. It can happen to anyone.