to think £1700 for house insurance is ridiculous

[ChocFrogKnife]

3 bed thatched property with a wood burner but, even so, £1700 is outrageous and that’s the lowest we can find

I might have to get rid of my DP, he’s too expensive to run.

Out of interest, do you know how much it would be without the wood burner? I would be tempted to replace it with a gas fire.

I’ve never asked as my DP won’t give up his beloved woodburner. There’s no mains gas where we are anyway

Flood risk due to climate change has caught out insurance companies and cost them a fortune. I was involved in flood risk mapping as part of my job at one point for the EPA in Ireland. We worked on mapping 1 in 100 year flood events. That is the worst flooding that could happen in a hundred years. We had a 1 in 100 year events happen 4 times in most areas while I was involved for 12 years. Some areas 6 times. We now do 1 in 200 year flooding event. Some areas that has already happened twice in 4 years.
Insurance companies just can't get a handle on the risk and are withdrawing from covering it.

Thatched and a wood burner. Strikes me as cheap.

I pay £1500 for a bog standard 3 bed semi following a claim last year

Insurance costs have gone up a lot in the past few years!

Well it depends really

Yes it's expensive but depending on the property details and the policyholder sometimes they cost that much

We have never claimed for anything either

Lucky you.

Our Thatch insurance was £4500 this year. They offered to reduce it if we remove the log burner.

Oh and people with thatches do worry about the house burning down.

Last night during the several hours of lightening, I planned how to get passports, car keys, dogs and children (in that order obvs) out of the house if the thatch caught a lightening strike 🤣

I rather think the poster you quoted was being sarcastic.......I.may be wrong of course......

Insuring a thatched property in the UK requires specialist non-standard home insurance, as standard policies typically exclude or severely restrict cover. Because thatch is highly combustible, policies are strictly underwritten and average around ($989) annually—more than four times the cost of standard home insurance. 1, 2, 3]

According to Google AI

I thought the poster was being sarcastic too!

But it’s so pretty! I’m too cheap and scared for a thatched cottage but I’m so grateful to thatched cottage owners for their upkeep, there isn’t a more beautiful sight than a thatched cottage in the English countryside!

Yes our house is stunning. I live in an area with a LOT of thatches and they are all very atreactive.

Thatch and a log burner? Of course the insurance is high. Look at the risk! Look at the rebuilding costs! Very high when compared to a standard construction. I didn’t even think it was that high!

Do you go through a broker? I would ask them if there is anything you can do to get the premium down.

Check that the rebuild value is what it would realistically cost.

Consider increasing the excess.

There may be some reductions to be had if you have work done to improve fire safety (a good thing but obv at additional cost to you). Might be worth the investment for your peace of mind.

If you’re not using a broker, make sure you are using a specialist insurer. NFU mutual I know do specialist policies. A more general insurer may quote high if they can’t assess the risk so accurately.

Bloody hell that's a lot. Mine was £124 this year, 3 bed semi. I'm near Bradford.
Take it you've done all the comparisons. I get mine via Quidco these days

Ah I've just clicked, your house must be a lot more expensive than mine. Apologies for being thick.

That's cheap.

I work for a high net worth insurer. We avoid thatch like the plague, for good reason. But we'll do it for the right client, and charge accordingly.

You have a highly flammable material sat on top of your house. You have a fire in your house.

Your rebuild costs will be substantially higher than a house without a thatched roof.

The fact that you're looking at this purely from a premium/ cost saving POV, and you haven't mentioned any fire prevention steps you've taken (do you have fire extinguishers on every floor? A monitored fire alarm?) also suggests you don't have a particularly cautious attitude.

We wouldn't cover you at all.

For any standard property is tiles slate roof made from brick or stone in past 60 years will cost less to rebuild that in its market value. However once you get period property. Unusual construction non standard materials cob, thatch, wooden shingles etc the cost goes up as it does if a flood risk near trees higher than the house etc. In fact with our Victorian house in a relatively inexpensive area of UK rebuild cost is 6 times the value. Any deviation from bog standard is expensive and requires specialist brokers Tesco etc don't cover non standard

If you do want to speak to a broker, I would recommend Howden.

Ours is £2300. Old farmhouse, not thatched, nothing particularly funny about it other than it’s old and big.

And guess what? We had storm damage a few months ago. The chimney collapsed and nearly took part of the house with it. They came out, looked inside the wall and decided they didn’t like how it was built because of the materials used. Something you never would have seen until the wall fell down, not something you’d pick up on a survey. And rejected the claim. Apparently, it happens “all the time” according to the assessor. 🙄

So now we pay £2300 a year and this year we’re paying £60k to rebuild the house too.

Our buildings insurance is £2.8k a year for a thatched house with a voluntary £1k excess. We have smoke alarms on all floors, the chimneys swept twice a year and full electrical inspections every 5 years.

The thing about thatch is that once it's alight, it might stay alight as the whole roof is fuel for the fire. Also, as it's meant to repel water (because it's a roof!) fire crews can spray water all they like, it won't necessarily put out the fire. A fireman told me this and said they do it anyway otherwise bystanders and householders think they're not trying.

We had one side of our house rethatched a few years ago and it was £55k although that will last for 30 years. The other side will be another £40k but is in a better condition so we're leaving it for now.

On the rebuild costs, be careful and be wary of getting an updated rebuild estimate: one surveyor quoted us based on a back of a fag packet calculation and as it was high we entered specialist insurance territory and the premium were we quoted was £5k a year. So we stuck with the original rebuild valuation - which seemed reasonable - and quote from our existing insurer and gratefully paid £2.8k.

I'll never buy a thatched house again!