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Original poster

watching the floods story on the news - 1 IN 4 households dont have house insurance

197 replies

nailpolish · 06/07/2007 10:46

and they are calling on the government to help them out

if the government are willing ot help people out who dont have insurance, ie give them money i presume, then, er, why do i have insurance???

OP posts:

JARM · 06/07/2007 10:57

I dont have contents insurance, i know i should but i dont. I didnt have anything worth anything when we first moved here.

Will be getting it when we move though, there's too much stuff in the house now to lose.

TootyFrooty · 06/07/2007 10:57

I'm amazed at the number of people who don't have insurance. Surely it's all about priorities? Pay your mortgage/rent, electricity/gas, council tax and insurnace before you do anything else. To do otherwise is just stupid.

Original poster

nailpolish · 06/07/2007 10:57

but noodle - surely its tough shit! if people dont have insurance then they need to sort out their own mess. they CHOSE not to have insurance

sort ofr beng so blunt

OP posts:

tiredemma · 06/07/2007 10:58

Insurance should be up there with other important outgoings such as council tax etc.

expatinscotland · 06/07/2007 10:58

I insure my contents to the max even if it means eating chilli beans and drinking water.

Honestly, if you are a council tenant, they do offer it through a contractor at a REALLY low rate.

gemmiegoatlegs · 06/07/2007 10:58

i agree that being bailed out by a government handout isn't going to make these people take up home insurance in case it happens again, is it?

It's like saying the rules are different for some.

My sister was burgled a few christmases ago. All of their really expensive gear was taken. they didn't have any insurance and had to start from scratch. She now is fully insured.

If someone had given her, say 15 grand to buy new stuff, would she have learned from her mistake and bought insurance? i don't think so...

Enid · 06/07/2007 10:59

yes I did feel judgy when one woman on the news was showing round her house and she had a brand new mahoosive flat screen telly

Peachy · 06/07/2007 10:59

We didn't for a while (do now) simply because we genuinely couldn't afford it- Dh ahd lost his job, I was on amternity leave (4 weeks before abby due so could hardly, as DSS office suggested, return to work early LOL)

Just paying the rent (have you seen how long it takes to process those forms Long enough to be evicted) and everything whilst we waited for the benefits to be sorted took every penny plus some we had to borro. The insurance money simply wasn't in the account- so was cancelled

First thing I sorted as soon as we could, though.

there was a faaily (Mum, dad, 5 kids)where we used to live, lost everything in a fire inclusing dad and the youngest girl . they ahd no insurance (council estate, breadline family) and many residents refused to give to the collection as it was dad's fault he didn't have insurance

All well and good, but Dad was dead and the family were homeless and destitute. Blame the ap[rents all you like, its the kids that suffer

ptangyangkipperbang · 06/07/2007 11:00

My dh observed that a lot of the people saying they had no insurance had a plasma screen tv on their pile of ruined stuff in the garden. We choose to have a smaller tv but good insurance.

MrMaloryTowers · 06/07/2007 11:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Aitch · 06/07/2007 11:01

lol that is true, when we went uninsured we were also confident that we had nothing of any value WHATSOEVER.

NoodleStroodle · 06/07/2007 11:01

So nailpolish what about the elderly on state pension who already can't afford to pay council tax?

RTKangaMummy · 06/07/2007 11:01

Also if the gov give these people free handouts WE will be paying for it through taxes etc.

So we are paying for them NOT to have insurance

In rented accomdation you should still have contents and the owner/landlord has it for the buildings.....isn't it?

Original poster

nailpolish · 06/07/2007 11:02

noodle that i sanother and completely different argument im afraid

OP posts:

Peachy · 06/07/2007 11:02

Also knew a nother family as someone said whose insurance was refused due to a rpevious flodd, they also lost everything they had, including the fact that Dad and Mum worked from home (craty types)

ptangyangkipperbang · 06/07/2007 11:03

Think some of those uninsured had the 'it won't ever happen to me attitude' but I also think some of the problem could be ignorance. In the same way as some people don't know how to open a bank account some don't understand insurance. Perhaps it should me made compulsory.

expatinscotland · 06/07/2007 11:03

It's cheap if you're a poor council tenant.

It really is! And they give you the info when you go in to sign your tenancy agreement.

We still kept it up even when two of us were living on DH working 48 hours/week on min. wage and NO benefits.

Because it was £4/month.

And yes, we were eating a lot of baked beans and jacket potatoes back then.

Speccy · 06/07/2007 11:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

NoodleStroodle · 06/07/2007 11:04

What?

There are people out there who just cannot afford insurance. They can hardly keep going day to day.

Old person house flooded and the state should not help them? Excellent - then they can get ill and join the NHS waiting lists! Or perhaps they should get a job?

expatinscotland · 06/07/2007 11:05

If you are on a state pension and are that poor, you will probably qualify for council tax benefit.

That's still no excuse because the council offers contents insurance to low income folks through a sub-contractor and it is CHEAP.

We also had £10,000 of contents insurance when we moved here from Bank of Scotland and it was only £8/month, dearer than the council subcontractor.

foxinsocks · 06/07/2007 11:05

a lot of people in these areas really cannot get insurance or the insurance companies make the insurance prohibitively high

if you bought your house 20 or so years ago when flooding wasn't a huge problem - you have insurance to start with.

House floods, premiums go up.
House floods again, insurance co. tells you they won't insure you anymore or they really hike up the premiums. You can't sell the house because no-one wants a house that floods all the time. Some people do, genuinely, get really stuck.

But there are lots who don't bother too.

RTKangaMummy · 06/07/2007 11:05

But it depends if they want to buy a plasma tv or pay for insurance

expatinscotland · 06/07/2007 11:07

Exactly, RT.

It really does.

throckenholt · 06/07/2007 11:08

surely they (the authorities) can do things to help - eg vetting reputable builders so they don't get fleeced by cowboys.

Provide skips to take away all the rubbish. Even arrange bulk buys of carpets, skirting board etc.
Even arrange bulk discounts for fridges, kitchens stuff etc.

Ie use the ecconomies of scale to help reduce the costs to people - without actually giving them money.

If you don't like what the authorities have arrange - fine sort yourself out - but if you have nothing else then that would be a good start.

Original poster

nailpolish · 06/07/2007 11:09

i was talking about house insurance initially, not contents. is it true even this isnt compulsory?

who is responsible then for clearing up the mess? you can just walk away and leave it?

OP posts:

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