Buildings & contents insurance - who would you recommend / avoid?

[aufaniae]

We need both for our new house.

I'd be really pleased to hear any recommendations and companies to avoid.

TIA :)

Avoid sainsburys (underwritten by Halifax). They seem to be the only one that charges you an extra £250 on top of your excess if it's an escape of water claim - we'd missed that in the small print, to our cost. Now we've had a claim we're stuck with them as everyone else wants to charge a fortune

Anyone used Directline? A friend recommended but I don't think he's had to claim before..

Privilege is part of direct line and they did the claim handling. I was very impressed with how helpful they were and how easy the claim process was.