How much is your buildings insurance?

[EATmum]

I've just had my renewal for our buildings insurance through, and for a 3/4 bed house they are charging us £1019 per annum. That seems incredibly high to me, and I am going to call them later. I had noticed that my direct debits had seemed higher recently, but I'm suspicious that this has crept up without me paying attention in recent years.
Please do share if you are happy to do so. Thanks.

Under £400 for contents as well. Check mse martin for tips on changing insurance. Suspect you will save quite a bit.

It's hard to compare as it will depend on rebuild costs, location risks & claims but it does sound a lot to me.
We just got a renewal quote for our buildings policy and it's about £200 on a large 5 bed Victorian semi.

Large 3 bed semi. Buildings and content combined. Includes accidental damage too but we don't have any massively valuable single items which bump up the costs. About 180 I think, something like 16 a month. Go on the comparison sites.

25 a month. Buildings and contents. Includes accidental damage and travel insurance.

Less than £20 pm. 3 bed semi.

3 bed detached buildings and contents £432, and we only have 2 years no claims on the buildings as we had a massive claim (around £40,000) for storm damage in January 2012.

OP, we live in a 4 bedroom detached and our bill is about the same. We've not shopped around and assumed that was the going rate.

OK, definitely time for a review then. Thanks everyone for sharing. Makes me mad the way these things just creep up when you don't pay attention!

mine is just over £300 - 4 bed detached in Scotland with accidental damage (for both buildings and contents)

Have a look on www.moneysavingexpert.com on their insurance section and do a comparison. I change or "barter" the premium each year after comparing. Eight years ago were paying near to £1000 (4 bed terraced in London) and now pay between £5-600 for good comprehensive cover including accidental damage etc. That's for buildings and contents combined by the way as you'll save more doing it that way.

OK, I am astounded. I have just done the Compare the Market thing, and the cheapest quote is for £138 for comparable cover. That's 13% of the renewal price (with my 35% discount for no claims ha ha ha) with Lloyds. And Lloyds is even in the listing from Compare the Market, offering cover for just over £300.
I feel a furious phone call coming on.

And Lloyds is even in the listing from Compare the Market

This happened to me with car insurance - £1000 for dual car policy renewal with Admiral. This was up by nearly £200 from previous year.

I put the cars into a comparison site separately and Admiral came up the cheapest both times - £330ish each car, exactly the same cover. WTF.

I did the comparison thing for the mother-in-law, who lives in a simple, well-maintained 3 bed bungalow in a low-crime area.

quotes were from £90 to £1000. She splashed out a bit to reduce the excess and is paying £95 from MoreThan, down from £180 from sainsburys.

check the detail and make sure you have everything correct; but plenty of allegedly respectable names will charge you a bomb.

ps change every year; loyalty is for suckers.

I agree - loyalty is for suckers. But it shouldn't be! I fail to see how this isn't fraudulent. Are there ANY companies who play a straight game with their customers? Or should we just expect to be conned these days?

it may not be a con, but it is certainly a massive waste of time, probably caused by an overcrowded market.

at least there are comparison sites, although there are companies not on them so it still takes a few hours to sort insurance.

Well it's not fraudulent. They will have sent you a renewal notice every year so you could see how the cost is creeping up. Anyone who stays with the same insurance company year on year will be paying over the odds. Companies offer big discounts to new customers in the hope that they will stay with them more than one year and then the premiums will increase.

I do appreciate that this is my own stupid fault. I naively haven't checked each year that I'm getting offered a good deal, and assumed I'd be paying a few quid over the odds. But the difference is astronomical, and my conversation with their customer services guy (who was very patient and nice, and clearly has lots of calls like this) got me absolutely nowhere. He couldn't explain why my renewal was £700 (3x) more than his company was offering me as a new customer.
I am no longer a Lloyds customer. Obviously.

Following on from this, my renewal is due soon, went on line to pay and had to tick a box about 'assumptions' one of which was regarding running a business from home. As DH has just retired from his full time job and will be doing some part time consultancy work thought I should advise Aviva of this. "That will be an extra £20 then" the only thing done at home will be a small amount of paperwork, no clients visiting or anything else. I was then told I needed to inform them anyway that DH was retired as being at home more meant "more likely to spill coffee on the carpet" ; nothing about house being occupied more therefore less chance of break-in etc. And do people really claim for spilling coffee on the carpet?

Have now renewed with Saga, better cover at over £100 less.

And my car insurance, also with Aviva, is due in a couple of weeks looks like I can save nearly the same on that.

Lesson learnt.

Ours is about 500 odd for both contents and insurance, again 3 bed house.

£280pa building insurace for 3 bed mid-terrace Edwardian in SE London (total 540 for buildings and contents)

It certainly leaves a sour taste in the mouth. I'm so cross that I've been paying so much over the odds until now, simply because I didn't check whether they were fleecing me or not. Lesson learned.

£180 for 3 bed detached including contents in Herts. We are with Policy Expert and was guaranteed for 2 years. Renewal after 2nd year was cheap as well.

Renew via Quidco (or similar) & it won't just be cheaper, you'll get cashback on top

The people who really get stung by this are the elderly, who innocently assume that loyalty will be rewarded, & often don't have the internet to compare

500
3bed terrace
accident, content, legal included

paid in one go as they charge 10% for monthly payments.