We are getting a mortgage with Halifax and one of their stipulations is that the excess cannot be more than £250. 
There is a long list of things it has to cover. I phoned up the company with the cheapest quote and it covered them all. Brilliant. Problem is the excess for escape of water is set at £350 by their underwriters (Legal and General) and it can't be changed.
Now we used a broker and they said can they get someone to phone up for a quote and we said yes. It was Legal and General and their quote was 3x the quote I had so I said no thanks. Was going through the paper quote they sent and the excess is £250.
Found some more quotes online but the cheapest with a £250 excess is £40 more than my cheapest quote (and the cheapest is the best quote because you get free legals and free something else you usually need to pay more for). I don't know if they cover all of the other things that Halifax have said needs to be covered though. Being bank holiday I haven't been able to phone and check and this has to be taken out before we exchange and we are going in tomorrow at 5pm to sign. I know I have time to quickly take out a policy but I need to find out firstly if they will accept my first quote with the £350 escape of water excess, of not then I need to phone the other company to see if they cover all the things that Halifax have stipulated.
This is driving me mad! What bloody difference does it make to the mortgage company what the excesses are?