Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Home insurance for the Ladder - what's going on?
We're just coming up to our home insurance renewal. For the last couple of years, I managed to cut the cost to a fraction of what it was some years back, using only companies highly rated by Which? magazine.
Our renewal invitation is still at a price lower than we paid three or four years ago, but nonetheless the new price level is a 71% jump from last year. Since there's been no change in our circumstances, I rang the company to check that there had not been a mistake. I was told not. The very pleasant representative told me that there had been a change in rating criteria which may have affected our policy. She then tried to run my details as a new quote and the result came back that had our application been submitted as new business, it would have been declined.
Digging deeper, I asked if she could say what the reason for that is. She then told me that it was showing as declined 'due to area'. Apparently at least one postcode on the Ladder has become too high a risk for some insurers. My Insurer is RIAS. Yesterday, I checked a few other companies I've insured with in the past including LV (Liverpool & Victoria). They too were a no quote. So something has happened with our mid-Ladder postcode that is showing it as higher-risk. It's not universal - plenty of other insurers were prepared to quote. That suggests it's a borderline issue that has arisen in the last year. The 'wisdom of the web' doesn't give any readily available clues as to what's going on.
The RIAS representative did explain that the decline-to-quote didn't necessarily relate to anything negative about the area such as burglary: it might mean that there has been an increase in claims or, for example in wealthy areas that the claims levels are very high.
Speaking with Ian Sygrave at the LCSP, he told me that there's been no change in burglary rates over the past year and that in fact the mid-term trend is downward. There has however been an increase in people reporting ASB - not necessarily a real-world increase, but an increase in reporting, as people have been encouraged to do. Most of it tends to be street-related, rather than home-related, but it's been at a level sufficient to register on police systems - more on that at the next LCSP meeting.
This leaves me wondering if, whilst most insurers don't rate based on ASB reporting, RIAS and LV, on the other hand, choose to sweep it in with burglary rates, leading to them declining insurance. Does anyone understand anything about home insurance risk rating, particularly as it applies to area / postcode? Has anyone else had an experience similar to ours this year?
In the meantime, we've stayed with RIAS, because it's a good insurance company and apart from a new company called Frontier, it was the lowest price available.
Tags for Forum Posts: buildings insurance, contents insurance, home insurance
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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I think there is an issue with building insurance in the area because of subsidence risk Hugh. As far as contents go we may be victims of our own success at being more vigilant in reporting crime, especially street crime like drug dealing.
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My street WhatsApp group is persistent in reporting crime, specially low level crime and anti social behaviour that we may have ignored before. I doubt that we are the only ones.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Thanks. What about the situation with subsidence? As far as you're aware has that changed in the past year or so?
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As people have bought and worked on properties needing refurbishment they have probably uncovered subsidence issues that are years old. Add the hot dry summers, the ground the Ladder sits on and it’s pretty inevitable that subsidence is more of an issue.
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Here's a response via our street WA group (posted with author's permission).
I work in the insurance industry, rates are primarily linked with claims in the first instance, then the risks i.e. theft, land slip flood etc. it's probably a combination of the house prices now being high and the number of claims. My insurers told me that our road was a very high risk of subsidence which is why we got declined a couple of years ago.
Very helpful, but it still leaves me wondering what's changed over the past year?
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Permalink Reply by Gordon T on
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The 'NW3' weather station [sited near Gospel Oak station, reasonably close to us] posted this in its 2022 annual summary:
1. Record high temperatures in July - peaking at 39.1C, more than 2C above the prior record
2. Jan-Jul very dry with about 50% of the average, vs rather wet remainder of the year with every month wetter than average
3. Year overall was 1.1C above the 30-year average and the warmest recorded at nw3weather so far
4. As of Aug 10 we had the driest trailing 365 day period recorded with just 394 mm. Then in Nov, the wettest 31 days with 170 mmSo hot/dry/wet cycling, not good for a clay subsoil area. Insurance companies will not be unaware I'd guess...
Site : http://nw3weather.co.uk/repyear.php ;
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Permalink Reply by Maddy on
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Something similar is happening to car insurance - remewal quotes up 40% and some companies won't quote. I think the increase in and extra reporting of ASB may be partly implicated.
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Car insurance - timely Independent article today, with input from Martin Lewis:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/martin-lewis-money-...
Insurance industry claims (!) that claims are more expensive due to shortage of parts, complexity of newer cars etc.
They also make a virtue of the reforms of last year so that existing customers pay no more than new customers at renewal. Last year my car insurance cost 40% of the previous year. This year it's payback time...
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L&V wanted to double my insurance to nearly £1000 this month (house Lausanne Road). I found cheaper insurance w Sainsbury.
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Hi Charlotte, do tell me to mind my own business, but do you feel comfortable saying if that is both buildings and contents and is that for a regular style insurance with fairly standard rebuilding costs and contents insured amounts, or are there upgrades and extras included?
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Permalink Reply by Matt on
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We live on Vale Road, and a few years ago I was refused a renewal with Post Office Insurance (who we'd been using for three or four years with no claims made). Took some digging but was eventually told we were in a flood risk area, seemingly due to proximity to the New River.
I think with this, and the subsidence mentioned, it's a case of a blanket algorithm rather than actual human thought going into the process, and blacklisting vast swathes of housing. The only outcome seems to be to shop around until you find an insurer that is being sensible (for now!).
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