OT: Landlords Home Insurance

[Pete Zahut]

My wife and I inherited my mam's house when she died, renovated it and now let it out. Because we are not professional property developers (this is the only property other than our own house that we'll ever have) nor professional business people, we decided to let it out through a management agency, namely Countrywide Residential Lettings.

It's been in their hands for three years now and we're generally happy with the service they provide but the Landlords Home Insurance is now up for renewal and I'm wondering if it's worth shopping around like we would with our car insurance, for instance.

The current policy is with Lets-Cover Home Insurance, arranged with Heath Lambert and underwritten by Axa Insurance UK plc.

The house is classed as part-furnished (we fitted carpets and curtains but no other furniture), the sums insured are (a) buildings - up to £500,000 (premium £278.20), (b) contents - £5432 (premium £45.05 and (c) legal expenses (premium £15), which, after adding IPT, gives a grand total of £355.16 annual premium.

I know that some people on this group are professional landlords and others may be like me in that they inherited a house and are just keeping it until we retire as a pension fund. What are your thoughts on the insurance?

TIA,

Pete

[meow2222]

=BD45.05 and (c) legal

I cant think of a reason to not shop around, can you?

NT

[meow2222]

=BD45.05 and (c) legal

I cant think of a reason to not shop around, can you?

NT

[Man at B&Q]

My thoughts? That you can't be arsed to do anything for yourself.

What does it take to pick up the 'phone, or get a few on-line quotes?

MBQ

[Pete Zahut]

Erm, no, but as I already said, we aren't professional property developers or professional business people and have no experience of this sort of thing. I was sort of hoping for advice along the lines of "give A a call" or "I've heard that B are good as well, but I'd stay away from X", when I asked the question.

[Pete Zahut]

It takes nothing at all and it is something that I'm quite prepared to do, but I don't know who is good to deal with or who are complete tossers and should be avoided. That's the info I'm looking for, some recommendations of companies who are worth calling and asking for quotes.

But thanks for your input and understanding.

[meow2222]

=BF=BD5432 (premium

You're talking about insurance companies, not mates or neighbours. Go help yourself.

[A.Lee]

If this is the same Company who have offices in Leicester and Coventry, then I have personal experience with them, and they are useless. I did some work for them, then refused some more, as one of the houses they were renting was worse than the local tip, there was no way I would work in it, I told them, and got told "well, it wasnt bad when I went round last week", funny that, the occupants must eat a lot of pizzas in a week, as there were 50+ boxes and remnants of pizza stacked outside the back door.

My mate also had the misfortune of renting a house out through them. He only wanted a tenant, no ongoing management etc. Unbeknown to him, once the 6 months was up, they wanted another fee, as the same tenant was in his house, and they had introduced him, so they were owed their 'tenant finding fee'. He was rather peeved at this, being as they really dragged their feet trying to rent it out, then wanted paying for doing nothing. Alan.

[Clive George]

That one really pissed me off from the other side.

When I was renting, what worked well for me was 6 months initial tenancy, then after 6 months it was one or two month's notice either side.

I only met one agency who didn't do that - they said at 4 months that the tenancy was up, here's your two months notice, get out or sign up for another 6 months. In effect reducing it to a series of 6 month fixed term tenancies.

Now I'm older and wiser, I'd have none of that. I'd probably call their bluff - they completely failed to get a tenant for the house after we left for other reasons but still paying rent. They then failed after our 6 months were up...

(Sorry, completely unrelated to the OP - just thought I'd take the opportunity to have a rant :-) )

[Bob Minchin]

I got a good quote and a good response from Direct line for business. Very good to deal with on the phone and they don't treat you like a moronic dungbeetle like the consumer wing of direct line do.

Simply business were equally good to deal with but DL were cheaper.

Not had to claim yet though!!

HTH

Bob

[Lobster]

Well - either the new fee was have been in the T&Cs he signed up to at the outset, but never read (so, tough); or it wasn't in the T&Cs, in which case he had absolutely no need to pay them!

David

[auctions]

Couple of thoughts:

Carpets and curtains don't make it part furnished. Carpets are definitely covered under most buildings cover, not sure about curtains, but unless they are really valuable, you shouldn't be paying for contents cover. Most landlords policies allow you to add a small amount of contents for a nominal fee, so if you do want contents, work out exactly what you need.

Buildings cover - the premium sounds fairly reasonable if the rebuilding cost is actually =A3500,000. If it's less you could be paying well over the odds. Very roughly my renewal before any discounts for multiple properties, was =A31 per thousand pounds rebuilding cost. My rebuilding costs vary from 100,000 (2 bed terrace) - 250,000 (6 bed end terrace).

We currently use HFIS ( [e-mail]). Before that we were with Alan Boswell.

Hope that helps

Andrew

[Nige Danton]

Presumably written in the contract though?

-- Nige Danton

[Man at B&Q]

So, instead of 5 paragraphs of waffle, just ask for recommendations for good brokers and then you can go and do your own homework.

Do you really think anyone can comment on what you are already paying without at least knowing the postcode, which is what premiums are based on to a large part.

FWIW, I would say your buildings insurance is way OTT. You have insured for the rebuilding cost and not the "market" value, haven't you? If the rebuild cost really is =A3500,000 (that's some house!) then your contents (even part furnished) must be tat!

MBQ

[Pete Zahut]

Thanks very much for that Bob - that's exactly the sort of useful reply I was looking for. Cheers.

[Pete Zahut]

Not quite sure why my posting upset you so much because all I'm doing is asking for advice. There must be good insurance companies and bad insurance companies, just as there are good and bad brands of SDS drills or mitre saws, but questions about which SDS drill (or any other tool) should I buy, come up on a regular basis and get polite replies.

Maybe it's because my query was off-topic for the group - but then again, I clearly marked it as OT and you didn't have to look or even take the time to write such an (un)helpful reply.

Ah well, keep taking the tablets and calm down dear, it's just a question.

[Pete Zahut]

Over the years I've been using Usenet newsgroups it's been my experience that when anyone just gives the bare minimum, someone else always asks for more information, so I was just covering all bases and I humbly apologise if you consider it to be waffle. Bet you're great to talk to in the pub if you only want bare facts and don't do preamble or smalltalk.

Obviously didn't cover as many bases as I thought (PR1, mid-terraced, built in 1874 and currently worth approx 80 to 85k), but then again, I didn't so much ask for comments on what I'm already paying - I'm more interested in finding out which companies real people with personal experience would recommend. For all I know, I may already be using the best insurance company - or I may not.

Which may indicate that we're possibly being guided down a path that's inappropriate for us and justifies me asking the question in the first place.

You have

Yes we have. It's a mid-terraced house so, worst-case scenario after whatever disaster may strike it is controlled demolition of the shell whilst protecting the houses at either side, then rebuild of ours. We have no idea what all that would cost so when they suggested that figure we went along with it.

[Pete Zahut]

That's what we thought as well, but when we contacted Countrywide Residential Lettings to say that we had an unfurnished property that we wanted them to handle for us, they came round and said that they class it as part-furnished and they actually advertised it as such in the newspaper.

Carpets are

Ah, right. Very interesting.

Mid-terraced, 2-bed, built in 1874 and currently worth approx 80 to 85k. No idea how much rebuilding costs would be but I believe that you have to take into account the costs involved with the houses at either side, ie, safe demolition of our shell, shoring up and making good either side etc.

Very roughly my renewal before any discounts for

Thanks Andrew, very informative and just the sort of helpful reply I was hoping to get.

Pete

[Theo Markettos]

Would it be worth giving a local builder 50 quid to give you a ballpark estimate of how much it'd cost to rebuild? Just the number of hundred thousand will do. Maybe add a bit for contingency (as you'd probably have to do it in a hurricane/snowstorm/nuclear winter/etc)

It's a common feature of insurance companies to over-cover you. For example, travel insurance with 20 million cover. If they have to repatriate you from Antarctica it'll only be in the high hundreds of thousands, so the

20 million is all about allowing the insurance co to charge you a higher premium.

Theo

[Clive George]

The 20 million isn't about repatriation costs, it's public liability. Rather different.