insurance

[ptcottage]

Hi all,

Forgive if this has been covered a million times, but I couldn't find the answer I need searching past threads.

I posted earlier about chancel repairs - good news, all clear (as mud, but that's about as best as anyone can get! If anyone wants to know more about the chancel nightmare, I'm happy to share info.)

Anyway, we're now well on our way to owning the cottage, but we've not resolved what to do about building and contents insurance. First, the insurance companies that specialise in listed buildings seem to have an excessively high minimum contents valuation (50k). The cottage is tiny, and we're not going to be filling it with valuable antiques to that level!

Next, how to determine rebuild costs? I've not yet found an online calculator that takes old buildings or non-standard building materials into account. This is a flint-faced 18th century cottage, not a huge number of original features apart from doors, leaded windows, one beam in the LR and many old beams in the loft, tile roof. The flint wall surrounding the property is also listed. It's a tiny two-bed semi-d, worth 240k.

Any advice on where to go for reasonable quotations for our needs so we're not wildly overinsured?

Many thanks!

 

[Pford75]

Suggest you try this thread

http://periodpropertyshop.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7516

I would advise you to go through a specialist broker and get the insurers to determine the buildings cover (at their risk)

 

[Moo]

Yes - definitely study the thread. Although it's a bit frightening to learn how many pitfalls there are, it gives lots of advice as to how they may be avoided.
I, for one, am going to give our own buildings insurance an extremely careful going-over this weekend!

 

[ptcottage]

Thank you for this, but part of the issue too is that companies I've found that insure for listed buildings insist on a huge minimum for contents (45-50k), when all we really need is about 15k contents. Obviously don't want to underinsure for buildings, but don't want to overinsure contents. Why do they all presume that because the building is listed that you're going to fill it with fine antiques? I like my chic rather shabby!

Any suggestions on providers?

Many thanks!

 

[Pford75]

If you go to a specialist broker, he will obtain whatever level of cover you require. We had a similar issue where the insurer products available would insist that contents was a proportion of buildings cover (ie. far more than we needed).

We used Aon as a broker and they insured us with Brit insurance for the contents we required.

 

[Flyfisher]

Thank you for this, but part of the issue too is that companies I've found that insure for listed buildings insist on a huge minimum for contents (45-50k), when all we really need is about 15k contents.

Imagine having to re-purchase every single item in your home and you might be surprised how quickly the costs add up. Even 100 CDs/DVDs/Books are going to add up to around £1000 and your PC is going to cost at least £500 to replace, so that's 10% of your cover right there.

It might be worth a quick walk around every room in your house and jotting down the contents with a 'guesstimated' cost for replacing each item. Don't forget to include carpets and curtains. You might be surprised.

 

[MdB]

It might be worth a quick walk around every room in your house and jotting down the contents with a 'guesstimated' cost for replacing each item. Don't forget to include carpets and curtains. You might be surprised.

Go around with your digital camera at the same time and take photos of everything as well. Put the results on a couple of CDs and give them to relatives to look after.

 

[ptcottage]

Many thanks for the useful info.

 

[lordmulberry]

I successfully switched my buildings insurance from Nationwide to Greenbee (John Lewis) and saved hundreds of pounds. I even rang them up to state that we had a listed building circa 1720 to enquire whether that mad a difference. The answer was that if the question was not asked then it made no difference. M&S insurance also has a similar policy for listed buildings but were a tad more expensive.

 

[Spike]

You don't need to have your contents and buildings insured by the same company. Shop around.