British Expatriate Network

Mine is up for renewal next month and I've had the same policy/same insurer for the last six years.

However, during a review of my budget and areas that could be 'pruned', I noticed that my property appears to be over-insured. The amount to replace the building was more than the house plus land is worth. I believe that my ex set up the policy from the beginning and made an error with that figure.

Anyway, I got a quote from a national company (currently I insure with a state company) that suggested I was paying 2-3 times more than I should be!

When I went back to my agent and asked them if they wanted to compete with the quote, I got a snotty reply back that it was the best premium they could offer and to let them know if I decided to cancel. This is without bothering to re-evaluate my coverage, consider if my property was over-insured or anything else. I think when I've sorted this out with my new company, I will write back to the agent and cc the owner of the company, suggesting they might not want to make a habit of being quite that lazy. I guess they had not noticed that I pulled the auto insurance from them about three years ago for similar reasons.

Ironically, the new insurance company were insuring for the same amount, which again I consider to be too high but they seemed to think that was as low as it could go. I don't understand why when I could go out today and buy my own property for a few thousand less than that, which would include cost of structure, land and appreciation from people wanting to live there. They did suggest I talk to my local agent and see if they could reduce that amount.

Also, I noticed that you have to get coverage for accidents in your home - family liability or guest medical protection and I wondered about that.

First of all, any of my friends or visitors would be from UK or other foreign country and would have their own insurance. Should we as homeowners have everyone else sign a waiver form to come into our homes? wink

Our last house we had was over insured for years as they had it down as a 2 story house when in fact it was a split entry and should have been classed as a one story with finished basement.
They did lower the payments once it was reclassified.

This house on the other hand was under insured for the first year.

The coverage is usually for replacement costs not for what you could go down the street and buy one for or even what you could sell yours for.
The cost of building materials has gone up tremendously in the past few years and it would cost considerably more to rebuild a house than it's current value.
You should also be covered for replacement cost of the stuff inside your house.

As for the accident coverage of guests. It covers things like the mailman getting attacked by your cat, someone slipping on your path, tripping on a step, everyone from delivery people to a total stranger. No waiver can be signed if they have to get to the door before you can present it to them.

I don't remember the exact terminology, but the amount of the insurance is less important than a "full replacement" clause. It often costs more than the value of the house and lot to re-build.
You may have noticed that new houses built next to older houses, with the same rooms etc., cost way more.

Thanks for your replies and the information.

I get it now that the local building rates can vary and figuring a reasonable figure for my property and area comes up with same dollar amount for replacement value so I'll stop complaining about that.

However, I still wonder why my current premium is 2/3 more than a quote from a competitor and that will be changing tomorrow.

Contents insurance is a good idea but I have very little of actual value in my house and the major appliances are apparently covered by the main insurance. The only things of real value I suppose are the bedroom furniture, lawnmower and the (much depreciated) computer. The console is warrantied separately by the manufacturer and the rest of my stuff is easily replaced. I'd be surprised if it all added up to $30,000 to replace it new, yet I am insured to $130,000 through some formulate based upon the house's valuation.

Do they do contents insurance options for minimalists?

They probably add more 'options' and charge an inflated profit margin on top. Surely, it could be less if you or I owned the plot of land next door and then built a house ourselves on it?

Bah!

I love how the quoted premiums can magically rise, once they look at your credit report.

The thing is, I score pretty reasonably, have paid off several loans since I have lived and worked here and have a good history/low balance to limit ratio. There is one negative that will stay on there a few more years but it was a 'more than 30 days late' on a mortgage that was paid off a few years ago, so can't be that bad surely, especially as my score is in the 700's.

All a big scam - Fair Isaac is a misnomer IMO......

From what I understand of the contents insurance is that it goes by the size of your home not matter what you have in it. So if you had a plasma TV in every room the insurance stays the same unless you inform the insurance company. Even then, they may not change the amout of insurance you have.

Also, insurance for people who have accidents - my mother fell down our basement stairs and even though her holiday insurnce covered all her medical bills it didn't cover loss of enjoyment of her vacation. It happened the second day they arrived and they were here for 3 weeks! She couldn't go home because the accident happened here and she was under the care of a doctor here. And the medication they put her on, she could hardly get her head off the sofa for the first week! Our home insurance policy, not only paid for out of pocket expenses (there is generally a certain amount you still have to pay yourself before your holiday insurance kicks in but they weren't interested in her actually having her own insurance anyway) and for loss of enjoyment of vacation and any time off work that may be required when she gets back. There was no quibble and they worked off the average that a person gets with such an injury (she broke her wrist). She was given her check straight away and they asked if she would prefer to go through a lawyer.

to cut a long story short - don't try and get rid of the personal injury on an insurance policy. There is always a chance that you will need it benefit from it and you had the same thing on your home insurance policy in the UK too )

Thanks Ben. It is interesting to hear the examples and 'real-life' situations where this type of coverage was useful. Did it affect your premiums later? I am supposing that you didn't get a discount the following years for not making a claim?

I don't think I had much choice in getting rid of the coverage for accidents to visitors but I did cut it back somewhat, reducing the limits which seemed overly high.

Depending on who you insure with, if you make another claim on that policy within a five year period, they may decide that is "unacceptable frequency" and not renew. Sort of like punishing the insured for actually having to use it.

Home insurance is one of those things that is a bit confusing regarding value of the home , the insurance co always value it more then appraised value as rebuilding mostly would cost more .

Appraisal is based on comparision to similar homes in the area plus and minus $ being allowed for on a mumber of things including size of home , #of roooms , condition ,improvements , selling price of recent comparables ,etc , rebuilding has to do with the cost of materials , permits ,labour etc and as with a car for instance it cost more to replace indivudual parts than then the whole would cost .

Depending on where you live for most of us Home Ins. is very cheap. I have full coverage plus full replacement cost on houshold items ( clothing etc). It costs extra but from experiencing a break in I can vouch for its worth. I actually ended up with better sound equipment.

I paid $108 for this years premium.

Re Ben's comment on basement stairs falling down.
North American basement stairs,because they usually have no landing, are killers for UK people coming over here.David Niven's wife was killed in Hollywood by falling down the basement stairs in her new/used house, while playing a party game.

That was one of the things we checked before we made the claim. we didn't want to be penalized forever for one claim. we were reasured that it would not have any bearing on our premiums for just one claim and they were right. Our insurance company doesn't give discounts for non-claiming but our premiums didn't go up either.

Johnr, thanks for the heads up but in my mum's case it was because she didn't know the house (it was her first time here), the electricity was out due to a storm, and she has problems with her memory and orientation and we weren't paying attention to what she was doing. She went to go and get her cardigan and stepped out thinking she was going down the corridor which is next to the basement - the basement door had been left open and she went down! wouldn't wish that sound on anyone. :cry: She was extremely lucky that all she did was break her arm.

Yes that must have been awful for you all.

I'm glad that she was ok and recovered well from what must have been a very scary situation.