Refusing to renew house insurance

onekeano

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I co-own a Buy to Let property I purchased with a colleague 15 years ago - never had a claim until beginning of this year a leak in bathroom caused quite a bit of damage downstairs and a claim c. €8k was settled by our insurers.

I went to renew policy on my home last week and stated NO in relation to "any claims on this property in last 9+ years". Then, they sent me a form and it asked something like "have you or any member of you household had any claims in the last 3 years". I called them and told them I had but not on this property and it was a Buy to Let that I co-own.

Straight away I was told they would not insure me because I had a water damage claim in the last 3 years?

To be honest I was shocked - very worst case i thought was that I would be loaded but not banned. Is this normal, and if so how do I get insured on my residential property?


Any advice would be much appreciated,

Roy
 
We (we are insurance brokers and financial advisers) have noticed quite an aggressive stance by property insurers of late in relation to renewals after claims. A lot of insurers have seemed to lose their flexibility when presented with scenarios like yours. The advice is shop around. We deal with a number of insurers what will quote after a claim, so it really does boil down to each insurers appetite. A number of insurers seem to be happy to lose the business after there has been any claim in the last number of years.
 
strictly speaking, if you have a property insured with company A and another with company B, at renewal you must tell company B that you had a claim with company A. It is an annual contract and insurer B could refuse to deal with a claim because you failed to disclose you had a claim with company A. Its not logical, but it is insurance law!
 
We (we are insurance brokers and financial advisers) have noticed quite an aggressive stance by property insurers of late in relation to renewals after claims. A lot of insurers have seemed to lose their flexibility when presented with scenarios like yours. The advice is shop around. We deal with a number of insurers what will quote after a claim, so it really does boil down to each insurers appetite. A number of insurers seem to be happy to lose the business after there has been any claim in the last number of years.

Hi Jimbonp, I've been online and checked 5-6 sites but when I click on "assumptions" every single one includes something like "you or anybody living in the house has had no claims in the last 3 years". It seems unbelieveable on the basis that surely thousands of people make claims every year (according to the industry when I hear the moaning on the radio)? What about car insurance.... if everyone who had a claim we pretty much ruled out going forward there would be no cars on the road :-(

If you can provide contacts for any companies / brokers who do provide cover for these circumstances that would be much appreciated.

Roy
 
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