Policy especially designed for Holiday Homes & Second Homes Automatic sum insured up to £1,000,000 for buildings Payments by credit card, debit card or interest free direct debit Plain English policy wording Wide policy wordings to satisfy mortgage lenders Contents and all risks cover can be added 24 hour Claims emergency hotline 24 hour emergency property assistance Family legal expenses can be included Cover arranged with Lloyds of London via Intasure
Introduction - building insurance in the United kingdom is available from a large variety of sources. Although is not a compulsory insurance by means of law, if you have borrowed money to finance the purchase of the property, then the lender will almost certainly ask you to buy an insurance policy to protect their interest. Nowadays, most building societies and lenders will allow you to insure the building with a company of your choice (they may expect you to pay a small fee if you do not accept their own insurance but this is usually a one off) and thus you are free to choose from a wide range of building insurance product providers. You can approach an insurance company direct for a building insurance uk quotation or as has been the preferred option for many years, contact an insurance broker who will have access to a large number of insurance schemes. In recent years " Direct" Insurance companies have become very popular in the United Kingdom for providing home insurance polices covering buildings, it is only in recent times that a few have started to offer commercial building insurance contracts, however, the general view now is that despite their clever marketing, you are likely to get a better deal by approaching a middleman, a broker that specialises in property insurance covers.
Regulatory Guidelines - anyone that sells building insurance in the Uk will have to be registered by the Financial Services authority or be an authorised representative of a firm that are directly authorised. Strict guidelines are laid down by the FSA to make sure that customers interests are protected at all times. Clarity is expected in all dealings relating to building insurance and documentation should be provided to you by the product provider to help you make an informed choice as to the suitability of an insurance contract. Who ever you decide on, the mortgage lender will insist on a number of provisos.
1- To satisfy the contract rights act 1999, the lenders interest must be noted on the schedule of insurance, this will allow them in the event of a serious claim to make sure their interest as providers of a mortgage on the building is protected. In essence, if the building is flooded or burned down, they will want to make sure that the insurance company reinstates the building in the correct manner and that the building after completing of the reinstatement works, is still a viable mortgage proposition for them.
2- Secondly, they will want to make sure that any building insurance policy you buy, satisfies the council for mortgage lenders handbook conditions. The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) currently consist of 163 members and 101 associates. The members are made up of banks, building societies and other mortgage lenders. If you borrow money from anyone to finance property purchase, you can almost guarantee that they will be a member of the council of mortgage lenders. Associates come from a variety of related businesses that have an interest in the mortgage market.
Most Popular Home Insurance Companies - the most popular home insurance companies for buildings and contents insurance are as follows:-
Policy Standards - The good news is that almost all insurance policies for buildings satisfy the conditions of the lenders handbook, providing they are issued in respect of buildings occupied as a private dwelling house. A policy will cover the bricks and mortar of the property against a wide range of perils such as fire, lightning, explosion, earthquake, storm, tempest, flood, subsidence, landslip, heave, burst pipe, theft, attempted theft, riot, civil commotion, property owners public liability, impact and a number of other perils. A popular addition to a building insurance policy is Accidental damage and whilst this will extend the number of eventualities for which you can claim, it must be remembered that a building insurance policy will not cover you against everything that can go wrong at the home, building insurance policies provide cover for sudden and unforeseen events such as storms or floods. They are not contracts of maintenance and if anything wears out or simply needs updating at your home as a result of wear and rear or old age, then that is down to you as part of a regular house maintenance plan.
Claims - also it is worth remembering that if you are unlucky enough to have a claim at your home, then it is always the resulting damage that is covered by a building insurance policy, repairs to the item that caused the damage are seldom covered. Thus if you radiator fractures and damages the walls and a door of the building, they the repair or replacement work to the walls is covered but the repair to the fracture in the central heating is not. With commercial insurance you have to be a little bit more careful, always study the insurance requirements of the mortgage lender against the insurance policy you have been offered. Sometimes commercial building insurance wordings are a little more restrictive and some of the covers, particularly subsidence can come as a optional extra. Also when insuring a building many brokers and insurers refer to the term " All Risks" cover and this can be misleading, at least half a dozen Uk Commercial building insurers issue All Risks policies where you have to select subsidence cover as an optional extra.
Applying for a UK Quotation - when applying for your insurance quotation, you will need to be in possession of certain information, probably the most important is the rebuilding cost of the property, this is the actual amount of money that would be required to rebuild the property in the event of a total loss, it must include an amount for architects and surveyors fees, site clearance etc. This causes much confusion amongst homeowners as often, its the value of the property that policyholders use as the building sum insured. This amount mostly has no relation to the rebuilding cost, as you already own the land on which the property sits, this amount does not need to be factored in the costs. It almost all cases, the rebuilding cost of the property is less that its resale value. However, this rule of thumb should be applied with caution as many older properties, especially listed buildings or buildings constructed of non standard techniques, can often be very costly to rebuild. Insurers definition of standard constriction does vary but usually if your property is built of bricks or stone and has a pitched roof of slate or tiles it is deemed to be of standard construction. Most insures are prepared to accept a building with a certain proportion of roof being flat ( felt on timer is typical) but buildings that are entirely flat roofed may attract a higher insurance premium.
Assetsure is an Appointed Representative of Intasure, a trading name of Blenheim Park Limited who are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Assetsure Limited is an appointed representative of Highhouse Insurance Services Limited who are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
Policy especially designed for Holiday Homes & Second Homes
