Is your claims history affecting your home insurance?

The insurance market, specifically the UK home insurance market, has changed over the last few years and we’re now experiencing a hard market.  A hard market is brought about by a reduction in insurers’ capacity and their appetite to write insurance. You can read more about this in our article: The home insurance market.  Due to this hard market, we’re finding an increasing number of clients being refused insurance as they have a less than perfect claims history.

Most insurers will have a set of tick boxes as part of their requirements for placing cover, and if you don’t conform to these, they may not offer you a quote or renew your policy. This is where a specialist broker, like Howden, can help. Every day we help people for whom off-the-shelf insurance doesn’t fit the bill. Our team of professionals understands all the obstacles you may be facing and can help you find a solution. Here’s what you can expect:

Your dedicated point of contact

A claimable event, particularly a large one, can be traumatising and complex to explain. By working with us you’ll have someone to talk to and you’ll only need to tell us once – we can take it from there. No more filling out form after form online or reliving a distressing event multiple times.

We’ll find out what your insurance options are

We’ll break down the insurance cover you require and negotiate with insurers on your behalf. In certain cases, we may not be able to obtain all of the cover you need, but we’ll make sure you’re aware of this and understand what it means to you. If you have multiple properties to insure, we may look to split the risk between different insurers.

We’ll also look at policy excess and possibly recommend a higher excess for specific elements of cover. All home insurance policies carry an excess.

You can leverage our insurer relationships

Insurers trust us to give them an accurate representation of the risk and our experience means that we can present your needs in their language. We’ll also speak to underwriters and explain any particular circumstances around a claim. Ultimately, we deal with people, and when events are explained clearly it always translate better than something written on a piece of paper or held on a computer.

Advice beyond insurance

We won’t ask for something an insurer will say no to. We’ll look at your property and make security recommendations before we go to the insurers. This can include safes, alarms, cameras, or even locks. All these lower the risk for insurers and will give them more confidence to provide their best quotations.

If you’re having difficulty finding home insurance or renewing your policy, then call our specialist team on 020 7543 2801 or email privateclients@howdeninsurance.co.uk