Home Insurance - Shop around and save!

[AB]

Far out, just got my home insurance renewal today and it was $1350....WTF!!!

Moved into this house 3 years ago and it was $550...Next year it was $650. After Black Saturday bush fires it jumped up to $900 with a nice little "Fire Service Levy" added on....Nice!!!

Your house just didn't burn down last time but we now realize those 10,000 acres of bush around you can cost us a shipload of money so here's some extra fees to cover us next time a bush fire blazes through!

This year It's $1380 pay up in 2 weeks with no monthly installments available...I simply cannot afford that...lol

Anyways, long story short, shopped around and went with my local bank to whom my home loan is with and It's only $930 (same cover)....Big difference, along with monthly payments which makes it doable.

Shop around folks, just saved me a small fortune!!!!!

It also dropped another $100 if you take on $1000 excess instead of $500 along with taking off the accidental glass breakage....Who needs windows anyway...LMAO

[wildgu6]

yer mate i does pay to shop around, with all the levy's and blah blah they add on its worth a shop. even for motor vehicle ins'.
Their out to get what they can out of the struggler. and what choice do we have, we need these things for our own piece of mind so yes shop around guys / gals,
they sound like rouges Andy, ???? who are they just to keep eye on who i deal with.

[Maxhead]

And the longer you are with one insurer the more you pay every year.. I ring around every year and get the lowest price then ring them and say beat this or see ya later. They usually better it by a few bucks.
Bloody no such thing as look after the long term customers....you gotta do it all yourself

[wildgu6]

So true Kris, i use a broker, they search each year for best price on what i want.
I do a ring around myself, and they come up trumps every time

[patch697]

And the longer you are with one insurer the more you pay every year.. I ring around every year and get the lowest price then ring them and say beat this or see ya later. They usually better it by a few bucks.
Bloody no such thing as look after the long term customers....you gotta do it all yourself

You don't get with too many these days....So glad my auto parts suppliers still work the exact opposite, "they reward customer loyalty"......lol


Good post AB cos it does pay to shop around, if only to get the deal with your provider you should have been offered in the first place.

[MudRunnerTD]

A couple of things to consider when looking at Home Building insurance. Your not just looking for insurance for Fire, you may also be looking for flood, storm and the like. All of which you will likely find in most insurance policies, but do read the fine print ad if you ever need to make a claim be very specific about what you are claiming for.

There is another time when your insurance may start to pay for itself. Building damage caused by ground movement, Subsidence. Bricks Cracking, Slabs deflecting, opening around windows, Cracks in ceilings.

I am a Building Consultant specialising in Building movement and subsidence. I design Resin Injection solutions to ground failure and 80% of my business would be domestic.

I reckon most would have a greater chance of making a claim in your lifetime for building movement rather than a total loss fire. I hope so.

There is only 2 things that make a building move and crack - Water & Earthquake. in our world the later is very rare and if it does happen will be minimal to most structures unless your one of our friendly NZ members, then my thoughts and my team are with you on the ground there.

So that brings us back to Water! For a building to perform within its design parameters it must be placed on a balanced site that has achieved an EMC (Equilibrium Moisture Content). Wet or dry it does not really matter as long as the whole site is the same. When an event like listed below in item 4 or 5 occur that you have a part of the site that has an imbalance (too much or not enough localised water) that you get differential building movement and cracking.

1) The drought = Lack of water (Bad luck but the drought affects the whole site)

2) a flood = too much water (if its a flash flood and considered Storm damage - an Insurable Event, Generally building movement will occur rapidly and within the first few days to a week, residual damage can occur over the following weeks as it drys out further but depends on the site conditions.)

3) Seasonal change = seasonal predictable rainfall. = Balance. (bad luck)

4) A tree planted too close = localised drying of the soils (Bad Luck cut down the tree or isolate it.)

5) A Broken Pipe! = here is the killer, a leaking or broken storm water pipe or a supply pipe under pressure or a broken sewer pipe. (In all but 1 Insurance PDS that i have read this is a flat out Insurable Event as long as its below ground.) DO NOT INSURE with the CBA they describe it as a "Slow escape of water over time" <= What the hell does that mean?????

The last two create most of the damage that i see around the place. I look at broken buildings for a living and see more than 700 a year, so why am i telling you this and what has it got to do with the topic?

The damage to a building caused by an underground broken pipe can occur over a year or 2 or 3 or 4 even. You may not really know or understand why your building is cracking or pay much attention. But then you call me in and i tell you to put a camera down your storm water and sewer and check for breaks and leaks as the likely cause. Find the break, make a claim. Fix your house.

Now if you happen to be a guy that changes your insurance every year and its been cracking for the last couple then your going to find it difficult to prove what insurance year that the damage began and therefore which insurance company is liable. They will all walk away and point at the other bloke. Bugger.

Subsidence caused by an underground pipe is very very common especially if your home has old earthenware pipes. Dont you worry about that, this does, can and may happen to more than one person reading this post.

Heads up, dont insure with the Commonwealth Bank and read your PDS and if your house has cracks in it get a CCTV survey done of all your underground services and then call your insurance company.

I was in a house today in Ascot Vale on a Waffle Pod Slab (12 years old) that had subsided 150mm DAMN! Poor buggers.

This can happen to you.

[patch697]

This can happen to you.

Bloody smashing post MR & thats also handy to know cos I know who I'll be calling......

[Clunk]

^^^^^^^ X2 with Patch there MR, fantastic post mate

[DX grunt]

Timely reminder for me, too.

I've got my contents, 2 x vehicles, 1 x trailer, rental property and landlord's insurance with the same company. Might have to start shopping.

[AB]

who are they just to keep eye on who i deal with.

It was GIO mate. They used to be great, loved them!

Especially with the 20% extra cover at no charge because my house is situated in the highest category for bushfires which means to rebuild my house would cost squillions....Double glaze windows, aluminium window frames, most likely zero timber on the north side facing, etc.

I reckon my house is dead set the most bushfire prone house in Australia....lol...Old weatherboard, north facing with loads of rice paper thin windows on north side surrounded by bush on top of a hill north side, on stilts...lol

Top post MR, what a great read!