Pest Cover - A new incentive for home insurance companies?

Alongside the recession, the insurance sector continues to hit the headlines as more of us start cancelling our policies in order to cut back on monthly spend, and insurance companies compete to entice us back. At the end of 2008 it seemed that many were offering online comparison services, whilst earlier this year a new trend among car insurance companies emerged as many of the biggest names began offering cash back after customers had taken out policies.

Whether this has worked for the companies in question remains to be seen, but the offers were certainly subject to some criticism from newspapers and commentators who claimed they might mislead prospective customers. However, as we move into spring new opportunities for insurance companies to set themselves apart from their peers are certainly on the horizon.

According to an article in The Independent (March 29th), reported problems of pest infestations are on the increase in the UK, with rodents proving to be a big issue for homeowners. Rats, mice and even moles are increasing in numbers and are not only an annoyance due to the diseases they carry (such as salmonella via parasites and faeces) but also because of the damage they can and do cause. “Their main destructive power is in their teeth,” The Independent states, “mice and rats must wear down their ever-growing incisors, and this need to gnaw drives them to chew through anything – electrical wires, plastic pipes and more.”

But it is not just furry critters who are causing homeowners and home insurance companies to consider pest control prices. Insects and bugs are also responsible for damage to home interiors. The menacingly named “Carpet Beetle” (which is carried by birds, transported to their nests and commonly gets into homes through our lofts) is not only fond of carpets and rugs, but will devour other furnishings such as curtains and sofas.

Subsequently, this increasing problem is influencing some insurance companies to offer pest control cover as an addition to house cover, and even as a standalone policy in its own right. Therefore, akin to the comparison sites and cash back trends that are still on-going, I wonder if the home insurance sector might see this increase in pest infestations as a method to make their offers more appealing – particularly as private exterminators are popular and, according to The Guardian, often in too great demand.

Messy Neighbours Affect House Value

About 40% of people claim that the poor state of homes in their neighbourhood drives down the value of their own property, according to a new report.

Research by insurance firm LV= found that common problems included broken windows, old furniture dumped outside and overgrown gardens.

Of the 2,000 adults surveyed, one in three said their homes had been "damaged" by issues emanating from an adjacent home, such as flooding, damp, pest infestations or broken fences - leading to disputes over whose home insurance would be liable for the costs.

The insurer also said that loud music from a nearby house could knock thousands of pounds off the value of a property.

Managing director John O'Roarke said: "This research shows that the financial price of living nearby an untidy neighbour could have dire consequences, not only on your lifestyle but also on a home's value and maintenance costs.

"Our research also found that unkempt properties have caused 7% of homeowners to fall out with their neighbours, so ensuring good neighbourly relations is always sensible - that way unpleasant situations can often be prevented."

What’s Covered Under Accidental Damage On Your Home Insurance?

Accidents Will Happen – But What’s Covered Under Accidental Damage On Your Home Insurance?

Most of us take good care of our homes. But as Elvis Costello sang in his classic ode to the importance of home insurance: "accidents will happen". And what better reason to make sure that you’re adequately covered? After all, who would want to shell out for a new carpet after knocking over a glass of red wine?

But what exactly constitutes accidental damage in buildings and contents insurance policies? This basic guide covers the main inclusions and exceptions.

What is accidental damage?

The definition of accidental damage is pretty uniform across home insurance policies: damage that occurs suddenly as a result of an unexpected and non-deliberate external action. In layman’s terms, that usually means an unintentional one-off incident that harms your property or its contents.

So, general wear and tear or damage that occurs gradually will be excluded. You also won’t be covered for mechanical failure. A computer that just gives up the ghost can’t be claimed for, but it would be covered if it smashed after you accidentally dropped it onto the floor.

Claims caused by children

Young children are the cause of many home insurance claims; and even if you don’t have offspring yourself, a lot of accidental damage is created by visiting kids. Incidents involving home entertainment equipment (for example if a toddler manages to topple your TV) are often covered under standard contents insurance policies – though it’s always a good idea to examine the small print of your particular policy to make sure.

Extending the accidental damage cover will protect most other items in your home, so you may be able to claim for fruit juice split over your curtains, or a felt-tip masterpiece drawn on your sofa. Common home insurance policy exclusions are portable electrical equipment, and clothing: so keep sticky fingers away from your laptop and favorite designer jeans and, again, check your policy wording.

Animal-related accidents

Many home insurance providers will not cover for damage caused by chewing, tearing, scratching or fouling by animals. This provision is the same pretty much across the board and few contents insurance policies will cover for pets. Sorry animal lovers: Rover needs to be fully house-trained before he’s allowed near any expensive furniture.

Several home insurance providers will not cover for damage caused by insects, vermin or infestation. Squirrels are specifically excluded from the vermin classification of a few home insurance policies; so if your doorframe has been gnawed away, you need to cross your fingers that the culprits have bushy tails.

DIY damage

Checking your home insurance policy conditions before undertaking any work is always a good idea. You may need protection under both buildings and contents policies, depending on the particular job. If you’re unsure of the difference between buildings and contents insurance, take a look at our guides on buildings and contents insurance explained. Be aware that some plumbing and electrical work will not be covered if it’s completed by an amateur.

As a general rule, if you’re not really sure what you’re doing, it’s best to avoid an accidental damage claim altogether by getting a professional in. For more DIY advice, see our guide on how to stay safe and protected whilst doing up your home.

Claims for common accidents, such as bursting a water pipe with an ill-placed nail will usually be accepted. Be careful, though, when you’re clearing up the mess that you’ve created; damage caused by cleaning is excluded from several home insurance policies.

As the details of accidental damage cover are not always consistent between home insurance providers, it’s wise to familiarise yourself with the details before committing to a home insurance policy to ensure that you get the cover you need. At Confused.com, we’re devoted to finding you the most suitable buildings and contents insurance so that accidents don’t lead to disaster.

Homeowners Warned Over DIY Gas Work

CORGI, the gas safety body, has warned householders that they risk invalidating their home insurance if they tinker with their own electrics or gas appliances rather than using professional tradesmen.

Due to the credit crunch, 41.4% of consumers admitted they were more likely to try to do work themselves, but CORGI says it could also lead to an increase in fatalities as well as creating insurance problems. Only 15% of respondents said they would always use a professional tradesman.

The research, carried out for the Gas Safe Register, found that while 82% of those questioned considered it dangerous to fit a gas fire themselves, one in 10 were still prepared to do so.

Incorrectly fitted, badly repaired or poorly maintained gas appliances are a major cause of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning, and can also lead to gas leaks and explosions.

On average 25 people a year die from CO poisoning, while 40 people a year are killed or injured in gas explosions.

Ann Robinson, Gas Safe Register's director of public awareness, said: "If anyone thinks DIY gas work can save them money, they should think again. For the sake of a few pounds, they risk endangering the life of anyone who lives in that property."

Upgrade Your Home - Grants Available

With the housing market slowing and remortgages becoming more difficult to arrange, a lot of homeowners are rethinking their plans to move. So for those people who won’t be upgrading to a new home, here’s some info on obtaining grants to upgrade the home you’re already in.

Council funding for home repairs

Grant amounts and eligibility criteria vary according to the area that you live in, but in general up to £5,000 is available for improvements such as:

• Replacing kitchens or bathrooms
• Providing new windows, or repairing existing glass or frames
• Solving damp problems
• Fixing roofs

Lending criteria can be tough, and homeowners will usually have to be receiving certain benefits to qualify, but it’s worth chasing up your local council for further details just to be sure.

Here’s a tip: it’s best to apply for council grants as near as possible to the beginning of the financial year as that’s when their pot of money is fullest. Apply towards the end of the fiscal year and the pot may already be empty.

The home improvement agency for your area can also offer advice on help available and assistance with grant applications.

Disabled facilities grant

All local councils are required to provide assistance for disabled people to live independently in their own home. Grants of up to £30,000 (subject to means testing) cover areas such as:

• Allowing access to the bathroom or kitchen
• Ensuring that cooking facilities are at the right height
• Moving light-switches or thermostats to the appropriate level

If you do not qualify for a grant, bear in mind that some adaption work, such as widening doorways or creating ramps, is VAT-free.

Energy efficiency assistance

Some councils will provide money to insulate lofts or cavity walls, and all utilities companies offer similar assistance to help make your home more energy efficient.

The Home Heat Helpline can offer advice for those struggling to pay utility bills. If you don’t qualify for help with your gas and electricity bills but are still keen to save money on utilities, try switching gas and electricity provider to see if you can make savings.

There are also several government bodies set up to offer assistance with installing a new heating system, or improving your existing system, for people who are on certain benefits. Up to £2,700 (or £5,000 for oil-fired central heating) is available from the following bodies:

• Warmfront (England)
• Home Energy Efficiency Scheme (Wales)
• Warm Deal (Scotland)
• Warm Homes Scheme (Northern Ireland)

Other home improvement tips

• Live in a listed building? Funds for Historic Buildings can help you find money for improvements to your home. Don’t forget that many approved alterations will be exempt from VAT.
  
  
• Don’t start work until you’ve investigated the grants available: money is rarely available retrospectively.
  
  
• Saving money on your home insurance will also free up money that could be used to improve your home.
  
  
• Don’t forget to inform your home insurance provider when you’ve got the builders in to ensure you have adequate buildings and contents insurance whilst onsite work is being carried out.
  
  

Original Source - Confused.com - Upgrade your home - Grants Available

The Unrecognizable Home of the Future

How the home of the future differs to where we live today is a thought that has been considered more and more over the last few years. Advancements in technology, as well as the means to power our houses by generating our own green energy, have meant that the architecture and design of future housing will also need to be adapted. Paradoxically, despite the increasing social awareness of being more energy conscious and self-sufficient, the home of the future is also destined to be a hive of technological dependency and alive with electricity. So will the future home be a hut of efficient simplicity, or a home insurance nightmare?

Of course, energy saving will no doubt be of utmost importance as the climate continues to change, and resources continue to run out. Companies existing today, such as Earthship, highlight that the key to an efficient home of the future is making sure that the design makes the most of the energy from the sun and the ground. At just four feet underground, the insulating temperature of the earth is significant enough to heat a home most of the year round. If extra heat is needed, sunlight is allowed in through large south facing roof-light windows in order to top-up. This could mean that the design of the home of the future will be mostly underground.

With the risk of growing populations driving up water costs, water conservation will also be of significant importance in the future. In a BBC interview in 2005, Christopher Sanderson of The Future Technology posits the idea that instead of using water to clean our homes (and selves) we will instead use sound waves. The technology is relatively simple: by concentrating low-frequency, high-energy sound waves on areas that are dirty can actually dislodge dust and grime by fluidizing it. Such equipment is already in use for contact lens cleaners, and is being tested in dishwashers and washing machines.

Over the past few years, Microsoft has frequently boasted what it thinks the home of the future will be like; and more specifically, how dependent on computer technology it might be. Advancements in GPS usage, similar to what has recently been incorporated in Google Maps, might be able to tell us where our postman is on the round to give us an estimate of when he will arrive. Of course, they also suggest that our homes will consist of a sort of technological brain, with mirrors that can inform us of whether clothes that match with a specific garment are in the wash, as well as pin boards that absorb the information that is attached to them, such as phone numbers and addresses.

Important Small Print Warnings to Homeowners

With the recent spell of cold weather, it would seem that the biggest insurance-related news would concern the risk of freezing pipes, or the dramatic increase of car insurance claims over the past week. The Guardian, however, is warning today of the effect a past conviction can have on your home insurance – and blaming the increase of void policies on the internet.

One of the most important factors is that your home insurance may well be void even if your conviction is considered minor. The case of Michelle Barber shows a gross lack of information: ‘Her home was wrecked by fire in 2007 and she now faces a bill for more than £240,000 because she failed to mention a £150 fine imposed three years earlier for an overpayment of benefits,’ The Guardian reports. She simply was not aware that such a small fine would count, and had even forgotten about it by the time she had taken out her policy.

Similarly, it is important to be aware that admission to past convictions relates to anyone who is living in the house. This includes family members, and even tenants of landlords who may not have felt the need to admit a conviction, or who also may not know the risk to the cover of the property themselves.

The reasons for these increasing problems are twofold. Firstly, when individuals are convicted, the courts do not inform them of the negative affects it could have on their future attempts to take out insurance policies. Secondly, the growing trend for people to shop for their insurance cover on the internet is highlighting that not all of the comparison and insurance websites are as clear about the implications of past convictions as they perhaps should be, and some tend to only offer an ‘assumptions about you’ button that is easily dismissible with the tick of a box.

This backlash against some online insurance sites comes almost immediately after Which? Magazine accused specific sites of offering inaccurate information in regards to insurance and so-called compulsory excesses which make the policy seem cheaper than it is. This, of course, was met with a flurry of responses from companies claiming that they had been lumped in with the bad guys when their own information was presented clearly, and there I am sure that they are justified.

The online insurance marketplace is incredibly varied with good and bad in regards to a number of variables such as usability, price, and information presentation. That said, I also acknowledge that there is a certain lack of fairness when minor convictions that seem to have so little relationship with home insurance can even affect a policy, regardless of the company. And this is certainly an issue that needs to be addressed.

Post Office Home Insurance offers 10% more at Christmas

Post Office home insurance has announced that it will bump up cover over Christmas to protect Christmas presents that usually add value to contents.

In fact, throughout December, Post Office home insurance is increasing its contents cover by 10 per cent to ensure households are covered over the Christmas period.

The cover extension is automatic and comes at no extra cost, head of home insurance at the Post Office Emma Baunach, said:

"At this time of year people often have more valuables in their homes than usual. Over Christmas you don't want to be worrying about whether or not you have enough cover on your home insurance, so we have made the extra cover automatic to make sure you are protected."

The news comes as moneysupermarket.com urges Brits to check that their home insurance cover will include Christmas gifts.

According to research from moneysupermarket.com, 'top up' periods can vary on home insurance, and some insurers do not automatically increase cover at all. Commenting, Andy Leadbetter, managing director of insurance at moneysupermarket.com said: "We're all feeling the financial pinch at the moment, but Christmas often brings out the generous streak in people.

"Insurance is probably the last thing on people's minds as festivities take over but with expensive gifts and gadgets aplenty this is a prime time for opportunistic thieves to strike."

Highlighting the need to compare home insurance deals, Mr Leadbetter said: "With so many variations between insurers on seasonal uplift checking the small print with a fine-toothed comb is always a must, especially to safeguard from being underinsured."

How to Find the Rebuild Cost for Your Home

When taking out buildings insurance you will be asked for your home’s rebuild cost, and this amount will decide how much you need to insure the property for. There are two main ways to find your home’s rebuild cost: hire a surveyor or use a rebuild calculator.

Hire a Surveyor

The best way to get an accurate rebuild cost is to instruct a chartered surveyor to carry out detailed measurements of your house and then prepare a professional Rebuilding Cost Assessment. This should set you back around £200, and you can find a local surveyor here.

Use a Rebuild Calculator

A second option is to use a rebuild calculator. Though simple and free to use, the drawback here is that you only get a rough idea of your home’s rebuild cost. This is important to bear in mind because if you underinsure and then, for whatever reason, your home requires a rebuild, you would only be paid up to the amount your home insurance covers, leaving you to cover any shortfall.

Likewise, don’t make the mistake of over-insuring, i.e. don’t insure for the amount you paid for your home or its current market value, both of which are likely to be much higher than the rebuild value. You only need to insure your home for its rebuild value.

To use the calculator you’ll need your home’s external floor area for both upstairs and downstairs. To find the ground floor area: go outside, measure the length and width of the downstairs walls and multiply these two figures together. If the upstairs is identical to the downstairs, simply double the ground floor area. If different, calculate the upstairs area separately and add it to the downstairs result.

Once you enter the above information, plus answers to a few other questions, simply hit ‘calculate’ and you’ll be presented with the approximate rebuild cost of your home.

Important:
The calculator is based on five house types (detached, semi, terraced, detached bungalow, semi bungalow) of average quality and standard construction. You should consider hiring a surveyor to find the rebuild cost for:

• Houses not built of brick
• Properties with basements, cellars or more than two storeys
• Houses with special design features
• Houses other than of average quality
• Houses of greater size than those described in the tables in the leaflet 'ABI Buildings Insurance for the Home Owners'
• Houses containing hazardous materials within their construction, e.g. asbestos
• Historic or listed buildings

Flats and Maisonettes

The calculator is not suitable for finding the rebuild cost of flats because construction methods vary too greatly. A surveyor may be your best bet in this instance. However, as most flats are leasehold there should already be buildings insurance in place through the management company/building owner, and paid for via service charges. If you have a lease, check the contract just to make sure.

Regularly Check Your Home’s Rebuild Cost

It’s important to periodically check that your buildings insurance amount still covers the rebuild cost. Some insurance providers automatically do this by ‘index linking’ the policy, i.e. premiums will adjust in line with fluctuations in rebuild costs. Also, any extensions to the property will likely increase the rebuild cost.

The point is, if the rebuild cost increases without your buildings insurance increasing to match, you could end up underinsured – again, a big problem should the property require a rebuild and you have to make up the shortfall.

Climate Change - Business as Usual

Unpredictable weather is on the increase. Scientists, politicians, business leaders and activists all agree climate change is happening. They differ only in what needs to be done about it. Politicians and business leaders are finding increasing ways to make money out of the destruction of the planet with initiatives as varied as carbon trading to expensive green solutions. Activists meanwhile believe we need a change in culture and mindset if we are ever to deal with climate change. They argue we need to think and act locally, that we need to be self-sufficient in our lifestyles.

Climate change is, and will, continue to bring severe weather patterns. Whilst people like to joke about how we could do with some warmer weather, and dream of long hot summers, the reality is very different, and much scarier. This is one of the reasons people have started to talk about "climate change" instead of "global warming". Whilst global warming is happening, the language gives a false impression. We will experience severe and variable weather. Torrential rain, flooding, gales etcetera are all set to become the norm rather than the exception.

Storms and rising water levels are already bring new challenges to the home insurance industry. Recent deluges have seen claims rocket, and premiums soar. After recent incidents such as the flooding of Tewkesbury and the devastation at Boscastle, businesses have had to re-evaluate how they are insuring against extreme weather. This has lead to some companies now refusing to insure home owners living on the flood plains, or in other vulnerable areas, such as exposed coastal homes.

However, with new applications rising as rapidly as the water levels - a growth of 150% was reported on the morning of the last predicted storm - the home insurance industry is meeting the challenge and has quickly realised there is profit to be made from climate change.

Specialist home insurance companies are emerging, set up to charge extortionate rates to those who the more mainstream ones are refusing to touch. The insurance industry is, as ever, ready and willing to capitalise on others justified and genuine fear and misery.

Whilst shopping around at price comparison sites may get you a better rate, the principle remains the same - climate change is becoming just another commodity. The business world has been fast to recognise and grab the new opportunities for money making.

However, herein lies the problem. Climate change has been caused by the growth of Western capitalism. If we allow this growth to continue, we will end up with a devastated world where, as usual, the rich will get richer and the poor will be screwed.

It is only when we start tackling the roots of capitalism that we can deal with climate change and see green shoots of recovery. This is if we ever hope to build a future for our children which is beneficial to both people and planet.

Insurance re-assurance guaranteed

Only a fool would risk not having home insurance, surely? It makes such perfect sense, doesn’t it? The monthly premiums are hardly extravagant, and in return you get to rest assured that if you have a fire, get broken into, have a burst pipe, damage something, or have something damaged by the weather, et cetera, your home insurance policy will cover you for most of all eventualities.

Okay, so call me a fool. Or a complete and utter stupid idiot, as the wife did when we returned home from a two-week holiday abroad to find out we had been broken into and robbed of virtually every material possession we had that could be carried out the door.

Not that she called me that straight away. Sure she was upset when we first got home, surveyed the scene, read the letter from the police and then phoned them to get the details. But my wife’s a practical woman, rational in a crisis; it’s one of the reasons I married her. She put the kettle on and started to get all philosophical. She wasn’t about to let the low life that robbed us ruin a beautiful holiday. It was only material possessions they stole. They could all be replaced. Our home insurance policy would take care of it.

That’s when practicality, rationality and philosophy went right out the door, faster than our plasma screen television, dvd player, and stereo, et al. That’s when she called me a complete and utter stupid idiot. It was a long night: hell hath no fury like a woman who feels the need to make a point over and over again in order to get it through her husbands thick skull.

To be fair, what she had to say made sense and, despite my best efforts, what I had to say didn’t! Well it’s hard to argue with someone who keeps telling you that for a monthly payment the equivalent of a decent Indian take-away, you can have peace of mind that your home and the contents within it are insured.

My argument was that I was sick and tired of paying a monthly premium for house insurance and never getting a return on it. It was like giving money away to insurance companies for nothing, I said. The more I said it, the more I thought about it, the more I knew it was a non-starter of an argument.

I realise now, I always knew really, it just took the wife four hours of shouting to remind me, that you’re not giving away money to insurance companies for nothing. Your paying for peace of mind, for reassurance that IF something happens you’ll be covered. Even if you never make a claim it is still money well spent, because you never know what’s round the corner.

What price peace of mind? Well if it means I’ll never have to get the piece of my wife’s mind that I got when she found out I hadn’t kept up our home insurance policy, it’ll be worth it to ensure we are insured for evermore.

I’m just glad I never mentioned to her that I didn’t bother getting holiday insurance!

Home Insurance Industry set to pay out £30m

Apparently, on the 27th February, at nearly 1am, there was an earthquake in the UK. I didn't notice it, but It lasted approximately two minutes, registered 5.2 on the Richter scale, and was overall a very British sort of earthquake - the only injuries were caused by falling chimney pots, and across most of the nation people could be heard saying things like "Well I never!" or "Now there's a thing!", before tutting, rearranging their shelves, and returning to whatever book they were reading in bed. Oh, and at least one tabloid found a semi-naked young couple, for whom that night the earth had moved a little more than usual, with which to adorn its front page. Not so much the Lincolnshire Earthquake, then, as "Carry On Up The Richter". But I'm making light of it.

For some people the earthquake has been quite a serious business. Gordon Brown, for one. Having in such a short space of time presided over floods, war, pestilence (foot and mouth, hospital superbugs, bird flu), terrorism attempts, the beginnings of a recession, and now an earthquake as well, he's increasingly coming to resemble some kind of harbinger of the apocalypse. I'd be worrying that famine might be next, but I'm told that it's been around for a while now already, we've just been outsourcing it to poorer countries.

Financially speaking, though, the real losers from the Lincolnshire Quake were, of course, the home insurance companies.

What, no tears? Not even crocodile ones?

If I wanted to evoke sympathy I probably shouldn't have placed that sentence so close to the previous one, really, should I? Of course, evoking sympathy wasn't my intention. What I actually wanted to do was start talking about estimates of how much this latest earthquake might end up costing the UK's insurance industry.

Last April, a smaller earthquake (4.2 on the Richter scale) in Folkestone, Kent, apparently cost insurance companies something like £15m. This February's, they say, will cost them as much as £30m - the Lincolnshire Quake was thirty times larger, but its full impact was centred upon a more rural area. In either case, that's quite a lot of money to lose on something that lasts barely a couple of minutes.
As I was intimating above, though, it's hard to care about the losses of an industry that makes vast profits on the back of other people's fears. In fact, when something like this happens it's tempting to believe that it really was an Act of God and rejoice that He doesn't seem to like insurance companies, either. But perhaps not: after two quakes within less than a year, what better excuse to raise your premiums and make everything back and more?

But I'm being cynical. And flippant. We Brits tend to be. And like I said, this was a very British earthquake - the sum total of the chaos seems to have been, someone breaking a pelvis, some buildings getting a bit cracked, and a chicken laying a particularly large egg. That kind of earthquake is pretty easy to be cynical about. And so's insurance.

If only all natural disasters might be so British, though. And so well insured.