Home & Contents Insurance renewals...

Our H&C has quadrupled in the last 3 years. 100% increase from last year to the renewal that just came in. From $2000 to almost $4300

I think we have been put on some kind of flood database (we back onto a small creek in suburban Sydney). Could not even get a quote from many insurers. Allianz quoted us $7500.

Faark fark fark
 
MasterOfReality said:
I paid my 3.4k premium last night, feel dirty about it. Small consolation was they have now listed my business and all of the office stuff is covered under general contents. Upped the total contents value as well, when I did the walk around and read what’s included in the pds I think we were under insured!
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Time for another go round, and this time the premium has come back at $4348, which represents a 27.5% increase. Cunts.

Sum insured for building and contents increased by 5% and 4%, respectively.
 
MasterOfReality said:
Time for another go round, and this time the premium has come back at $4348, which represents a 27.5% increase. Cunts.

Sum insured for building and contents increased by 5% and 4%, respectively.
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Most people I know have been reporting similar jumps this year, but it definitely doesn't hurt to shop around!
 
CAUTION: There is a current phone scam involving H&C insurance.

First, there will be a call come through to your number, likely from Sri Lanka, but could be from anywhere. If you answer it, your number will be registered as active.

Second, you will get a call from a local number saying that it's XXXXX insurance company calling because there is a problem with policy renewal and you may be uninsured. They will ask you to identify yourself with the normal processes - they sound very authentic. I gave them a fake date because I wanted to see what data they had on me. They had my name, phone number, email address and an address from about 8 years ago.

I assume from that point, they will get your CC or account details and ask for an immediate payment to ensure that you are not uninsured.

I answered the call from Sri Lanka as I wanted to check the scam out. But if you don't want to be bothered by the scammers, don't answer calls from Sri Lanka or other countries were you don't know anyone. This might be a relatively old scam, I only became aware of it a week ago.
 
Car insurance related rather than home and contents, but here's a weird one...

I'm picking up a new (used) car today, so rang up the insurer to update the details. New car is 5 years newer and valued/worth $10K more than the old one, but I get a credit for $41? (Almost exactly halfway through the current 12-month policy too...).

I mean no worries, works for me - but wasn't what I expected! o_O
 
SlowManiac said:
Latest renewal just came in - almost $9000...

Honestly this is starting to seem unsustainable.
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Yikes. That sucks @SlowManiac (I'm assuming you're not living in a palatial 8 bedroom mansion with harbour frontage here...).

Any inherit susceptibility to flood where you live? That seems to have been the big shift over the last few years now insurance companies have stopped accepting the local council flood assessments and are working off their own modelling (I assume).

I know in Shepparton, the news articles are suggesting many of the houses will be uninsurable in 5-10 years, but I know people that have since purchased houses that were flooded so badly ~4 years ago the house had to be rebuilt before the sale took place. Mad buggers, they're already complaining that insurance is prohibitively expensive and only a couple of companies left will insure them - they'll be stuffed if the place goes underwater again.

While it's nowhere near granular enough in reality, the 'search your suburb' map in this article is a interesting insight into how insurers are currently using aggregate data to mitigate their risk (and boost their profits):
www.abc.net.au

This town is a 'canary in the coal mine' as climate change threatens home ownership

New data shows dozens of suburbs around the country are at risk of becoming uninsurable, triggering warnings of a "climate-induced credit crunch".
www.abc.net.au www.abc.net.au
 
# 1 rule. Never do a renewal. I guarantee you an online quote with the same insurance company with same details inputted will yield a cheaper premium.

Last year I changed insurances providers for the car and home & contents due to sky rocketing prices. Also ditched insurance on portable items, the premium simply wasn't worth it. 2 or 3 years I'd be net ahead.
 
Yeah we back on to a suburban creek. The high risk zone just grazes the bottom of our garden. Garden has flooded a few times but it's never come close to the house. I understand we are higher risk than some but 9k is pretty hard to swallow...


Most insurers will not quote us now so I don't really know what to do. Selling seems like an over-reaction but if insurance costs keep on this trend then insurance wil be prohibitively expensive.
 
House on a slab or stumps? Potentially if on stumps, it could be cheaper (long-term) to mitigate the risk by raising the house up - though I doubt it'd make insurance easier to get.

So hard to know otherwise. Might never flood, might do it multiple times in a few years. One thing that article alludes to is that it will be near on impossible for people to get mortgages if they can't get insurance - so in that respect it would be easier to sell while insurance is still available. But it'd be bloody hard to leave a block that backs onto a creek, it's kinda the dream if the house is flood-proof.

Anyone know of insurers where you could get general home and contents insurance if you exclude flood coverage?
 
SlowManiac said:
Yeah we back on to a suburban creek. The high risk zone just grazes the bottom of our garden. Garden has flooded a few times but it's never come close to the house. I understand we are higher risk than some but 9k is pretty hard to swallow...


Most insurers will not quote us now so I don't really know what to do. Selling seems like an over-reaction but if insurance costs keep on this trend then insurance wil be prohibitively expensive.
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Would you be able to get historical flood data from the local water authority and/or local council? If historical data shows that your house has never flooded, and the topography of where your house is situated makes it extremely unlikely - ie the topography/terrain means that the water drains away before it gets anywhere near the house, then that surely would make the risk profile of your house a more acceptable policy proposition.
I have a creek out the back of my place. There was a tendency for the park out the back to get really boggy with overflow water from the creek, so about 6 months after we moved in, the council did a huge excavation of the creek/park area, turning it into a huge flood basin. No danger of storm water filling that big space.
 
ForkinGreat said:
Would you be able to get historical flood data from the local water authority and/or local council? If historical data shows that your house has never flooded, and the topography of where your house is situated makes it extremely unlikely - ie the topography/terrain means that the water drains away before it gets anywhere near the house, then that surely would make the risk profile of your house a more acceptable policy proposition.
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From what I'm hearing (second-hand), it seems like insurers don't currently have a lot of interest in this approach and are preferring a per street/per postcode group approach. I can see it'd be a lot simpler on their side, but fuck it's harsh on people that are in a position that have a genuine reason for an exception.
 
beeb said:
From what I'm hearing (second-hand), it seems like insurers don't currently have a lot of interest in this approach and are preferring a per street/per postcode group approach. I can see it'd be a lot simpler on their side, but fuck it's harsh on people that are in a position that have a genuine reason for an exception.
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Yep exactly this.
 
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