I received my House Buildings insurance renewal which has been racked up year after year and I have been unable to move to a different company as we have had a subsidence claim in the past which was 'fixed' by my current insurer.

I thought I'd see what sort of quote I would get online from my current insurer; it came out £300 cheaper than the renewal even though I declared the subsidence claim and the fact that the property has suffered from subsidence. Would there be any problem with simply ignoring the extortionate renewal and buying the insurance from the same company online? The quote clearly shows that I have declared the subsidence claim and that the house has had subsidence in the past.

I must admit I was surprised to get such a good quote as usually if you tick the subsidence box on online applications you cannot proceed which is why I have not changed companies previously - I wonder if the system has made a mistake and if so would the insurance company be within their right to cancel the insurance if I bought it online rather than accepting their renewal quote?

Every year I get my renewal letter through for my car insurance and every year I get an online quote from the same company. Then I ring them and they bring my premium down to the online quote which has the X% discount for dealing online - they cleverly don't give such discount for an automatic renewal. Ring your insurers and tell them to amend your renewal quote - bet they will.

Yes but would they reduce it by as much as £300 (about 60% of my renewal)? I'm also reluctant to phone in case they say the online one was a mistake and they then block me from accepting it or generating another online quote.

How long have you been with them? If they've been able to load the premiums year on year without you daring to question it there is every chance of a £300 differential.

If you've made a claim for subsidence in the past then presumably the work done to rectify it is guaranteed - it certainly should be.

There's a golden rule with insurance companies - never accept the first offer. This applies as much to the premium as it does to any settlement. Whatever quote you get for anything you should still ring and haggle.

I've been with them a long time. Since the subsidence claim, no other companies will insure me (what a racket) so I have been stuck. It only just occured to me to try an online quote with the same company; really surprised it didn't refuse the quote once I had ticked the subsidence box as all other companies I have tried do.

LOL (well not really, in fact quite worrying if you don't pay attention to the small print). I went to buy the online insurance which all the way through included subsidence cover, less £1,000 excess, then at the very last stage as I was buying it, it says no cover for subsidence in the midst of a page full of other stuff !! This could easily have been missed !

Anyway I shall be having words with them as if they have repaired the subsidence properly then why should I be charged over £300 more than say, my neighbour's house who have not had their underpinning done?

Does anyone on here take out buildings cover that excludes subsidence?

I notice LV have added a load of exclusions to the policy re. their subsidence cover that never used to be there; makes me wonder if they'd ever pay up anyway or just get out of it by one of their exclusions e.g. settlement, improper building practice, poor materials or workmanship....the list goes on.

Anyway I shall be having words with them as if they have repaired the subsidence properly then why should I be charged over £300 more than say, my neighbour's house who have not had their underpinning done?

Does your normal, ongoing policy include cover for subsidence? Have you checked that it hasn't been excluded in the small print? If your current insurers are the ones who organised the underpinning you are right to question their reasoning. It could be one of those automatic assumptions.

When we were in Germany (husband in forces) one of the UK companies offering motor insurance through the NAAFI was Norwich Union. We went in to get a quote and could see the screen. I questioned why there was a 10% loading on the premium for a left-hand drive car and the moron behind the counter honestly couldn't understand why we thought it ridiculous. We insured with a German company

Called LV. They say I can have Buildings and Contents for around £200 with no subsidence cover or Buildings only with subsidence cover for £600. A big difference as when you add on contents with subsidence cover it's over £500 more. They claim the fact that part of the house had subsidence means it's more likely another part will.

I don't reckon we'll have any further subsidence problems as the rest of the house has deeper foundations than the part that was underpinned. Would you go for the £500 saving with no subsidence cover or pay the extra to include it?

That's a question only you can answer. All insurance is an expensive luxury if you don't need to claim and the best money you ever spent if you do.

You could always look into the cost of getting an expert opinion to help assess the risk. The savings you are quoting make it seem a worthwhile expenditure.

and even with the subsidence cover, there is no guarantee that the insurance company would pay up as they could wriggle out of it on some technicality or exclusion if they tried hard enough. Plenty of reports of companies getting out of paying up over subsidence. We had a bit of a struggle to get our original claim met - I had to research the Insurance Ombudsman's rulings and point them in the right direction before they would agree to pay for repairs.