Home No insurance for older houses?

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Mystic Oil

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Has anybody here tried to (re)insure an older house recently?

My house (built in 1850 approx.) is currently insured with FBD. The renewal premium is about 60% higher than last year, and some of the excess figures have been increased by 150%. I have no claims history.

Today, I called in to a reputable local broker to see if they could get me a better deal (they saved me €300 on my car insurance last year). They tell me that there are now only 2 insurers quoting on buildings cover for houses over 100 years old (a very recent development, apparently).

Both of those companies declined to quote.

My house has stood for ca. 160 years, is in very good repair, on a hill (no flood risk), and no claims. Given that a shoddily built Celtic-tiger shoebox on a flood plain can be insured these seems like utter madness to me. What percentage of houses in this country were built before 1911? Tens of thousands of them, surely.

What does someone with a mortgage do in these circumstances? The lender will insist on insurance cover.

My existing policy is due for renewal on Monday 7th of February. If anybody has a suggestion I'm all ears, otherwise I'm compelled to stay with FBD, for as long as they're prepared to insure me anyway.
 
Thanks PaddyBloggit. I should have added that I have an aversion to buying insurance from web-based companies, due to a bad experience in the past. I went with FBD in the first place because they have an office near me - same reason for dealing with local broker. I want to be able to go and speak to a human face-to-face if I should ever have a problem or a claim.

edited to add:

I just tried their quotation engine, for comparison purposes. The quoted premium is 75% higher again than the renewal figure from FBD, more than double the premium that I paid to FBD last year. At least they didn't refuse to quote.
 
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Hmm. I've just tried that exercise a second time. Using otherwise identical figures, I gave the construction year as 2008 (in place of 1850) and the premium was almost exactly halved.
 
Similar Experience last few years trying to insure a 2 B/R Terraced Townhouse built circa 1900 which I inherited.. Low value obviously. For previous two years could only get Fire cover . I was told due to being unoccupied. Quite a bit of work to do mainly decoration to make it fit for renting but even if I do the work , the rent would not be great.
Was told they would cover only if I cut off all water and electricity. Could not do this as I keep some low central heating going in it during the winter and anyway would need the utilities whenever I go in to do a bit of tidy up and maintce etc.
This year was told excess gone up to €2,500 as the roof had not been replaced in last 20 years. The roof is OK and does not need replacing- made no difference.
So at this stage it is more trouble than it is worth to me. As result this years premium is about 160% of the premium 2 yrs ago and I have to bear a €2.5k Excess for Fire cover only !
Surely there is a gap in the market for insuring unoccupied houses and some company will be interested soon ??
 
Just to update this a little....

I went back to FBD for this year, due to lack of time to explore other options. I was in the bank the other day and they had a brochure for house insurance on display. Their (bold) claim is to beat my current premium - I'm going to ask for a quote just to see what they come back with.

Looks as though I have just under 12 months to come up with a plan 'B'
 
WaterSprite said:
AA cover houses of that age if you haven't tried them.
Click to expand...
AA now have a flat refusal policy on anything before 1850. Does any company offer insurance on properties constructed before 1850 nowadays? I've been emailing and calling all day but no joy so far.
What I'm finding even more difficult is finding out exactly when my house was built. My solicitor said the information wasn't in the deeds and I've spent most of the morning being given the runaround by various government bodies. Does anyone have any ideas how to find this information? It's more than idle curiosity--the insurance companies demand an exact date.
 
Ministry Fox said:
AA now have a flat refusal policy on anything before 1850. Does any company offer insurance on properties constructed before 1850 nowadays? I've been emailing and calling all day but no joy so far.
What I'm finding even more difficult is finding out exactly when my house was built. My solicitor said the information wasn't in the deeds and I've spent most of the morning being given the runaround by various government bodies. Does anyone have any ideas how to find this information? It's more than idle curiosity--the insurance companies demand an exact date.
Click to expand...

AA is tied to one insurer. go to a proper broker. Probably get a quote with Allianz or OBF or Alan B Kidd.
 
peteb said:
AA is tied to one insurer. go to a proper broker. Probably get a quote with Allianz or OBF or Alan B Kidd.
Click to expand...

Do Kidd cover insurance for older houses?, I am aware they cover holiday homes and are very competitively priced as well
 
My house was built in 1804. We have it insured with RSA. The only bother was the first year of cover (10 years ago), we had to have a specialist report carried out on the building. That was fine and we haven't had any trouble getting insurance since. You can't apply for cover online but we use a broker and he looks after it all for us.

Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie
 
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