AA home insurance renewal - warning

I just received an email inviting me to renew my AA home insurance. There are two problems with it:
1) The new quote is 40 Euro more expensive than the old one, as AA has smuggled an "administration charge" into the quote.
2) More worryingly, scrolling down almost to the end of the policy document there is a provision that the house will be unoccupied 0 nights during the entire year (one month in the old policy). I never agreed to this, and presumably it would exempt the company from meeting a claim if something happened while we were a weekend away.

One way of avoiding these pitfalls is to simply search for a fresh quote from AA, which came in at almost the same cost as the old one without the "administration charge" and the 0 day provision. Alternatively, it might be worth searching for a more ethical alternative if such a thing exists in the Irish insurance market.

I hope this is useful to some.

Did they not list the changes to your policy when you received the renewal?

Páid said:

Did they not list the changes to your policy when you received the renewal?

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Yes they did, in an attached PDF. But that's the point: you can't just renew assuming that it's going to be the same policy (as some might take the word "renewal" to imply) and there was no mention of the 0 days absence provision in the main text. Chances are that many people who renewed their AA insurance have unwittingly signed up to this clause without being aware of it.

I'm not a fan of AA insurance but in fairness I think that procedure is standard practice throughout the insurance industry i.e. list the changes to the previous policy at renewal time.

I've gone through at least two home insurance providers and I remember reading through changes at renewal time to do with the voluntary excess, changes to cover due to freezing weather and flooding, etc.

AA are just re-sellers, so even the underwriter can change year on year, and significant terms and conditions along with that.

I simply wanted to alert people to the pitfalls of renewing their existing policy as opposed to obtaining a new quote. I don't think any sane person would knowingly sign up to an insurance policy that requires them to commit themselves in advance to being at home 365 days a year in order not to invalidate their insurance. That stipulation doesn't exist if one obtains a new quote from the AA, which is also significantly cheaper.

Its not the insurance policy that states that. It's most likely the statement of fact they have produced that notes it. Their underwriter is RSA. And like most insurers RSA do not consider the property unoccupied unless its for more than 30 consecutive days. (just checked your policy wording and that is the case).

So its not a stipulation of insurance. its an assumption for the basis of quotation. Two different things to be fair.

Also insurance brokers/agents have to be quite clear on their fees so its it wouldnt be a case it was snuck in. Its there in plain sight on documentation, and outlined in their terms of business. They just chose to apply it this year.

Thanks for clarifying this. AA doesn't seem to send their customers the full policy document until they have actually accepted the quote (after which they have 14 days to cancel) but I will definitely check whether the new policy has the 30 day provision. In any case, taking out a new quote rather than renewing the existing insurance saves almost 40 Euro. I guess AA assumes that many customers just won't bother to check.

peteb said:

Its not the insurance policy that states that. It's most likely the statement of fact they have produced that notes it. Their underwriter is RSA. And like most insurers RSA do not consider the property unoccupied unless its for more than 30 consecutive days. (just checked your policy wording and that is the case).

So its not a stipulation of insurance. its an assumption for the basis of quotation. Two different things to be fair.

Also insurance brokers/agents have to be quite clear on their fees so its it wouldnt be a case it was snuck in. Its there in plain sight on documentation, and outlined in their terms of business. They just chose to apply it this year.

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r

tomdublin said:

AA doesn't seem to send their customers the full policy document until they have actually accepted the quote

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Same as most other insurers. The policy booklet is available on their website.

I'm hearing the AA are getting a lot of phone calls to clarify the zero days piece, so this isn't a one-off.

The policy document clearly states 30 days in numerous places, yet the cover letter states '0 days', with a statement on the top along the lines of this information forms the basis of your contract.

For anyone else with the AA, I'd advise checking the cover letter and contacting the AA asking them to re-issue the documents based on the 30 days question they ask during quotation.