Make sure your policy does what you want it to
Storm Ophelia may have wrecked the country – but it didn’t bother Robin and Glenys Rowland despite causing €900 worth of damage in their Wexford home.
It was only when they tried to make a house insurance claim for the losses suffered that their blood pressure went through the roof.
The small print on their policy means they stand to lose more money than they gain by finally using the insurance they paid thousands of euro for more than 13 years of cover.
‘Until now we have never needed to make a claim,’ said Robin. ‘But due to the recent storm we lost the contents of our chest freezer to the value of €888.55.’
On contacting Liberty, the Rowlands found the maximum claim they could make was for €700 – and they also had to pay a €250 excess (the portion of every claim not covered).
That left €450 worth of cover – amounting to just half the actual damage done.
But the small print of the policy had another ‘sting in the tail’ for the Rowlands, who live in Kilmore Quay.
They were told that if they made a claim, the cost of their policy would rise and they would lose their no claims bonus.
Robin calculated that they could end up out of pocket if they asked their policy to do what it was meant to do over all these years – provide protection.
Robin accepts the policy excess is ‘fair’ but he’s up in arms about the no-claims bonus rule. ‘We have decided that it’s not worth claiming as it would take five years before we get back to where we are today,’ he said.
‘When living in the UK, I had to make a similar claim and found out then that the
freezer was treated like windscreen cover on a car with no effect on the cost of the policy.’
We contacted Liberty and provided them with details of Robin’s calculations.
They didn’t wish to comment but did not dispute his conclusions.
Some insurance companies and brokers told us that you generally can’t protect your no claims bonus on house insurance here.
Yet it’s widely available in the UK – and is a common feature of Irish car cover.
Most car insurers offer full no-claims bonus protection, albeit for a price.
‘Step back’ protection also means that if you make a claim, you lose just a portion of your bonus.
However, we did find two insurers who don’t deprive their customers of this valuable benefit.
When told about the Robin Rowland, Ciarán Mulligan, boss of online broker Blue Insurance, said: ‘We would only have ‘stepped him back’ two years [leaving three years’ no claims bonus].’
‘[For] anything under €500 [customers] would receive a two-year step back every time.’
Blue customers can save money and protect their no claims bonuses by taking out policies over two years instead of one.
‘Our two-year offering has a 15% discount and protects customers from price increases for two years regardless of claims made or not,’ he said.
Insuremyhouse.ie also offers bonus protection for claims worth up to €3,000 free of charge, said Deirdre McCarthy, home insurance expert with the broker.
‘[This] would give Robin and Glenys peace of mind. Claiming for something like freezer contents wouldn’t affect their no claims bonus at their next renewal.’