House Insurance
 

Any good recommendations for house insurance? I know it's tricky because some companies won't touch Northern Ireland, but just looking for suggestions. Apart from the 'compare' websites, I also tried a couple of other insurers not on the compare sites, and after filling in all the details they eventually say they won't quote for Northern Ireland.

Made my very first claim November 2020 (7 years NCD) and renewal in January 2021 (0 years NCD) went up by £350 to £550. Claim was settled during the year and the renewal for 2022 has just come in and it's £597, despite now having a full 1 year NCD again. Needless to say their excuse was 'insurance prices were going up', yet my car insurance cost me less this year.

I use Privilege Platinum for House and Contents now, seems a decent/fair deal. No idea if they cover you though.

I use a price comparison site every year and show no loyalty. I’ve queried increased quotes on renewal a couple of times and, on both occasions, been told that their best prices are always on comparison sites and they increase on renewal.
As to recommending a company, I can’t really help, as the quote will depend so much on your individual circumstances. We used NFU when we had the big house in Scotland and couldn’t get better prices anywhere. But they were hopelessly expensive when we moved to England and down-sized.
And, on comparison sites like Compare the Market, they remember all your details. So you don’t have to start from scratch every year.

Worth looking at your mortgage provider to see if they offer a discount (assuming you have a mortgage!). We were with LV but saved a stack moving to our mortgage provider who offer circa 20-25% discount for B&C cover (and their 'normal' price was about the same as LV)

We use Halifax for home insurance.

They are far from perfect, but they include a higher limit for 'garden cover' than any other provider I've found, i.e. your patio furniture, BBQs etc. Also seem to remember they were quite reasonable with high value items.

Whoever you go with, do not settle for anything less than 5* rating from Defaqto, anything less than 5* means there is a compromise somewhere in the cover

https://defaqto.com/homepage/

I've been with Admiral for some time now and not had any issues. I've called them out once for a blocked drain which turned out to be a soakaway so not covered but didn't have to pay anything for the call out.

Now use a local broker who i have been extremely pleased with, they compare cover annually and fully dealt with a collapsed boundary wall claim last year on my behalf.