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is it worth claiming on Home Insurance?

Journalist:

ended 20. February 2024

Recent policy renewal come in for a property in Hackney: 

Renewal details:

£1160.04 for the year (increase of 85%)(were paying £627)

This is due to a claim 27th July 2023, for the following that was stolen (so not their fault!) from a garage:
2x Bikes
2x Locks
Storage units and racking

Pay out was £1582!

To get them £1582 back, it has now cost them £533 in one year. Arguably not all of that is due to a claim and some is down to inflation but is it worth claiming on the small items and having these included in a policy now that petty theft is on the rise?

Big name insurers, such as Aviva, AIG and LV are declining the risk due to the postcode/theft.

3 responses from the Newspage community

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Losing your no claims bonus can be a huge increase to your premiums. As well as having the claim recorded. It will also make it more difficult to change provider when you go to renew.
When making a claim you need to carefully weigh up the amount you are claiming for versus the premiums you will likely pay potentially doubling.
I personally arrange standalone cover for high worth items so they are on their own policy.
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Sadly the reality is that it's often just not worth claiming on the Home Insurance and losing your no claims which costs you more overall in the long run in extra premiums. I got myself a lovely new and quite expensive 32 inch curved monitor for my home office which the cat knocked over and broke within 24 hours. In my case it was just going to be cheaper to buy another new monitor.
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People have been seeing a sharp uptick in premiums at renewal, so it's doubtful that the claim in this case has had as significant an impact on the premium as you may first think. Claims paid by insurers in the previous 12 months have been high due to storm and flood incidents that have been more frequent and more severe than in previous years. Added to this the cost of repairs has also increased with significant increases in the cost of both building materials and the trades people required to do the work. These cost increases are then passed on to all homeowners in the form of increased premiums across the board. On top of this, crime, especially thefts, does seem to have increased and this is usually very postcode specific; one criminal working in an area for a period of time can result in multiple claims in a small area, making a postcode statistically high-risk, which in turn further impacts the insurers premiums calculations.