Listed property home insurance price increases

By Vikki Rushbrook Insurance Advisor

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Your insurance premium has gone up, but you haven’t claimed! How is that fair, you may be asking.

Have you looked to renew your listed home insurance policy lately and been surprised by the price? You’re not alone. This is a common trend among property owners, especially those with historic buildings in their care.

Whilst the rises may seem unaccounted for, it’s worth thinking back over the price of other necessities and considering how they’ve changed.

Just like everyday items have gone up – the price of cheese for example – the cost of claims for insurers has too. But unlike the block of cheese that you buy regularly, where the price has gradually increased week after week, you only buy your insurance annually, so the noticeable increase may come as more of a surprise. Essentially, the rates have been rising throughout the year, but you’ve only looked at them when relevant to you at renewal.

Checking the price on food shopping receipt

And on that note, cheese prices went up on average 50% over the last year (some increases were as high as 150%!), whereas home insurance policies saw a rise of 26% on average. When compared like that it doesn’t seem as bad, but of course we understand your home costs a bit more to insure than the cost of a 150g block, so the increase will hit harder.

With that being said, let’s take a look at the driving factors and why your insurer is unfortunately likely to be raising their listed property insurance prices.

Inflated costs for everything and everyone

Aside from cheese, you’ll have seen costs rise in every aspect of your life. From fuel to clothing and eating out, every area is on the up and that is the same for insurance too.

The historic nature of your listed property, with its specialist craftsmanship and building materials, is something that comes with a price tag. Not only for you in terms of maintenance, but should something happen, and your home need a partial or full rebuild, the cost of that even before the pandemic would have come at a premium. Now this will be even higher.

Assessing the current sustainability standing of your listed property

Tradespeople will be charging more for their time, allowing them to keep up with the soaring cost of living. Material prices skyrocketed in the pandemic and have yet to return to the price they were. There’s also a supply issue for key building materials and it’s therefore easy to see why your premium will have gone up, even if you have never claimed.

However, if you have never claimed this will be in your favour. It’s been noted that insurers are quoting for fewer people with previous claims now and, when they do, those with claims are likely to see a bigger premium increase from insurers compared to those without.

Does anything make a difference?

Across all regions of the UK, home insurance quotes are rising, so wherever you live, your policy premium will rise.

One category where the price increase is slightly lower is in the households of those aged over 50. Prices are rising more quickly for those below the age of 50.

The age of your property will make a difference. Older homes are seeing the highest quotes. We know that’s not good news for listed property owners, but at Abode we are here to help.

What can I do to make sure I get a good price?

There are some things you can do yourself to make sure your home is well protected, and this will be seen favourably by insurers.

Keeping your listed property in a generally good state of repair, managing the risks of your historic or listed home and conducting proper material maintenance will help reduce the risk to your historic home.

Another thing you can do is installing essential listed property insurance measures. These will also minimise your risk of needing to claim.

Whilst an increase in your policy premium may be, in some cases, inevitable, one of the best things you can do is have a broker do the hard work for you.

A broker will have relationships with insurers and may be able to secure premiums that you cannot directly access.

What’s more, they will take away the leg work for you, approaching only the most suitable insurers that will cover your listed property correctly.

Think of a broker as your personalised comparison site. You provide them with your details once and they search the market for suitable insurance quotes for you.

If you are already using a broker, we’d recommend reading our article about a key step at renewal to make sure you’re properly insured: Building sum insured(BSI): Is your current broker really doing their job?

Live with character. Insure with confidence.

Using a broker is a good idea, but using a specialist broker is a great one. At Abode, we’ve been insuring listed properties for over 20 years and our specialist team truly cares about getting the best outcome for our customers.

We are here to offer advice as well as quotes. Have you seen a renewal quote come in that you aren’t happy with? Give us a call and we’ll be delighted to see what we can do for you.

Call us on 01622 476 433 or fill in a contact form here and one of our expert advisors will be in touch.