house insurance, advice please?

[alig99]

We been checking out our policy we orginally got through our solicitors here in Spain as its up for renewal shortly. We got a few quotes, some using the same broker but they have been located in different parts of coast, experience has taught us what questions to ask or are asked, so have been able to be consistent to enable a like for like comparision but what puzzles us is the great differences in the premium quotes some with the same 2 insurance companies. Having worked for an insurance company in the UK albeit some years ago, we're not sure what is going on? indeed our current broker/our solicitors office mentioned something about having an extra cover to cover the possibility of increased water damage as we live in the campo, whats that all about, the girl in the office couldn't explain but quoted me 120-220 e for the cover? Now none of of the other brokers have mentioned this, what is going on is there a scam here? our solicitors seemed very straight when dealing with our purchase.

We'd welcome people's experience on this matter as we really want to correctly insured, happy to pay premium but it must not be a problem if/when we have a claim.

[scotty]

Ali,
I'm an insurance broker in Ireland. I've never been able to fathom the system in Spain . There is a need for the extra cover, dont ask me why but its not a scam. My brother in law (also a broker ) had his apartment near mine broken into this summer and everything except the front door was covered So the insurance company paid for all the electronics and gold.... but not the damage to the front door of the apartment. Dont get me started !

[Enrique]

Hi Alig99,
Depends on your position in the campo, you only need a tormenta and the hill side moving down with the water and you can get big problems with mud and water in the house.
Here on our mountain we get one or two big storms every year .
So you need to know if you will be covered for water and mud damage if your house is in the path.

[princess peach]

I dont know if this concerns you,but with my bank(i have a mortgage with)They needed to approve the insurance first,before i cancelled my original policy with them and took out a new one.
If you have a mortgage you also need to check the spec of it with the bank,as to what it HAS to cover before you take it out..etc etc..if you dont have a mortgage then it doesnt concern you

[alig99]

Enrique, you've got me worried now! We had a problem is a landslip in front of our house in January because is rained so much then. As we had no guttering, we put some up and also had a french drain dug and where the landslip was put in a rock (very large ones) wall. We are also building a water tank to pick up as much water as possible. We thought this might be enough, but now you have got me wondering?? Our house has been built on a ridge with the plot being cut out so the house sits on a flat piece of (what we think might be) rock. There is another house on a similar plot above and to the side of us, about 300 metres away, but their swimming pool is about 100 metres away.

Interestingly only our original broker mentioned this extra cover, and that was when the person had spoken to someone else in the office about our location. The extra cover wasn't mentioned to me by the other brokers although of course I mentioned the same things about our location.

PP, thanks for the info, our house isn't mortgaged, not sure thats a blessing or not in this instance!