House insurance

harr

Hi
Hope somebody might help with a quick question,
I have a friend who owns a small shop and forecourt now its keeping him ticking over just about.
He has just purchased his first house and went to get home insurance on it and a local lad from the bank came out to look at the house and give him a quote but because he is a business key holder and owner they are insisting he get a monitored alarm in as well as CCTV before they insure him.
The house has a normal alarm system but its basic enough plus he never takes stock or cash home with him,on top of that the quote is a lot higher because he is a key holder.
Any of you come up against this problem before? Another thing is that he uses the same bank for all his business and van insurance...

Vologda69

Could he not get an online quote as is standard these days? Can't imagine any Irish bank would give any competitive insurance quotation. Plenty of other companies he can try. Allianz are quite competive.

harr

He has rang around and a lot of the quotes are cheaper but he was hoping to keep all his insurance policy's with the one bank but that's not going to happen now.
His main gripe with his own bank was the fact they wanted him to have such a high end security system installed in his own home and should he mention to the other insurance company that he is a business owner and key holder.

oldyouth

I've seen this happen. However, not many other insurers will impose the same additional security limits.

Word of caution about the cover though. Check the wording on the business policy and the house policy as to the limits for business cash in the home. I know you say he doesn't bring it home normally, but I'm sure there are a couple of occassions when it does happen. It is usually a very low limit without specifically being declared and this will involve additional security features

Trish56

You have to fill in Occupation details on all Insurance proposal forms it is then up to the individual insurance company to ask for more details. Also on Home Insurance policy's there is a limit to the amount of cash that is covered to be held on the premises.

peteb2

Trish56 wrote: »

You have to fill in Occupation details on all Insurance proposal forms it is then up to the individual insurance company to ask for more details

No. You are obliged to disclose anything you feel is a material fact.

harr

Thanks for the replys,
He rang a few brokers and got a few on line quotes most are a lot cheaper till he dug a little deeper into the terms and conditions 3 online quotes suddenly jumped 300 euro once he mentioned he was a key holder and business owner the key holding does not seem to be the problem its that he own the business.

Also the broker said that he had come across claims where the insurance company would not pay out because the person did not declare that they were business owners .