Hi All,

As above please!

If so, do I have to wait until "contract year end", or could I cancel it with immediate effect?


(Still unemployed and it's running up to 6 months now and this month we scraped through the monthly expenditure, but next month we will not...)


Cheers,
Steve

Depends on the small print

if you have a mortgage on the property, then you may have no choice. Every mortgage I've ever seen had an insurance clause.

i dont know about cancelling it, but i allowed mine to expire and the mortgage company obviously dont know. If they find out then they arrange their own cover which cost me £40 a year on another house. Still a saving.

Is this building or contents insurance ?

Mortgage company want life insurance not house insurance don't they?

Nope, they want the house insured. Otherwise, should it burn down, they could be seriously stuffed. As would the mortgagee.

I know in my case, having building insurance is a requirement of my mortgage and I have to provide proof each year, however not contents, may be a cancellation clause in the insurance which makes it not viable to cancel though, if shopping about for insurance try get a quote for the bare minimum cover which may be cheaper and better than none at all.

You must have buildings insurance, if you don't and it burns down or falls into a hole, YOU will still be liable for the mortgage for the rest of your life.
You can loose the contents and just have basic buildings cover.
I used to have separate buildings and contents and was covered on both policies to the max, the cost of both policies was near £900 a year, joined them together, lowered the contents, negotiated the buildings and now pay £26 a month.
Reduced car insurance
Now looking at gas and leccy as I have reduced from 6 adults in the house to just 2.
Food bill reduced. A lot less beer and pizza.
The econamies I have made has saved several £100 a month.
Got offered a free iPad 2 from Vodafone with a £32 a month contract, turned it down.

I re did my insurance via one of the go compare type of companys, and saved a total of £350 a year
so i would see if you can get a much lower quote first, then just cancel the old policy

Steve

I wasnt bothered about contents because all i really care about in the house is my laptop, and my wifes jewelery. So the jewels are hidden well, and the laptop gets stashed every evening too. Car keys come upstairs with me and im quite happy to fight for them.

Re buildings cover, its not as grim as it sounds. Its highly unlikely you will need to claim, and even if you did suffer a loss, its unlikely to be a £50k rebuild. The insurance company makes a profit overall so on average, if you are feeling lucky, you're quids in. My mortgage company have never asked for proof of insurance.

If you want cheap building cover, you can up the excesses. I have done this, on the basis if I claim for £1000 of damage, I could do the job myself in a weekend, or it cost me £100 to get a plasterer etc for 1/2 day. Plus if you claim, you get penalised up the next few years. But IF the worse was to happen, we are covered.
50K doesn't get that much work down here. Cleanup after a kitchen fire would be halfway there.