Like many people, when we bought our first house, we needed buildings insurance in a hurry to get the mortgage, so we went with the cheapest quote we had at the time. As it happens it was the AA, who also gave a years free membership to their breakdown service as a gift (nice if you are a car owner).
Living in a tenement, you find that often you are asked to contribute to communal building repairs which can turn out to be very expensive. On the one occasion we did enquire about our cover (there was dry rot found in one of the bottom flats), we found that the AA and only one other insurerer of all the tenents, was prepared to pay for the work to be carried out.
We are now moving home to a property which is approximately twice as expensive. When we informed the AA of our move, they informed us that there would be no additional premium until our next renewal date, which was ten months into the future. Obviously we shopped around, but still found the AA to be much less than all the other major insurers we tried.
To date, we have not had to make a contents claim, but the information in their brochure does appear to give very good cover.
If you do ask for a quote, ask if there are any offers regarding breakdown cover, and as they also have their own financial wing, it may be worth looking into that as well.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Aug 20th, 2001
very helpful by (53%):
helpful by (47%):
