Tenants contents insurance advice needed

Paul. W

Paul. W

Paul. W

Associate
Joined
29 Dec 2009
Posts
522
Just after a bit of advice really. Following on from a previous thread a little while ago, myself and the other half have now got our name down for a house in the area we were after. We've filled out all the application tenancy forms, references checked etc and all have gone through fine and dandy :)

The letting agency is pushing us to take out contents insurance with a company called HomeLet. The one of the main reasons they want us to do this is because "They will protect your deposit against general wear and tear"

Now to me this doesnt make sense. The only way I can see this working is that once I move out and there is deemed wear and tear costs that need to be taken out of the deposit, I have to claim on the contents insurance instead and go through that way. But then I would need to pay the excess charge for making said claim!

Looking through the HomeLet brochure, the cover doesnt seem fantastic and neither do the T&C's. And the quote will be at least £10 p/m.

My instinct is telling me to take out a seperate contents policy with someone like DirectLine. Or shall I just go with the flow and take out the conver with HomeLet because the letting agency have a deal with them?
 
Sounds like the agency has a tidy wee deal going with homelet. No doubt the agency gets a commision for recommending people to them.
 
Exactly. FW&T is part of your normal contract anyway, so you don't need special insurance for this.

Just ignore them and phone around a few places and get some quotations. I'm with Direct Line at the mo and they've been very good so far and relatively cheap too.
 
Just a warning that you should not leave this. You will need to prove it prior to them allowing you to move in (generally), so they may get to force you to take "their" cover if your not sorted with it all in place before you move in.

Make sure there is nothing dodgy about what they ask for. Had a similar situation where the policy had to cover something very obscure sounding, agents were shocked that our exisiting policy had it as they said that pretty much only the policy they sold would provide it (fuuny that no?) We actually had to send them policy wording as well as initially they said the comment on our cover schedule was something else.
 
Pestilence said:
Ermm... fair wear and tear is NOT something that can be deducted from your deposit in the first place.
Click to expand...

My thoughts as well.

The Co-operative insurance seems to be coming out the cheapest at the moment. Ive printed off the T&C's for Homelet and the co-op so will scour them tonight.

The excess charges for Homelet are astonishing, £200 for accidental and £500 for malacious :eek:
 
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