Am I right in thinking that insurance is renewed automatically in Hungary? In UK you are normally offered the opportunity to renew but if you choose to let it lapse or use a different insurer you don't have to do anything with the renewal paperwork. For my car insurance here I get quarterly bills and I've just carried on paying them but last year I also took out house insurance. I had not intended to renew this but I'm now thinking I should have written to cancel it at some point?

I don't know whether it is universal but ours with Aegon is renewed automatically but they do write to us before the renewal date. At which point you can of course cancel the policy.

Likewise Allianz, automatic but they advised beforehand with instructions on how to cancel. Best contacting them if it hasn't already renewed.

This is also Aegon. They did write to me well before the renewal date but the letter is in Hungarian so I can't read it. It should have been paid on July 1st.

Mine is Uniqa. They wrote to me also in Hungarian. I just waited and then they sent me a check to pay at the post office.

With regard to car insurance, do they automatically send you a yellow postal cheque? I have a letter and in it they say that payment is to be made by the yellow payment slip...but then don't go on to say that they will send me one... hmmm

One more point about insurance, you can't change insurers part way through the year, you must continue until the end of the policy. I found this out when insuring my bike recently. At the time I had no choice but to use Groupama who were really expensive (even the insurance woman suggested going to Allianz!) thinking that I could find cheaper insurance after the first quarter but was informed that I would be committing to the whole year.

Update: Today I telephoned the insurance co to ask about the yellow payment slip or alternative methods of payment as it was getting close to renewal. I was put through to an English speaker, but actually my poor Hungarian was better than his English. Anyhow, he sent me a text and an email and was very helpful.

Then I went to the postbox and lo and behold there was the yellow payment slip. Moral of the story; be patient!

I hope I remember this next year

I had the same problem with my car insurance last time. I cut short a trip to Croatia because the paid quarter was about to expire and I had not received the yellow check. When I got back it was in my post box.
They did let me cancel the house insurance without payment.

On a slightly different matter, I had a letter today from my broker who does the landlord insurance for my cottage in Scotland. They say they have discovered that they are breaking the law by corresponding with me to an address outside UK! In future I will have to give them a UK address and get letters forwarded to me in Hungary. The obvious solution to this would be to give the address of my letting agents but they are about as much use as a chocolate teapot anyway!

I am not sure why your broker says this.
Our landlord insurance is directly with Saga who are perfectly happy to write to me in Hungary.

I know some insurance companies don't do non resident landlord insurance maybe that is why they are not happy with writing to you abroad. I would make sure you are still properly covered.

If you need a UK postal address Fib, let me know.