House insurance
 

I will be finishing my mortgage very shortly, and my insurance is due in a few weeks. It included illness cover/protection as well as bricks and mortar and contents. Obviously I will no longer need to have the cover, just bricks and mortar and contents. I'll ask my current insurers for a quote, of course, but does anybody have any suggestions/tips to shop around. I have looked at the acierto website. I am a non-resident and will remain so even after retirement in a few years. Thanks, folks.

Re: House insurance
 

I am currently using Liberty - they sometimes run offers for Expats and in the past I have used Sabadell Bank.

Re: House insurance
 

Another plus for Liberty...
They dont care if you are resident or not as Ive had a car insurance and the flat before we became resident....

They also usually have a local office (ours is in Alfaz)

Re: House insurance
 

From personal experience I would not recommend Sabadell insurances

Re: House insurance
 

I found their (Sabadell) quotes very competitive until recently for property and I still have my car insured with them at a bargain price and when I needed to call them their service was excellent.

Re: House insurance
 

I'm happy, for you, that your experience has been different from mine.

Re: House insurance
 

I guess it's all luck of the draw - I know people who rave over Linea Directa but I found them useless and left after one year.

Re: House insurance
 

I think that's true.
We can only speak from personal experience and my negative doesn't invalidate your positive, or vice versa.

Re: House insurance
 

One thing I didn't really like with Sabadell was this - a few years ago they telephoned me having analysed all my direct debit payments to various other insurance companies and proposed placing all my insurance business through them for a good discount - I thought was a little cheeky - data protection? unfair on my broker (who didn't have access to this info) anyway it was a good deal so I went for it.
However, over a period of time (except for the car) the household premiums became too high - rose by 20% plus (I hadn't claimed) so I reverted back to my broker (who is not always the most expensive) who placed me with Liberty.

The only 'problem' will be when Sabadell decide by cancelling their insurance I do not now qualify for free banking - so that will be another battle with Wise being my backstop position.

Re: House insurance
 

In one bathroom we had a leak in the shower due to a hairline fracture in the shower tray which went through the surrounding walls and in the other bathroom the tube connecting the tap to the pipe in the wall burst. Línea Directa paid up but got rid of us by raising the next year's price to something stupid. It was the first claim since starting with them what must have been 10 years or so before.

So we changed to Regal and I can confirm they're equally happy to take our money as Línea Directa were before making a claim.

Re: House insurance
 

We insured our old house with Allianz and made 3 claims during the time we were with them, all were paid out very quickly and with no quibbling. They offer the service where they arrange people to come and carry out repairs, which saves the policyholder having to scramble around to get quotes and waiting to have them approved. They never increased the premiums in the year following a claim by more than the normal inflation increase. When we moved to our present home we just took over the existing policy from the vendor, with Catalana Occidente, have not had to make any claims in six years so don't know how good they would be in that respect but the annual premium increases have always been reasonable.

Re: House insurance
 

Thanks for the information above, folks. I am having a look on a price comparison site called Acierto. I don't know if this has a good reputation. Anyhow, it is all in Spanish. My Spanish is quite good but one bit of vocab is uses is "continente" "continente + contenido" and "contenido" Would some kind soul explain what those terms mean. Obviously I know "contenido" is content but? Thanks again

Re: House insurance
 

Contenido is contents, continente is what it would cost to rebuild the property (literally "container", everything apart from contents), which I guess is most important to get right if you live in an area liable to flooding.

Re: House insurance
 

I thought it might have been that. Bricks and mortar as it is known in the UK. It's a flat on the 5 floor, so hopefully no chance of flooding. But you never know these day. :)