House Insurance

[nemltd]

We have a 3 bed house in the Gers and would like to know if this quote sounds sensible for Buildings and Contents Insurance.

We have a quote for 30.50 euros per month, this includes 32,000 euros of contents.

Does this sound about normal?

[Bernice]

It really depends where the house is situated - village, town, isolated etc. and the age of the house, total surface area, etc.

You could get a quote from another company and see how it compares.

Bernice

[Théière]

Our modest 2 bedroom + pool cost us at present €39 inc the legal protection wth MMA

Credit Agricole have just offered us like for like with Pacifica for €23.75 so we will be switching.

Always worth getting another quote.

[ericd]

2 bedrooms house + en-suite non converted barn (98m2+ same size loft + 90m2) built over 5 cellars 188m2 + 2 x open barns 60 and 70m2 = €22.80/month with Groupama in 82 (Tarn & Garonne).

This covers fire, storm damages, water damage, glass breakages, vandalism, theft (for a small total value)

[Polly]

[quote user="nemltd"]

We have a 3 bed house in the Gers and would like to know if this quote sounds sensible for Buildings and Contents Insurance.

We have a quote for 30.50 euros per month, this includes 32,000 euros of contents.

Does this sound about normal?

[/quote]

Is your house your home or a second home? It makes a difference!

[nemltd]

Bernice

That sounds sensible, but you know what its like, where? language? time? probably just lazy, just seems like so much to do at the minute!

Wise words though, thanks

nemltd

[nemltd]

Theiere

We were with Pacifica through Credit Agricole. For the first few years we just paid at renewal because of the convenience and we had so much else to do. 2 years ago we stumbled across Generali, and they were 25% less. They asked me if I would Bank with an Insurance company?

Sounded like a good point, so we carried on with them, and they speak excellent English and have all the terms in an English brochure. The jump in premium from 19.32 per month to 30.50 euros per month just seemed a bit steep, for what amounted to an extra 23,000 euros worth of cover for contents. (our previous policy only covered us for 7,000 euros worth of gardening equipement, because the house was empty apart from that.)

Marie

PHILIPPE SCHREINEMACHERS SARL
GENERALI ASSURANCES
N° 24 Lotissement l'Argenté
32330 LAGRAULET DU GERS (France)
Tél. : (+33) - (0)5.62.29.20.00

Worth a call?

[nemltd]

Theiere

What a great quote! Where is it from?

nemltd

[nemltd]

Polly

Its sadly a second home at the moment

nemltd

 

[Théière]

[quote user="nemltd"]

Theiere

What a great quote! Where is it from?

nemltd

[/quote]

It was on a beer mat in the free house I was in the other day [:)] 

I will take a look at Generali thank you

[Francelover]

Worth stating the obvious but the premium isn't the only thing to worry about - you need to look carefully at what the policy covers.

Earlier this year for the first time in 7 years in France, we made a claim on our propertyu insurance (AGF/Allianz) .

 We had about 4 weeks of heavy snow and frost and then overnight a sudden thaw. This resulted in a minor flood and tiny land slip that knocked down a section of a grarden wall.

OK - it wasn't a fortune, only 600euros to sort out in the end.

Our claim was rejected because "these circumstances aren't covered by the policy".

Technically, they were right. The policy does cover exceptional weather circumstances but you can only claim that if the Meteo in Paris has issued an exceptional weather notice for your area in the departement.

AGF were totally unhelpful, rude and disintered - they didn't even visit.

So, the moral of the tale is:

1. don't use AGF/Allianz
2. check carefully the policy details - whoever you use.
4.  

 

 

[Francelover]

I mean 'disinterested' of course!

[Sunday Driver]

If you couldn't provide the required Meteo notice then you didn't have a valid claim, so why should they have visited?

 

[Will]

Because one or two people have had what is, in their opinion, unsatisfactory service from an insurer it doesn't mean that nobody should use that company. Any insurer that was consistently unreasonable would not stay in business for very long.

In France in particular it's the agent (usually a self-employed franchise holder) that you deal with, rather than the company direct, and the agent has a lot of influence with his principals about how a claim is dealt with. All insurers have a mixture of good and not so good agents, the best way is to find one local to you with whom you feel confident, rather than just going for the cheapest quote.

[nemltd]

We come to that word 'value' once again.

Over the last 3 years my commercial insurance agent in the UK has sent my renewal notice/premium out within a week of the renewal date. Always leaving me under pressure time wise to compare with other quotes. In fact I should say 'quote, its very difficult getting insurance in the retail motortrade. I have asked them to send the paperwork sooner to give me more time so I don't feel under the cosh with a week to sort it out. Every year they let me down and do the same thing.

This year I started early and got another firm to quote 3 weeks before renewal, I actually went for the more expensive quote. The new agent has done everything he said he would do, lets see what happens with him next year.

The silly thing is if the original agent had just listened to me, and understood the way I felt, I would still be using them. Instead they thought they were being clever in leaving everything to the last minute to stop me comparing the market, what they didn't seem to understand is its not always about price, but preceived value.

nemltd

[Francelover]

Will, with respect, the system you're talking about is rapidly disappearing from France as it has almost everywhere else.

Our local agency handles renewals and policies but claims are now centralised in a huge city centre office about 2 hours+ drive from here.

This is now the norm with most French insurance companies.

Forget the cosy chat relating to your claim over a coffee in the local tabac - for the most part you'll be dealing with a huge admin office in one of the major cities if you have to make a claim.

Why should they have visited? Having worked in the UK insurance industry for many years, I will tell you.

Policyholders frequently are not in a position to fully analyse and articulate the cause of the claim. Their claim may be valid or it may perhaps not be covered.  Initially, our problem due to the landslip looked severe. It's called duty of care and common 'interest' for an insurance company to send a loss adjuster or assessor out to look at the problem.

Sending out a computer generated letter saying "sorry pal - not our problem and your tough luck" is not really service - in any country.

In 30 years we have only ever claimed twice - once in the UK and once here. There is absolutely no resemblance whatsoever between the excellent service we received in the UK and the arrogant disinterested dismissal we received here.

So, go with AGF/Allianz if you wish - but don't say you weren't warned!

    

 

 

[Will]

One of the big problems with the way insurance currently works in France is that the central 'warehouses' can't, or won't, probably for some of the reasons you say, deal with policyholders. Your only contact has to be through the agent. Some are good and do their best to look after clients, others are only interested in their commission cheques. The level of personal service to which you allude is certainly no longer common in France; in fact I would doubt that it was ever the norm given the French notion of customer care.

Allianz/AGF does send loss adjusters if the company considers the claim is valid. I understand your frustration at being told your disaster was not their problem.

Unfortunately, as you say, exactly the same applies to the other major insurers. I would not want say that Allianz is any better or any worse than the rest. In fact my limited personal experience puts AGF well above AXA, but I wouldn't want to generalise based on that.

[Francelover]

Hi Will

I think in all these cases, one can only speak from personal experience.

We had our motor and buildings/contents policies with AGF/Allianz and I can only say that overall their service (prior to our claim as well as during) was poor.

This isn't just sour grapes because a claim was refused - I worked too long in the insurance industry to be so churlish and juvenile. I understand the philosophy of insurance and its practices.

My gripe is that when a large wall comes down and blocks a public road, I expect the insurance company to take an interest and look at it themselves to ascertain the cause and their liabilities (if any).

Policyholders are rarely skilled structural engineers or loss assessors/adjusters. In our case the cause could have been flood, severe icy weather and subsequent thaw or landslip - perhaps a combination of all three.

Some of these were, by my interpretation, covered by the policy. However, not being an engineer neither I nor perhaps 90% of claimants, could possible say what the cause really was.

That's really where professional duty of care comes in - or should so. The bottom line was that nobody at AGF, the local agency or their claims office hundreds of K away, was interested, would come and look or even discuss it. They simply said 'no' by letter based on my no doubt puerile attempts to describe the problem.

Would any other insurer have behaved similarly? I don't know - my hunch (after talking to others locally) is that they would not.

Does this mean that AGF everywhere would provide such service if you needed help? Don't know! As I said, just relating some facts as I experienced them.

Cheers.