House Insurance

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Murco
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House Insurance

Post by Murco »

Hi,

We are in the process of buying a house in Duras which is near Bergerac. Within the next year we hope to be running a gite. We will not be permanently resident in France. Can anyone recommend a company or the best process for obtaining a competitive quote. Is it best to obtain a quote from a french company or a UK one?

Any help really appreciated

Many Thanks

Ray
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oasiscouple
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Post by oasiscouple »

My house is 15 minutes from Duras, insured with Aviva in Ste Foy la Grande (M & Mme Marty), very helpful and the few claims I have had were settled very promptly. We also insure our two vehicles with them and our holiday apartment in Port Leucate 400km away. Let me know if you want an introduction. My strong advice is to insure locally and not via the UK.
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Moliere
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Post by Moliere »

I agree with Oasiscouple, insuring a French house via a UK company sounds like a recipe for problems. Sadly you will discover that French premiums are outrageous and their cover for possessions severely limited. On the plus side, from what I hear they do usually pay out every cent of repairing property damage.
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GillianF
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Post by GillianF »

I agree that insuring a French property with a UK company is not the way to go - a recipe for disaster.

However, I would urge you to make sure you describe your property carefully: construction materials, room sizes, outbuildings etc. etc and that you tell your insurer EXACTLY what you are going to use the house for.

In our, unfortunate, experience with French insurers they will wriggle out of paying if you give them the slightest excuse/reason by not dotting every i and crossing every t.

I would also beg to differ about French insurance companies paying out promptly and honestly. We are currently in a six year dispute with our insurance company which is going to a tribunal. The avocat we first consulted told us that 80% of insurance claims in France never pay out the full claim amount ………………… and that was the good news!
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Moliere
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Post by Moliere »

If you’re implying that I said they paid out “promptly and honestly”, that’s not what I meant. I simply reflected the experience of various people who have suffered major destruction and had their homes restored in full, without cheese-paring, albeit after a long cogitation.
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GillianF
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Post by GillianF »

My apologies Moliere. It was oasiscouple who said claims were settled promptly whilst you said that homes were restored in full without cheese-paring.

Again, sadly, this has not been our experience. The moment the expert stepped out of his car and looked at our destroyed roofs he started pointing and saying what he would not pay for. The rest of his visit was an aggressive destruction of our claim, disputing quotes for repairs and a long list of what we couldn't claim. Six years on we are still without a payment, still without roofs, still without a gite business - if it wasn't for us being able to find other income we would be bankrupt and living on the streets …………...
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oasiscouple
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Post by oasiscouple »

In other words, choose your insurer carefully. Our experience with several claims has been very diferent.
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Moliere
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Post by Moliere »

That’s interesting, oasiscouple, who have you had a relatively good experience with?
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oasiscouple
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Post by oasiscouple »

As I mentioned above, Aviva in Ste Foy la Grande
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Moliere
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Post by Moliere »

Oh yes, sorry. Any bad ones with AXA?
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vacancesthezan
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Post by vacancesthezan »

Moliere wrote:Oh yes, sorry. Any bad ones with AXA?
YES
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Moliere
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Post by Moliere »

Hmm, said with feeing!

I might ask about a move to Aviva.

What about Allianz (they’re nearer).
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vacancesthezan
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Post by vacancesthezan »

Moliere wrote:Hmm, said with feeing!

I might ask about a move to Aviva.

What about Allianz (they’re nearer).
Long story about AXA. We did however win in the end (with the insurance) after we wrote several letters of complaint to the HO - the agency refused toe talk to us after their expert offered us less than half the claim. We became very friendly with the lady in their complaints department in Paris. They paid just about everything we claimed for but it took a year of pushing and threatening.

Agency also promised us discount on our premiums if we took out a bank account. Took out account and surprise surprise only cents of discount and monthly charges!

We are currently with Allianz. We use the local agency at Cazoul. (Virginie) We know you are quite near so maybe worth a trip?

Also we have used Groupama in the past. Avoid the agency in Thezan like the plague but there used to be one in Magalas. The lady worked in Murviel for a while before the agency moved. She was very efficient!

We like the agencies because they are (usually) helpful about answering questions or concerns and making a claim (should you ever need to!). You need to find a good one though.

Sorry no knowledge of Avira.

VT
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oasiscouple
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Post by oasiscouple »

Murco (Ray) presumably you are following the resulting discussion your request has produced, from which you may gather there can be bad experiences with any French insurance company and it can be the efficiency of the local agency that can make all the difference.

As Gillian said: “I would urge you to make sure you describe your property carefully: construction materials, room sizes, outbuildings etc. etc and that you tell your insurer EXACTLY what you are going to use the house for.”

Not sure if many agencies would do this, but ours visited our house when we were discussing the details of the cover required to make sure everything was clear and nothing was missing.
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vacancesthezan
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Post by vacancesthezan »

oasiscouple wrote:
As Gillian said: “I would urge you to make sure you describe your property carefully: construction materials, room sizes, outbuildings etc. etc and that you tell your insurer EXACTLY what you are going to use the house for.”

Not sure if many agencies would do this, but ours visited our house when we were discussing the details of the cover required to make sure everything was clear and nothing was missing.
We would third this! If you have anything but a 2 up 2 down completely standard home that you live in all year we would recommend a visit from your friendly agency staff to show them round and discuss exactly what you have and what you plan to do with it. Then when you get the paperwork read it through completely word for word before signing anything.

Axa tried to wriggle out with 3 words on the agreement. We argued that they were misinterpreting the words and quoted the dictionary meaning (French). When they couldnt find an alternative meaning for this in their agreement they ran to ground and wouldnt talk to us - their expert having made the offer and even sending us a cheque for this sum in the hopes that we would go away.

We refused to cash the cheque and only when we presented our definition of the 3 words to the HO did they agree to pay most of the claim.

Even the French equivalent of the CAB said for us to just accept their offer. It just shows how the insurance companies are used to getting their own way.

VT
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