Cancelling your home insurance policy

A home insurance policy is an important thing for any home owner to have. Such a policy can protect against damage to one’s home caused by weather and other types of disaster, giving home owners the peace of mind that is needed when making such a large investment. Of course, there may come a time when a home owner needs to cancel such a insurance policy. This could be due to an upcoming move, finding a better deal on a policy with another company, or simply being unhappy with the insurance company’s services. Regardless of your reasoning for wanting to cancel your home insurance policy, there are some steps that you can follow to get through the process as easily and quickly as possible.

Know When You Can Cancel

First and foremost, it is important to know when you can cancel and when you cannot by UK law. When it comes to insurance, the United Kingdom has in place a grace period for those who purchase just about any type of insurance. In such situations, the policy holders have two weeks to cancel the policy upon initially purchasing it with no questions asked. This is something that many home owners will take advantage of in a number of situations, such as when a policy does not turn out to be as great as initially promised or when the home owners discover that they can actually find a better deal on home insurance somewhere else.

In such situations, the policy holder should call the customer service number of the insurance company. From there, it should be explained to the agent that the policy holder wishes to cancel the policy itself. At the time of placing this phone call, it can save a lot of hassle and time for both parties if the policy holder has his or her account numbers readily available.

From there, the insurance agent should be able to cancel the policy in just a matter of a few minutes over the phone, thus refunding the money for the insurance premium based on how it was initially paid. For example, those paying with a charge card should expect to be refunded in the same way, while those who had paid with a check should receive a check in the mail from the insurance company within just a couple of weeks.

Other Situations

If your insurance policy has fallen beyond this two-week period, then it can get to be a bit more complicated when it comes to cancelling your home insurance policy. Rather than being refunded the entire amount for your insurance, for example, you will only be refunded the amount remaining on your policy premium. For example, if you had a year premium on your home but only actually kept the policy for four months, then you would be refunded the remaining funds for the 2/3 of the year that you do not keep the policy.

This is something that many home owners do not realize; furthermore, some insurance companies will charge cancellation fees and other penalties for ending an insurance policy early. Of course, this can vary greatly from company to company and not all do it, but many insurance companies these days view their policies as legally binding contracts and thus have every right to charge these fees in the event that a policy is cancelled early.

Peace of Mind

If you plan on cancelling your home insurance policy but are not getting rid of your home, be sure that you have a backup policy lined up to begin immediately through another company. After all, the last thing that you want is to end up with a lapse in your coverage; you never know when disaster may strike, so having even one day where you are without insurance on your home can turn out to be catastrophic.

On the other hand, if you are selling your home, be sure that you keep your home owner’s insurance policy up until the actual date that you close on the sale of the home and it is no longer your responsibility. Even if you are no longer living in it, you are still responsible for damages and other expenses until the time of the actual sale. By not having insurance, you could end up in a world of hurt. This is especially true if your home is hit with severe weather in the days leading up to the sale of your home.

As you can see, there are many good reasons for wanting to cancel a home insurance policy. Just be careful to make sure that you receive a fair refund for the unused portion of your policy and that you never have to go a day without home insurance in the process.