House Number Significantly Increasing Insurance Premiums

LAmour on 23/03/2021 - 15:08

After some advice please. Since we moved into our house we noticed a significant jump in our insurance premiums. We have since discovered that if you do an online insurance quote for any other number in the street it is much less than ours. The additional cost to our premiums of our house number is $1k - $2k per year.

We live in the city and should have the same risk profile as our neighbours with regards to flood, fire, theft etc.I can’t even remember the last time we made an insurance claim, so it’s not that. Our car insurance is particularly impacted.

We have spoken with our insurance company and their advice is bad luck, not negotiable - that’s what the algorithms tell us it is. They can see it would be much cheaper for anyone else in the street, but can offer no insight.

Some additional information that may or may not be relevant is that two owners ago there was a commercial business operating from part of the house, and in the early 90’s the house and a car was broken into and the same year a car was stolen, but that was almost 30yrs ago.

Does anyone know if there is anything we can do about this? TIA

Financial

Comments

  • deme on 23/03/2021 - 15:14
    +5

    Is your house number 420

    • djkelly69 on 23/03/2021 - 15:25
      +16

      Unit 69, 420 Nice Street

    • Amour on 23/03/2021 - 15:27

      Close. It is two of those numbers.

    • SF3 on 23/03/2021 - 17:17

      no.666 hells gate plaza

    • jv on 25/03/2021 - 01:58

      Number 96 Lindsay Street, Paddington

  • Earl of Lemongrab on 23/03/2021 - 15:19
    +1

    House insurance right?

    Well, perhaps the premium takes into consideration various physical apsects of your property? Land size, House size, bedrooms, age of build, type of build etc?

    • Amour on 23/03/2021 - 15:29

      It is car insurance as well. If we lived anywhere else in the street our car insurance would be $460. Our house number increases it to $660.

  • onetwothreefour on 23/03/2021 - 15:21

    Number 666? Or 13?

    • Amour on 23/03/2021 - 16:43

      Not quite, but it does a 4 in it. Maybe bad feng shui.

  • bobkin on 23/03/2021 - 15:23
    +5

    We live on a corner block. Our driveway and letterbox was on a different road to our street name so it was always confusing for visitors. We applied to the council and had our street name changed then when we notified the insurance company we received a $70 refund. Not quite the same situation, but I found it surprising

  • pjetson on 23/03/2021 - 15:29
    +2

    Try other insurance companies?

    • Amour on 23/03/2021 - 15:32
      +1

      Done that. I’m guessing a bunch of them access the same data???

      • pjetson on 23/03/2021 - 16:39

        There are two main companies that own pretty most of the brands, IAG and Suncorp. I would assume that each set of brands use the same data.

        I think the main ones that IAG own are NRMA, RACV, SGIO, CGU, Coles, and lots of others. Suncorp own include AAMI, GIO, Bingle, Shannons, and lots of others.

        It's pretty easy to find out who owns what - just type who owns XXX insurance into Google where XXX is the name of the insurance company you want to know about.

        • Amour on 23/03/2021 - 16:46
          +1

          Thanks for that information. Current insurer is AAMI. Guess we’ll try a non-Suncorp brand.

          • AncientWisdom on 24/03/2021 - 12:18

            @Amour: Also worth trying budget direct and in WA RAC as they do their own underwriting to my knowledge.

  • bdl on 23/03/2021 - 15:48
    +1

    Maybe grab a car cover for the solid gold Ferrari out the front and tear the RTX 3080 boxes up before you put them in recycling :)

  • CrowReally on 23/03/2021 - 16:17
    +4

    Sounds like you've stumbled across the algorithm that looks up whether you're an existing customer or not. Those lower numbers are the computer saying "Oh, 13 Credibility Street isn't a customer, here's the enticing quote of what it would cost you to sign up for our product Sir or Madam".

    Every year you should run this on your neighbour's house in your current insurance provider's quote program, email them the results and ask for a reduction. If they don't, shift - insurance companies don't reward loyalty, they feed off the "laziness" of people who assume they're getting the best rate.

    • Amour on 23/03/2021 - 16:42

      We always check the price for new vs existing customers, which is probably one reason why feeling unjustifiably ripped off bothers me. Unfortunately I don’t think it’s that algorithm in this case as we’ve encountered it with online quotes for new policies.

  • Ughhh on 23/03/2021 - 16:49
    +1

    I wonder if it could be due to claims made by previous owners.

    • Amour on 23/03/2021 - 16:59

      I was wondering the same. It’s not great for anyone that moves into a house that had a prolific insurance claimer living there in the past.

  • Tee Rex Arms on 23/03/2021 - 16:52
    +1

    And how did you come to stumble across the offence stats for your dwelling from 30 years ago?

    • Amour on 23/03/2021 - 17:05
      +1

      A few ways. A neighbour is related to the person who owned it since the 80s. It changed hands for a brief period before we bought it. Plus there were crime maps that provided info per address when we first looked it it (no longer around).

  • jar-unit on 23/03/2021 - 17:33

    Is it a corner block?

    • Amour on 23/03/2021 - 17:38

      No, not a corner block.

    • Amour on 23/03/2021 - 17:39

      Our neighbours are on a corner block and our car insurance is $200 cheaper at their house number.

  • iNeed2Pee on 23/03/2021 - 17:42

    Go breaking into your neighbours homes and see if the premiums change next year 🤣🤣

    It's a joke. Please don't break in. 😆

    • Amour on 23/03/2021 - 17:49
      +2

      Judge, breaking into all the cars and houses in the street was really just an experiment to test a hypothesis on why my insurance company is trying to rip me off…..

      • iNeed2Pee on 23/03/2021 - 17:52

        Be awkward if they continued to go down and yours went up!

  • kiitos on 24/03/2021 - 08:41

    Is it a busy or quiet road? Near any businesses?

    • Amour on 24/03/2021 - 20:07

      We’re about 50m from a main road on a suburban street. Even the houses on the main road have much cheaper pricing for online quotes.

  • Fredfloresjr on 24/03/2021 - 08:54

    try consulting a Geologist. Maybe some active sh** volcano under your house. lol

    • Amour on 24/03/2021 - 20:09

      Sometimes the state my teens bedroom concurs with this.

  • Stevek1960 on 24/03/2021 - 10:12

    Try ING, insurance isn't their main income stream and I found them heaps cheaper on my insurance across the board.

    • MrBear on 24/03/2021 - 10:45

      For me, ING were >$1000 more expensive than CBA for house and contents (using all the same info and excess levels).

      • Noblejoker on 24/03/2021 - 12:37
        +2

        @MrBear I am glad you saved money but PLEASE find someone other than CBA Insurance
        I am in the industry and by far the insurer I hear the most and worst stories about is CBA
        I hate bagging anyone in the industry but their practices are borderline criminal, and their service is awful
        At renewal go with the next cheapest - or better yet someone you can actually talk
        If you ever have a claim you will thank me

        • Yola on 25/03/2021 - 01:45

          I agree. Their conduct is unconscionable.

  • snooksy on 24/03/2021 - 12:23

    I think Allianz might be independent brand to the rest. It might be worth a try with them? I suspect you probably had previous resident who made excessive claims and now the house is tarnished. It could be that people put policies in other’s names for the same address. If someone gets a policy rejected then they might try to use a relative or housemate. The only way for the insurance companies to identify it to try and stamp that out is link the policy to the house number instead of the person holding the policy. How about setting the postal address to a PO Box for the policies? One further step could be to try the financial services authority in your state. Also you can one step further and seek out the advice of an insurance broker. They might be able to sort it out. They will probably know of other policies outside the main insurers to try as well.

  • Noblejoker on 24/03/2021 - 12:27
    +3

    I am in the industry so here is my 2 cents
    I doubt the history of prior tenants has any effect on pricing
    Our system does not use or retain that data by street address

    However, most insurers definitely do use fire rating and flood/water rating data supplied by Council
    The data is being updated and more detailed over recent years
    Insurers system are reliant on it now - down to the street number level
    Rating was done more broadly probably by suburb or postcode until recently

    My (total) guess is that you have a watermain, storm drain or some sort of easement on/near your property
    Something that makes them think you are more at risk of water damage than the neighbours
    Try looking your property up on your Council area flood maps etc.

    Frankly though - there is no easy solution
    Council not going to change their rating (well not easily) and insurers going to stick to their system

    Suggest you just ring around till you find someone you can talk to that gives you a decent quote
    Just remember service is at least as important as price
    Good luck!

    • Amour on 24/03/2021 - 20:23
      +1

      Thanks for your comment. I’ve checked council maps and there’s nothing that makes our land any different to the neighbours that I can see. We are nowhere near any designated flood zones, nor overland flow. No easements, water mains etc.

      A previous owner used to run a commercial business that had 6 employees at one stage. Presumably this was all registered with council. Maybe council records are still reporting the address as a commercial premises???

      • Noblejoker on 25/03/2021 - 14:50

        From my experience previous tenant occupation isn't a rating factor in House and Contents insurance
        The data isn't tracked or kept going forward - and even if it was that we be a single insurer - it definitely isn't shared to other insurers
        Bushfire BAL rating and Flood mapping both work down to street number and influence price
        If you are doing quotes and all the other factors are the same then it must be location related
        Find someone to talk that can review the information and change their rating?
        PM me if you like

  • brad1-8tsi on 24/03/2021 - 16:56
    +1

    It isn't the house number, it's the fact that you are already a customer and they are relying on lazy tax.

    I had this issue with GIO. Every house that bordered my property and the people across the street were 30% cheaper using my details as a new customer. When I got a quote for my place using my neighbours details the price magically reduced. I took it up with GIO and they admitted that new customes received a much better price and refused to give a further discount so I switched to another insurer for a couple of years

    • Amour on 24/03/2021 - 20:25
      +1

      Unfortunately that isn’t the case here as I get a similar result with online quotes with other insurers as some share data.

      • logistics on 25/03/2021 - 01:56

        I think the only data insurers share is claims information.

        It's in their interest ($$$$) to only share information they are required.

        • Noblejoker on 25/03/2021 - 14:58

          Most insurers don't actually share that information unless it is requested
          There is no pool of shared data between insurers (I presume there is between brands of the same insurer)
          If you are making a claim they believe is fraudulent etc. they may check your history
          But it isn't economical to do that upfront for every quote
          Most should ask for proof of No Claim Bonus on a car - but many don't even do that

          If the OP is getting different quotes for houses in the same street then the only variable is street address
          It must be something related to that specific property
          The only data that is likely to be used by various insurers is that sourced externally, namely Council flood and fire mapping

          • logistics on 25/03/2021 - 15:48

            @Noblejoker: I was referring to this service which all major insurers are members of.

            http://insurancereferenceservices.com.au/

            • Noblejoker on 26/03/2021 - 16:00

              @logistics: Hi @logistics
              If you look this is a report on request - not a live db to access
              If an insurer wants to they can request a reqport from this service
              But I don't believe they do it automatically for every quote/policy
              The computer system I have access to provided by one of the contributing firms on that service doesn't check the service for each quote (that I can see) and doesn't punish a new owner for the claims of a previous owner etc.
              Suggest this is used to back check the declaration of facts on a claimant where there is cause for concern
              e.g. some dodgy bastard with lots of claims fibs on his new policy about never claiming before

  • CWJ on 25/03/2021 - 01:04

    Had a very similar experience with AAMI a few years ago with renewal on my wife's car. My car though, also with AAMI but used for "new" online quotes, was a few $ cheaper than for multiple neighbours. We have an easement but it didn't seem to impact my car quote or H&C quotes so that couldn't be the factor.
    In the end, as we couldn't get a satisfactory reason from AAMI, I switched her policy to Allianz which was a few hundred cheaper then and was still cheaper at her last renewal, even without a new customer discount.

  • OzHunterNSW on 25/03/2021 - 10:42
    +1

    It is all a sort… it is your postcode, it is the amount of claims per era, it is the sunshine, anything they think off results in some bizarre obscure excuse to up your premiums.

    Not long ago it was floods in QLD, even though you I've in a completely different state. Imagine what is going to occur now.

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