Insurance for a house with a 100% Flat Roof ?

Usjes · 08-09-2022 12:04am #1

Hi,

My house has a 100% flat roof and I'm trying to shop around to get a reasonable quote for cover. Googling throws up a load of sites offering 'non-standard' cover but these are invariably brokers who all end up going back to the same insurers and its really time consuming giving them all these details only for them to come back with 'no quote because another broker has already been quoted'.

So, does anyone know where I would get a list of all the 'non-standard' INSURERS (as opposed to brokers) so that I can be sure I have all possible quotes. So far I have:

OBF
plum
Prestige (although there seems to be some confusion here with some brokers saying these aren't offering cover in Ireland any more)

This leaves me with 2 or maybe 3 options. Surely there must be someone else who offers cover for 100% flat roof ? The house is a new-build and the roof has a 20-year warranty from the roofing installer.

Any other options ?

Thanks,

Usjes.

skinnyfries · 08-09-2022 12:13am

Can you provide more details on the roof construction?

Usjes · 09-09-2022 5:05pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119587846#Comment_119587846

I can but I don't see how it will help answering my question of what insurers will give me a quote. From all the forms I have filled out so far the first question they want to know is what percentage of the roof is flat, and when I say 100% most of them refuse to quote. If they are willing to quote then they may or may not ask about the construction so the main question I need answered is where do I get a list of insurers who will quote for a house with 100% flat roof ?

For reference it is Renolit Alkorplan F 35279, a flexible synthetic roof membrane.

Thanks,

Usjes.

mrcheez · 09-09-2022 5:09pm

https://www.quotedevil.ie/news/flat-roof-house-insurance-information

Might be useful .. we used to have a flat roof, but it was in Saudi!

alexut · 11-09-2022 11:37am

I have a flat roof and I use AVIVA for home insurance.

Usjes · 11-09-2022 10:00pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119602656#Comment_119602656

Hi Alexut,

How did you get that ? Did you go through a broker or just go to aviva.ie directly ? None of the brokers I have tried have mentioned Aviva. Did you compare Aviva to any others offering 'non-standard' insurance ? The quotes I'm getting from other companies are ridiculous. I guess a key point may be how much of your roof is flat. It seems many companies cover flat roofs but only up to a certain percentage, eg they'll cover it as long as less than 50% (or 75%) is flat. In my case the entire roof is flat so they refuse to give me a quote.

Thanks,

Usjes

Usjes · 12-09-2022 7:25pm

To reply to my own question above, I spoke to Aviva today and they won't quote for anything above 25% flat. So I assume Alexut that the 'flat' area of your roof is less than 25% of the overall roof area ?

tsiklon · 16-09-2022 4:18pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119605353#Comment_119605353

Have you found any more companies that will quote for up to 75% flat, other than the 3 mentioned initially? Thanks!

Mezcita · 16-09-2022 4:26pm

I ran into the same problem. Only option available in the end was Prestige via a broker.

alexut · 29-09-2022 8:53pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119609273#Comment_119609273

Sorry for the slow reply. Indeed my house has just the extension with a flat roof(around 50%)

Also, I did the insurance few years ago, before all this craziness, so probably a lot of the insurance policies have changed.

Hope you find someone.

L1011 · 29-09-2022 8:58pm

The insurers that offer this cover won't quote it directly - you're stuck using brokers. If you ask the brokers to give you more than one option you will find what the various insurers are offering that way

I've a problematic house to insure (very old, near the sea, not occupied all the time, etc - no site will ever give a quote) and Quotedevil were the only broker that actually cared enough to get a quote for it that wasn't a please-feck-off one.

Eggs For Dinner · 29-09-2022 9:02pm

Still very surprised Aviva would cover a property with anything near a 50% flat roof. I think you're lucky

skinnyfries · 15-02-2023 1:22pm

Hi,

Did you get insurance cover, and with who?

thank

Henry Ford III · 15-02-2023 7:07pm

Cover must surely be available. The Irish Estates in Corbally, Limerick all have flat roofs.

Usjes · 18-03-2023 3:32pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120243528#Comment_120243528

Hi skinnyfries,

Sorry for the delay, I'm not on here often. I did get cover in the end. It's with Prestige Underwriters on their 'Coverall Policy'. Note that previously Prestige did have some other policy for non-Standard houses which they discontinued in 2022 and a number of the (less well informed) brokers I spoke to said that Prestige had exited the Irish market. They haven't. I don't think Prestige deal directly with customers though so the only way to get the policy is by going through a Broker. I got the policy via QuoteDevil. You have to phone them and ask to speak to their 'Non-standard Insurance' division. If you just fill out the standard form on the quotedevil website you'll get nowhere.

Usjes · 18-03-2023 3:42pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120245115#Comment_120245115

You'd think so, given that the number of houses with flat roofs continues to increase. As far as I'm aware though there isn't a single Irish insurer who will cover it. The entire industry is a disgrace. I have documentation for a 25 year warranty for my own roof from the installer (and this is based on a 30 year warranty from the manufacturer) so in reality it doesn't even need to be covered yet any Irish insurer I ask replies, 100% flat !! Ay Jayses we couldn't possibly cover that, not in a million years, if it was only 50% we'd consider it, but not 100%. So if my house happened to be a bungalow with the exact same square footage of flat roof that somehow magically makes it less risky. That's how retarded these clowns are.

As for the housing estates in Limerick and elsewhere I strongly suspect that a lot of people don't read the fine print when taking out insurance. They just fill in the details in the standard online quote forms and never think to mention the flat roof, so the may get a nasty shock when their house gets burgled or burns down and the insurance refuses to pay out because 'you didn't tell us the roof was flat' ignoring the fact that a flat roof has fu£! all to do with being burgled or burning down.

skinnyfries · 19-03-2023 2:14am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120372881#Comment_120372881

Do you mind me asking how much your premium was with Prestige? I got a quote (through a broker) and it was just shy of €2000

Eggs For Dinner · 21-03-2023 8:56am

Your roof warranty will only cover the roof itself, not the associated damage to your property or contents caused by the ingress of water.

The problem is that insurers have not moved on from their position on traditional mineral felt roofs, which are a disaster. There are modern materials, which are every bit as secure as tile or slate, but until the numbers start affecting the amount of business they want to write through their low cost "standard" online offerings, they'll leave them to the specialist market

Insurance for a house with a 100% Flat Roof ?

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